Suzuki Swift

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I want to start this review by saying that I am a Honda fan, a 95 Honda Accord was my first car and I have particular love for the high revving VTEC Honda’s of old. So when I finished my degree and decided I wanted to buy my first car with a sporting bent I went searching for the Type R’s among a few others preferably naturally aspirated. I had roughly $12, 000 to play with after selling my perfectly functional, practical second generation i30 active that never let me down but never excited me either. I drove an FN2 Civic Type R but the ride was punishing, the car loud and it generally wasn’t as exciting to throw around as I had anticipated. This car was to be my daily and the FN2 had too many compromises. I drove a 2007 Honda Integra Type S which proved to be very tempting, it felt more comfortable than the FN2 civic but also faster, cornered well and more fun to drive. It still used hydraulic steering which I felt gave better feedback then all the electronically assisted set ups I’ve experienced. The VTEC was exhilarating and I truly loved the test drive, despite my 6 foot 1 frame barely fitting in the vehicle with the seats as low as they could go. I walked away from that test drive with a stupid grin thinking I would likely buy the car but the practicalities began rearing their head. For one the car only had 2 doors and I have a large dog that we often transport which would be significantly more difficult in the coupe body style. The second was that insurance would cost an extra $450 dollars a year for my 26 year old self compared to my i30…ouch! The third was fuel consumption which although not terrible at 9.4L per 100 was significantly more than the 6.5 of my i30 which I had become accustomed to with the extra cost of 98 RON. Next I drove a mazda 3 sp25 2015 which was relatively fun to drive, luxurious in comparison to everything else with a nice feeling manual gear shift but for me compared to the Integra Type S just lacked excitement and it felt a bit to insulated, obviously this makes it a more comfortable cruiser but It just didn’t feel as raw an experience. Kudos to mazda for sticking with the naturally aspirated format for its sporty version of the three, it certainly has low down torque compared to any of the Honda’s but with peak power at 5700rpm it just didn’t feel as run to thrash! It felt grown up and I wanted juvenile dammit! Next came the Suzuki Swift sport which I had reservations over because compared to the 154 kw integra type S seemed to lack some spice. Initial driving confirmed this as acceleration was less of an experience. However with peak power arriving at 6,900rpm it certainly remains fun to push the car with a pleasing engine note in the upper range but not much below that. The Sport comes alive slightly earlier by virtue of the variable inlet manifold which helps fatten the torque curve and means from just above 4000rpm the swift comes alive. Having the cam change earlier means it is slightly more accessible and it encourages you to go hunting for it. This is what I love about this car, the maximum effort type driving style where you really get out of it what you put in. My test drive included some fast corners and a few round roundabouts which helped demonstrate the sport’s ace handling and it feels so nimble and chuckable. It really is just fun to punt into a corner faster than you should and have it hold on laughing at heavier cars that would tend to understeer. It holds on more than I expect it to and when you grip levels begin to run out the car tells you all about it. The steering feel is light but I think this just matches the cars feel which is very easy to fling about. My only complaint would be that the steering could be slightly quicker as it feels slightly dead around the centre but once you begin turning into a corner, it weights up naturally and does communicate some feel through the wheel. The 6 speed manual gearbox has closely spaced ratios making it a barrel of laughs and ensures you are always able to get into the cars power band. I would say that generally I like the gearbox and it is satisfying to use but there is no escaping it has a notchy feel and it can be heard clunking through gears when you are just pottering about but this does seem to disappear when you are thrashing it. The clutch has a very high take up point which takes some getting used to but once accustomed the bite point is precise and it is satisfying to use. The Pedals are excellently spaced for heel toe shifting and throttle response is excellent even low in the rev range. Ride is generally very good although over big bumps it does get bouncy. I was generally very impressed with how quiet it is considering the weight although due to its shape you do get slight buffeting noise at higher speeds. The seats are excellent and really hold you in place plus they make well finished but simple cabin feel a little more special along with the small leather wheel which feels great in hand. Due to the boxy shape there is plenty of room inside. Push start is cool and on the right side where it should be! The bizenon headlight’s are exceptional. I bought mine for $10, 500 second hand with 46,000k’s and the whole car feels brand new. Mine came with a spare tire the seller had sourced from japan swifts and a factory fitted centre armrest that folds up and down. My last service cost $210 dollars so pretty happy with that and the engines are meant to be pretty reliable motors. Gripes? The keyless entry system that requires 2 pushes to unlock all the doors (remote is the same but I find it more annoying when using the keyless entry). Wish it was one push to unlock all as I’ve been caught opening a locked door more often then I’d like. The Bluetooth system is old hat with 7 steps to set it up but once you go through it works fine. Boot space is pretty dismal. Especially so with my not from factory spear tire but still I would rather have the spare. Still you can drop the seats and you get a decent amount of space but the seats don't go down properly flat. Fuel usage according to the trip computer is beyond optimistic, I think it’s at least 1Litre out by my calculations. Weird one – after it rains if I put the windows down I get a solid poor of water comes over the roof into the cabin whilst driving probably due to the boxy shape but I’ve never had that before. Doesn’t come standard with an armrest. The armrest fitted to mine is great for cruising as it reaches far enough to keep your left hand on the wheel but gets far to in the way for city driving so thankfully it folds up. Bottom line Love this car so much fun at all speeds whilst be cheap to run and comfortable enough for daily driving duties. Even though it is a fairly new car it does feel intentionally old school, there are no reversing warnings or cameras which honestly i prefer and it is such an easy car to see out of giving its boxy shape. A must drive if you are looking for cheap NA fun.

About three years ago i moved onto my green P's and with that i wanted to buy a new car, at the time i was driving a 1994 Ford laser GL with 300,000km on it, still living at home and working full time i decided that it was time, searching carsales around the clock i had narrowed it down to a few cars - Suzuki Swift Sport, Ford Fiesta XR4 or a Mitsubishi Ralliart Colt (if i could find a 2010 model as they where only approved for that year...) I went with the Swift Sport. From the moment i set my eyes on it i loved it, the cheeky but aggressive front end, the blacked out a pillars to give the roof a floating effect and the dual exit exhaust, so within in 30 minutes i put down my deposit and a week of sleepless nights i picked up my Swift Sport for $9,000. In the last few years this little car has been a gem, i have traveled over 30,000km which includes a trip to Sydney, a few dirt roads (blast you dad for moving to the bush) with a few track days mixed in. Not once has it missed a beat. From a reliability point of view i could not fault it. From a build/fit and finish point there is a few issues, my car before i had it was parked outside in Echuca and the dash over the years has warped and now the bottom half now rattles against the top half, along with that the black vinyl a pillars have faded. Although from new this was a cheap car and you can't expect it not to have a few build/fit problems after 12 years. To today's standards the technology of the car is outdated, there are no modern safety features, for 2007 though it was pretty good - 6 airbags, ESP and ABS was a good amount for this size of car. Onto handling and performance, i think for the most part this car was a surprise to many. the stiff suspension with a wheel at each corner and a light body gives this car a gokart like feeling, admittedly it could do with more power but the 1.6L high revving N/A engine is a joy and brings a smile to my face every time. One reason i chose this car was because of the huge modification scene behind it. Companies like Greddy/Trust, HKS, Monster Sport and many more all make aero, engine and handling mods making it easy to transform my swift sport into what i wanted it to be. Really the only negative to this car is the stigma around Swifts, most people relate them to young girls that honk you 0.1 second after the light goes green or grandmas that will hit ever single parking bollard they can meaning people are quick to laugh or question the choice of my Swift Sport (mainly because i think they think its a standard Swift) , even more so at track days or at car shows. All and all i think Swift Sports are great cars, they are true to who they are, offer a lot of fun for little cost and have a huge following around the globe even if a bit underrated in Australia. Please note : The photo is of my car and has a few body modifications including : front lip, front grilles, aftermarket wheels and mudflaps and the Japanese delivered headlights.

This is a 1 year update on my original owners review. So, 1 year and about 30,000km later, what's the little yellow boi been like to live with? Well, pretty damn good. The car is still as rock solid as the day I bought it, with no rattles or squeaks to be found or heard anywhere, nothing has fallen off, or even had so much as a scuff mark. Say what you want about hard plastics abounding in an interior, but they're almost indestructible. The same can be said overall for the car itself too. I don't exactly drive lightly most of the time, and over the course of a year "Lemon Drop" has seen extended highway use, dirt and gravel roads, trips to Toowomba, Noosa and Coffs Harbour, day to day suburban driving, and more recently, the multi kilometre carpark that is Brisbane's Centenary Highway. And it hasn't missed a beat at all. Highway use is a little taxing on the ears, given that at 110 km/h the car will sit around 3,500 rpm (I would cut off a limb to have a 6th gear), and being a manual, constant stop start traffic is just plain annoying, but nothing has gone wrong, and no issues have reared their heads. In fact, driving this along some dirt roads at reasonable speed was amazing fun. Even with the stability control on, the back of the car plays around a little bit, without letting you be an idiot. It's an excellent system, and very well tuned for dirt roads. It's great in the wet too. The seats are okay over longer distances, but don't have a huge amount of lumbar support, and the bases are a bit narrow in width, plus I wish they'd go lower. But not a deal breaker, by any means. The seats themselves have worn very well, and seem particularly resistant to getting any sort of stain on them, despite a concerning amount of fast food consumption (don't eat your feelings, kids). They're also still very red, with the colour not fading away at all, which is more than can be said for some other Swift Sports out there. Other small things that are great? The car has excellent all round visibility, the aircon is amazingly cold and very quick to kick in, and the high beams are way, way better than they need to be on a car like this, with a wide beam and good spread. The ride and handling is also still a complete joy. Yes, it's a little bit firm, but the tradeoff is superb levels of grip and real sense of what the car is doing. It's an absolute riot to drive this car around, even day to day, but especially on a track or on a faster, sweeping road. It gives you complete confidence. to wring the little engines neck, make it scream up to the 7,500rpm redline, and snatch another gear. The engine is still a delight too, with a beautifully revvy nature, a great induction sound, and a surprising amount of low down go, which is great when pottering around. It also refuses to use more than 7.4 l/100km, even with my lead foot. Maintenance wise, it's been faultless too. Plus it's cheap to service. Other bits aren't, though. The fuel filter on my example needed replacing as per the service schedule, and whichever idiot decided that it should be an in-line filter that is part of the entire fuel pump assembly should be slapped. The tank has to be dropped, and a whole new pump assembly put in. The cost? North of $1,000 (from an independent mechanic too. Hate to think what Suzuki would charge). I'll be waiting a little while before that gets done. Other annoyances are the speakers, which while I said were great in my original review, have proven to be not quite as great as I thought. They're certainly loud, and have a pretty good level of quality, but definitely struggle with bass, and seem to lean towards producing a lot more treble than is necessary. The boot is also pathetic, and basically just a token gesture. The floor divider is handy though, but even with it removed, I couldn't fit a normal, full size suitcase in the boot without having to fold down the rear seats. Even then, it's not exactly capacious. The lack of rear seat space is also annoying for anyone taller than about 1.8m. Other annoyances are the thirst for 98 octane (thanks, high compression engine!), lack of cruise control, short service intervals (6 month/10,000km), and a combination of a factory tyre size that's quite hard to find, and a complete lack of spare tyre, as experienced when a stray bolt mangled my left rear tyre. An expired can of get me home foam wasn't going to cut it. But those annoyances are really only minor, and definitely haven't put me off my little yellow rocket. It's quick, fun, frugal, and cheap to run and maintain, plus you can park anywhere you damn please, and people won't hate you for driving one. It's something of an unsung hero, and I like that.

Initially when I set out to purchase a new car I had, at least what I considered to be, a fairly generous set of criteria. But as it turns out, if you’re after something that’s small, exciting and (hopefully) reliable over the long term the shopping list becomes incredibly short. So, from the few contenders still standing I settled on a 2018 Suzuki Swift GLX Turbo. One of the factors that led to this decision was the fact that (with the exception of the Reverse-Tardis that is the Mazda 2) no manufacturers offer a well-specced small car with a manual transmission. I could go on and on about how much this in itself infuriates me; but I digress... As far as self-shifters go, the Swift has what I consider to be the lesser-of-evils; a 6-speed torque converter. I was fully prepared to develop a passionate hatred for this aspect of the car but I’m happy to report that it’s actually quite agreeable and easy to live with on the day-to-day. One of the things that continues to impress me is the CVT-like smoothness with which it shifts. Occasionally the 2nd-to-3rd change is a bit slushy but for the most part shifts are nice and crisp. Something else I’ve noticed is that the ‘manual mode’ seems to be more of a suggestion than anything else… The car will still shift up on its own well before redline even when using the paddles. But hey; at the end of the day it’s an automatic transmission; I just leave it in ‘Drive’ and let it do its own thing. For me, the most impressive aspect of the car is the engine. The GLX is fitted with a 1.0-litre, 3-cylinder turbocharged ‘BoosterJet’ petrol engine. I’ve had a few cars in the past with sub-1500cc engines; but the BoosterJet blows them out of the water in terms of both performance and economy. As far as a three-banger goes it’s extremely refined, bar the slightly gruff idle which puts you in mind of an old parallel-twin motorbike; and the gravelly exhaust note which sounds not dissimilar to a Jack Russell in the throes of tug-of-war. When you’re not exploring the upper-limits of the rev-band however, everything feels very relaxed. Peak-torque comes on from under 2000rpm and there’s hardly any turbo-lag to speak of. While the engine itself delivers fairly modest power figures, the fact that the whole car weighs less than 950kgs means that it’s more than adequate for day-to-day duties. Using such a lightweight platform in a car also means that you end up with fairly good economy figures. In fact, without really trying I’ve been able to match Suzuki’s claimed 5.1L/100km on a tank of combined driving. That’s pretty good, full stop; let alone in a car with a highly-strung, downsized, turbocharged engine. (That’s a genuine figure calculated from litres used vs. KMs travelled, in case you were wondering.) Another area where you notice the Swift’s weight, or err… lack thereof is it the corners. It just *feels* light… The steering doesn’t have a whole lot of feel but it is fairly direct, and the ride is what I’d consider fairly firm. It’s by no means a sports car in this respect but it handles the day-to-day stuff just fine and feels very planted on the road. I know a lot of people seem to have issues with the ‘quality’ of Suzuki interiors. But because I’m not the kind of person that spends their Saturday mornings fondling door-cards and dash-tops this isn’t really an issue for me. Sure, the texture of materials used doesn’t feel as ‘luxury’ as, say, a VW Polo but everything that you touch is wrapped in leather so it really isn’t that bad. Aside from this, interior space is fantastic for something so small. I’m 6’2” and find that I have plenty of knee and head room even in the back. The seats are also quite soft yet supportive and I have no problems finding a comfortable position. In fact, I’ve not had to adjust the seat since the day I picked the car up. As far as technology goes, the Swift GLX is equipped with most of the goodies that you want. It has all the usual ‘2018 model’ stuff like Sat Nav, Carplay etc. as well as AEB, Lane departure warning, Auto High Beam and Radar Cruise Control. There are a couple of curious omissions from the spec sheet which would’ve been nice to see; like blind-spot monitoring and reversing sensors. The feature that I miss the most coming from my previous car however is automatic wipers. I know it’s only a small thing but nonetheless it makes for a slightly nicer driving experience in drizzly conditions. On the whole, the aforementioned ‘driver aids’ work well. Thankfully I’ve never had the chance to experience an AEB-assisted stop, but the radar cruise control is an extremely handy feature especially for congested motorway journeys and seems to keep a steady distance from the vehicle in front, without being too knee-jerky in its speed adjustments. There are only a few issues I’ve encountered with the Swift’s tech, and these all stem from the infotainment screen. For one, the screen itself gets this funny rainbow-like effect when viewing it through polarised sunglasses. Secondly, the system seems to need a good 15 seconds or so to ‘boot-up’ when you start the car otherwise it’s fairly laggy. The rest of the system works well though. Everything’s quite straightforward to use including the inbuilt satnav, and Android Auto seems to work perfectly the few times I’ve plugged my phone in. Even with the few issues mentioned above, I'm thoroughly enjoying my foray into Swift ownership and can see myself owning this car for a good few years to come.