Suzuki Swift (2005-) Review

On the road

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Designers have become more imaginative with dashboards, especially in superminis, and the Swift's confirms the trend. The three-circle instrument panel includes a rev-counter whose zero is right at the bottom, as on a Suzuki motorbike, and the stereo is smoothly built into the dashboard instead of being a cheap-looking, over-complex aftermarket unit. The steering wheel has remote stereo controls on all models, surprisingly.

All models also have height adjustment for the driver's seat and the steering wheel, plus electric, heated door mirrors, so it's easy to find a good driving position. The rounded nose falls away from view, but it's short and you soon learn to judge where it ends. Quick, precise and light steering makes the Swift a handy car in town driving, and the gearchange is short and precise in its movements, but the petrol 1.5 we drove had an excessively high clutch take-up point and a mushy throttle response, which together made it easy to stall. The driveline proved snatchy in stop-start traffic, too. None of these troubles applied to the diesel, which behaved impeccably with predictable responses, a well-defined clutch and no jerks.

Out on open roads, the Swift proves an engaging companion with the sort of pointable handling a small car should have. It turns keenly, gives good feedback through the steering (whose electrical assistance doesn't have the numbing effect felt in some such systems), and lets the nose tuck in and the tail edge out when you back off in a corner. It does this enough to be useful and fun, like a Ford Ka, and never threatens to slide or spin. It does, indeed, wanna play.

The playfulness doesn't extend to the powertrains, though, or at least not the petrol ones. We didn't try the 1.3-litre version, mysteriously absent from the launch, but the 1.5-litre Swift doesn't really live up to its name despite 102bhp and claimed stats of 115mph all out and a 10.0sec 0-62mph time. (Figures for the 1.3 are 109mph and 11.0sec.) You have to work it hard to find the pace, and the engine gets a bit resonant when revved. This is despite its noise-reducing cast aluminium sump whose lower rear edge is linked directly to the gearbox, the idea being to make an extra-rigid, and hence less vibratory, engine/transmission unit.

The 1.5 can feel a bit defeated by hills, too, all of which suggests its 102 horses aren't especially fit. That the 98lb ft of torque doesn't arrive until a highish 4100rpm gives a further clue to the feeling of flatness. What would the 1.3 have been like? The other 1.3, the diesel, romps up hills with great zeal, however, and is both smooth and - for a diesel - quiet. Performance figures aren't yet published, and ultimately the 1.3 DDiS Swift (as it's known) won't be as fast as the 1.5, but it has the most usable performance of all.