Following complaints from owners of the Swift, the country’s biggest car maker Maruti Udyog has decided to offer them a swift deal.
NEW DELHI: This is the story of the spare tyre, the fifth one that sits pretty in the boot of the car. Following complaints from owners of the Swift, the country’s biggest car maker Maruti Udyog has decided to offer them a swift deal.
For more than a week now, the company has been advising all its dealers to replace the spare tyre in the high-end Swift zxi model, in case the customer so wishes, at no extra cost.
Some customers had complained that the spare is of a lighter tread than the other four tyres and thus makes for uncomfortable driving when used. This phenomenon, of using a smaller tyre (called a space saver) as the spare, is fairly common in developed automobile markets but has never been used by an Indian company till now.
Actually, the spare used by Maruti in Swift zxi isn’t a smaller tyre but only one with a lighter tread.
This issue also reportedly figured at a recent meeting of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules committee. Sources revealed Maruti claimed at the meeting that it has not cheated consumers and that it mentions the use of the lighter tread tyre in the buyers’ manual of Swift zxi.
But why at all did it use the space saver? Company sources say the tyre is the same as those used as regular tyres in the two lower-end models of Swift and that it is not much different from the other four zxi tyres.
They assert that driving with the lighter-tread spare does not pose any danger to the driver. However, they do not offer any explanation for why such a tyre was used in only one model of the Swift.
The company also hasn’t said if a constricted boot space was the reason for using the space saver, though automobile expert Ranojoy Mukerji feels this could be a reason.
“There is no space in Swift for stocking a full-sized spare, which is probably why the company decided to use a space saver,” he says. Does this mean that along with the offer for a free tyre-exchange, Maruti will also have to tinker with the boot of the Swift zxi? This remains to be seen.
Automobile expert Murad Ali Baig feels, “Using a space saver is common for luxury brands such as Mercedes and BMW, in sports cars and roadsters since it requires very little boot space. But a very thin tyre could become dangerous at high speeds.”
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