Its been 9 years since we have got this Maruti Suzuki Ritz 1.2 Petrol ZXi and so far we have done 1 lakh 20 thousand (1.20 Lakhs / 1,20,000) kms on this car. Today we share our long term, practical, real world, ownership and user review for this car.
Maruti Suzuki Ritz 1.2L Petrol ZXi 1.2 Lakh kms Long Term Video Review
Design and Exterior Build
Its quite universal among Indian car buys to criticize Maruti Suzuki for their build quality and call them tin cans made for mileage only. Ask anyone is the friends circle or family, they will advise to buy Maruti if usage is very low and in case you plan to clock a lakh kms, they would ask you to buy some other brand.
However, every now and then, Maruti ends up releasing a car which is so different from their traditional image and Ritz is one of them.
Check out the cars by opening the doors or bonnet, feel the sheet metal quality or drive it for a few kms and you would immediately notice the solid build, heavier controls, fatter tyre.
Ritz is build by Maruti, but it feels unlike any Maruti.
Specifications of Maruti Suzuki Ritz 1.2 Petrol ZXi
Ritz shares its platform with Maruti Swift, just the external build and design is different. Its powered by Maruti Suzuki K12 engine (86bhp/115nm), with 4 cylinder, 16 valves, DOHC and comes with 5 speed manual gearbox. ZXi version gives us front discs and rear drum brakes but with ABS + EBD. Tyres are also wider compare to lower versions, as it comes with 185 section tyres with 14 inch alloy wheels.
For interior options, car gets all 4 power windows, dual air bags, integrated music system and manual A/C. Vehicle is equipped with remote & speed sensing central locking.
Driving Experience
Ritz is from Maruti and its a company which is known to make really light weight cars with fuel economy as the primary target but surprisingly Ritz feels so different. The K12 engine is shared with Swift but as soon as you get moving you will notice the difference is weight. Weight of Ritz is around 1100 kg compared to 850+ for latest generation swift.
Lower end performance isn’t as lively as Swift but keep the RPM in mid to higher range and it wont disappoint you with its performance. Heavier build may dull the lower end performance in bumper to bumper traffic but once you get going, the stability feels awesome. Although the design is tall boy but it doesn’t feel top heavy at all.
Suspension feels firm and it gives the car good sporty handling too. Make few quick lane changes and take a corner aggressively, tall boy type body roll is surprising missing and Ritz will surprise many with its sporty handling.
The car runs on 185 section tyres from factory and ABS + EBD makes braking very effective and adequate. Keep it under sane speeds and you won’t complain about the bakes ever. But yes, its not VW or Ford type precise or aggressive but even at 2021, you won’t feel much difference with this 9/10 year old car.
You can watch our video review for more details and better understanding.
Mileage / Fuel Economy
Although this K12 engine is known for good figures under many other Maruti model it shares the engine bay with, but with Ritz, city figures aren’t very good. For normal daily office commute in a Metro City with full A/C would result in around 8-10 kmpl. Where as you can get 10-12 kmpl in off peak hours in city.
Where as in highways, you can archive 16-18 kmpl if you aren’t pushing it aggressively and keep it below 80-90 kmph with light to moderate A/C usage.
All these figures are with 100% A/C use, you may be able to extract couple of kmpl more may be, but frankly speaking, after burning Rs. 100 petrol, we never felt like sweating in traffic or when we are out in long trips. Secondly, even in winter, India is very dusty, keep the windows down really spoils the interior of the car so we drive with windows up all the time.
