Raw power has never been the Suzuki Swift Sport’s thing.
Traditionally, its raison d’eÌtre has been to wrap up just enough performance in a relatively svelte package and sell it at an attractively low price.
The previous-generation Swift Sport produced just 123bhp from its naturally aspirated 1.6-litre engine. Measuring it against a 300bhp- plus, all-paw mega-hatch wasn’t so much like bringing a knife to a gun fight as attempting to face down a howitzer with an egg whisk.
But on the right road, and when you got that free-revving four-pot whirring like David’s slingshot arm, it could give any of the hot hatch Goliaths pause for thought. It used its agility to overcome any performance deficit and emerged as one of our favourite driver’s cars on a pound-to-pound basis, providing a legion of nascent but impecunious enthusiasts with a realistic route into the hot hatch club.
Times have moved on, and Suzuki is no more immune to the pressures of tightening emissions regulations than any other manufacturer. So it is that this new Swift Sport, the third, is fitted with a turbocharged 1.4-litre motor. It’s the same BoosterJet lump as you get in Suzuki’s larger Suzuki Vitara and S-Cross models. That might sound like something of a passion-killer, but the unit has been tweaked to produce 138bhp and 170lb ft and it doesn’t exactly have a lot of car to pull along; even in its latest guise, the Suzuki bucks the general industry trend for significant model-on-model weight gain by continuing to weigh about as much as a bag of Maltesers.
What’s expanded as dramatically as Mr Creosote’s waistline, however, is the price. Suzuki will charge you £17,999, pushing the Swift Sport to the fringes of Ford Fiesta ST territory, which is the car industry equivalent of smearing yourself in chum and leaping feet-first into shark-infested waters. A tacit acknowledgement of how ambitious this pricing strategy is can found in the fact that Suzuki UK is offering a £1500 discount on the price until the end of this month.
Join the debate
Add your comment
Disappointing
I really wanted a new Suzuki Swift Sport, and waiting impatiently for months like a lot of other people, but that list price is way too high, even with the introductory discount gimic (which stinks of Suzuki realising they've been too greedy with the asking price).
True, there's more standard equipment with the Swift than the Up but I don't want most of that stuff, and it's just more to go wrong after the warranty finishes. I'd also rather be given the choice of not having all that stuff and have a lower purchase price instead.
I've no particular loyalty to the VW brand but with the online discounts from brokers offering a list price of just over £12k (although I'm not sure how they are doing that with such huge delivery waiting times from VW dealers), the Up GTi gets the nod from me - I still can't get over that clumsy rear door / handle design on the Swift either, and at least the Up can come with 3 doors that looks much better if you can live with less practicality.
But maybe the Kia Picanto GT-Line turbo will be better than both - when Kia finally get around to offering the 1.0 turbo engine for that car like they've been teasing for well over a year now.
Price like for like
Agreed you pay a bit more for the Suzuki even after discounts but you get alot more car, 40% bigger engine, 25% more cylinders, bigger car, more extras (Sat nav, adaptive cruise bigger screen, leather trim?) and it's faster.
Oh and if that's a Suzuki figure 0-60 time I can guarantee you'll better it
Less is more, but not in a good way
I have the outgoing Suzuki Swift Sport. The new one is worse looking, and I cannot believe it will be as much fun with a turbo, but it costs a lot more. I wouldn't consider the new one for a second if I was looking to replace mine.
Andy_Cowe wrote:
Agreed, the outgoing model looks spot on, both exterior and interior. Every line makes sense. It is up there with the best small car design - Toyota iQ, first generation Panda & Uno, VW Lupo, Citroen 2CV etc. The new one is a non-entity.