Maruti Suzuki Swift ICOTY drive to be flagged off tomorrow

The Maruti Suzuki Swift has been a crowd favourite and has been a great success commercially for India’s largest car maker. More than 20 lakh Swifts have been sold since the nameplate was first launched in 2006. The third generation model of the Swift that has been on sale for less than a year has also done exceedingly well, with close to 250,000 units on the roads already.

But there is more to the Swift than just numbers. The Swift has been a favourite among us automotive journalists too. The 2006 first-gen Swift impressed us all with its great handling, superb ride and a long list of features. The inaugural Indian Car of the Year award – adjudged by the who’s who of the automotive media – was bagged by that very car. A few years later, the second generation Swift followed in the footsteps of its predecessor and went on to win the ICOTY too.

Now, the third generation Swift has replicated the feat of the last two generations of the Swift and is now the Indian Car of the Year. No other car ever in the history of the ICOTY has even come close to achieving something similar. The three trophies in the bag prove that the Swift is not just a runaway success with the consumers but a great driver’s car too. To celebrate this feat, we at evo India, along with the other participating magazines of the ICOTY jury,  are embarking on a series of drives to mark the map of India with the letters S, W, I, F and T in recognition of the love that Indians have had for Maruti Suzuki’s now iconic small hatch. Starting tomorrow, we will be tracing the letter W, while teams from other magazines will be tracing the other letters in Swift.

We will be driving from Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh to Chittorgarh in Rajasthan over the course of two days. Stay tuned for updates as we embark on this drive across India’s heartland in what is probably India’s most loved car.