Spec Comparo: Ford Aspire facelift vs Maruti Suzuki Dzire vs Honda Amaze
The Ford Aspire facelift has just been launched in India. Here's how it stacks up against the two most popular sub-four metre cars in the country.
The Amaze is powered by Honda's 1.2-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine offering 90PS and 110Nm that also powers the Honda Jazz and Brio. The diesel will be the same, 1.5-litre four-cylinder diesel as the City and Jazz. Outputs for the diesel stand at 100PS and 200Nm for the manual and 80PS and 160Nm for the automatic version. The Dzire's diesel motor puts out 75PS and 190Nm from a 1.3-litre. The facelifted Aspire sees the addition of the 1.2-litre Dragon motor seen on the Freestyle, which makes 96PS/120Nm. The diesel variant will continue to be offered with the 1.5-litre 100PS/215Nm motor. The Aspire will also be offered in an automatic variant which will come powered by Ford's 1.5-litre petrol engine which produces 125PS/150Nm, but only in the Titanium trim.
The Dzire has the most cohesive styling here with a balanced stance. The Amaze also is a big improvement in terms of design but the side profile is plain with not too many features. The Aspire is not a full generation change and consequently, changes are minimal. This includes a new bumper with silver inserts similar to the black ones on the new Freestyle, a redesigned headlamp cluster, new fog lamp housings and a larger front grille finished in silver. Changes to the rear are limited to new inserts in the rear bumper and a subtle black lip at the bottom to break the visual bulk of the rear end.
All three come with a beige and black two-tone interior with features like keyless entry, a touchscreen infotainment system and climate control on all the top-spec cars. Fit and finish levels are good throughout but the Aspire's design is more cohesive.
The Maruti Suzuki Dzire is by far the most efficient car here with the manual diesel car returning 28.44 kmpl. The Amaze diesel manual is a close second at 27.8 kmpl. The Aspire's 1.5 litre diesel motor returns 26.1 kmpl while the Dragon petrol does 20.4 kmpl to the litre. The Dzire is again the most efficient here, with its claimed 22 kmpl. The Amaze rounds this off with 19.5 kmpl.
Prices for the Dzire starts at Rs 5.45 lakh for the base petrol but the most expensive diesel AMT is for Rs 9.41 lakh. Prices for the new Amaze start at Rs 5.59 lakh for the base E MT while the diesel V CVT is the most expensive at Rs 8.99 lakh. The facelifted Ford Aspire sedan has been launched in India at Rs 5.55 lakh (ex-showroom India). The 1.2 litre Dragon petrol variants are priced between Rs 5.55 lakh and Rs 7.24 lakh while the diesel variants will cost between Rs 6.45 lakh to Rs 8.14 lakh. The top-spec automatic with the 1.5-petrol is Rs 8.49 lakh.