I fell in love with the original Suzuki Swift Sport. Its 1.6-litre engine might not have been the last word in refinement, but the chassis was joyously checkable, and the whole was so much more than the sum of its parts that you could forgive its slightly cheap interior and the unsupportive front seats. It was a Jack Russell terrier of a car, made all the better because its charms were accessible at sensible speeds.
It was cheap, too, and cheap meant something back in the day. But times change, and the world moves on, and cheap means nowt now that no one pays for their car upfront; the advent of low-cost PCP deals means that the price on the windscreen is becoming less and less relevant. At a time when an extra grand only means a few pounds more each month, people are treating themselves to cars that they previously couldn’t afford, and the role of the cheap hatchback is diminishing.
This is a problem when small cheap cars are your USP. To counter this, Suzuki moved up-market to create the all-new Swift Sport. The outgoing model’s 1.6-litre normally aspirated engine is now the smaller, more sophisticated 1.4-litre turbocharged Boosterjet engine, which made its debut in the Vitara. While the Boosterjet’s 140hp is only 4hp more than the engine it replaces, that power advantage is further leveraged by the new car’s featherweight build: It tips the scales at just 975kg, which is a full 65kg less than the car it replaces. That’s the equivalent of losing a passenger in your car. Or, in engineering terms, a lot.
It feels light, too. I threaded it along the mountains outside Dublin before throwing it around Mondello Park
, and it handled both with aplomb, acing poor surfaces and adverse cambers alike. The suspension is precise and agile but surprisingly compliant; Suzuki claims that it tried more than 100 spring and damper combinations to fine-tune the Swift Sport for British roads, and it shows.
While some manufacturers might have been tempted to bias the car’s dynamics towards handling at the expense of ride, the Swift Sport treads the line perfectly. Only a pedant will find anything to complain about with the way the chassis interacts with the road surface.
The way it interacts with the driver, on the other hand, is open to criticism because the new car’s throttle adjustability isn’t as good as the old car. Perhaps it’s legislation, maybe it’s the slightly numb steering, or perhaps it is just a bit too grown up for its own good, but it’s just not as much fun as it was.
This is because the back end sticks resolutely to the tarmac, even when you snap the throttle closed mid-bend. This might be the safe option, but it isn’t as much fun as invoking a smidge of lift-off oversteer at will. The new car rewards precision rather than hooliganism, and while this is an admirable trait in most cars, I can’t help but think the pendulum might have swung too far in this case.
So, while it isn’t quite as much fun as the older car, it is more grown up, more civilised — and better equipped.
Much better equipped, in fact. There might be just one trim level available, but that trim level gives you Apple CarPlay, satellite navigation, proper climate control, keyless entry, rear parking sensors, very effective LED headlights (with high beam assist), and 17-inch alloy wheels.
The four-star NCAP safety rating comes courtesy of some extra electronic kit, namely automatic emergency braking, lane-keep assist, a weaving/drowsiness monitor, advanced pedestrian detection, and radar cruise control.
On a more personal level, the front seats now provide excellent lateral support as well as placing you lower in the car; these were the only two significant faults with the old model, so it’s nice to know Suzuki listened and rectified what almost everyone felt was the old Swift Sport’s one weakness.
You might get the impression that I was a bit disappointed, and you’d be partly right. I loved the old car and came away only admiring the new one. Having said that, it’s still a nicer place to be than the latest Fiesta ST and a more quirky, left-field choice than almost anything else in its class.
Of course, the acid test is whether I would have one. The answer to that is an emphatic “Hell, yes!” It might have lost some of its character, but I’ve no doubt that it’s an easier car to live with now it no longer constantly yaps for attention.
The old car might have been great for a dirty weekend, but the new one is the one you’d marry.
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