Category: Superminis 
Price Range: £8,995 to £12,250
Fun quotient is high, neat interior design, handles and rides well, very good value, lively and civilised diesel version.
Lots of hard cabin plastics, desperately unimaginative trim-level designations, 1.5-litre petrol engine lacks punch, has an uncertain throttle response and is jerky in traffic.
Suzuki goes for the mainstream and succeeds, but it's best as a diesel.
From £7750 to £9000 approx. On sale April.
This will be a cheap car to run, with an average 46.3mpg from the petrol 1.3 (regardless of transmission) and 43.5mpg from the 1.5, according to the laboratory tests of officialdom. The diesel will be yet more frugal, of course, but the figures aren't yet finalised. Cold-start economy and emissions-reduction are helped in the petrol Swifts by a double-layer, heat-insulating exhaust manifold which gets the catalytic converter working quickly. Servicing should be quite cheap as this is an essentially simple car. Residual values are likely to be healthy because buyers trust secondhand Japanese cars, but much will depend here on what sort of image and following the Swift gains for itself. If it can fulfil its maker's dream and become a 'cool' car to own, its residual values should be very strong. But don't hold your breath. Of course, the Swift is unusually good value in the first place, typically £500-£1000 below comparable big-name rivals.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Suzuki Swift
wrote on 06 06 2007