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By
EWAN KENNEDY
21 August 2006
Suzuki Swift has been one of the big success
stories in Australia. Starting from nowhere after a hiatus of almost
five years, the new Swift model of 2005 has won hearts from drivers of
all ages and backgrounds. Having just spent a further week road testing
the little Swift we have been reminded why.
It has looks that are just so right. Suzuki's
stylists went for a car with a tall, slightly boxy look. The body
has a purposeful appearance created by wheels that are pushed out
almost to the corners, and the way the lights (both front and
rear) slope down works particularly well. The overall look comes
with plenty of cheeky attitude that makes a statement about the
driver as much as about the little Suzuki itself.
The tall body (‘tall boy’ in Japanese
automotive parlance) is very practical because it gives excellent
cabin space in a car in the 3.7-metre super-mini class. The front
seats have a lot of fore-and-aft adjustment and the driver’s
seat can be raised and lowered to let it suit a big variety of
people. This is very much a global car and these days the Japanese
seldom make their old mistake of designing a car to suit only
their own market.
These days big Aussies can be surprisingly
comfortable sitting in a small Japanese car.
Though this Suzuki Swift is not really aimed at
the family car market, there's room for reasonably large adults in
the back seat if those in the front are willing to compromise by
sliding their seats forward. As a family car for parents and a
couple of kids under the age of about 14 or 15 this Suzuki will do
the job well.
Boot space is decent for a car of this size,
though as is usually the way in a car in this class, the boot has
to be compromised to offer better back-seat room. There is the
usual hatchback option of folding or double-folding the back seats
to make the boot better.
Power comes from a twin-cam, multi-valve engine,
with a capacity of 1.5 litres. It puts out a handy 75 kilowatts
and 133 Newton metres. Torque peaks (it’s actually more like a
small plateau) between 3000 rpm and 4000 rpm, making it a very
driveable engine. It can run in a high gear most of the time and
delivers good fuel economy as a result.
On test we found it typically using six to seven
litres per hundred kilometres in country driving, and consumption
will normally be about nine to ten litres per hundred, even in the
hard driven suburban slog.
That was in a Swift with a five-speed manual
gearbox. There's also the option of a four-speed automatic
transmission, but we haven’t driven one at this stage. Small
automatics can lose a fair bit of performance and fuel consumption
is likely to climb by about five to ten per cent with the
self-shifter. The decision is yours, but if you’re not going to
be doing a lot of heavy traffic work the manual would be our
choice.
Suzuki has done a lot of work on suspension
design and the Swift is almost European in its handling and
general road dynamics. It can be driven hard without bringing in
too much understeer and feels nicely balanced whilst doing so.
Build quality looks to be very high both inside
and out and we will be very surprised if the reborn Suzuki Swift
isn’t every bit as reliable as its honourable ancestors.
However, there was more wind noise from the
front of the car than we had expected. The door mirror housing are
pretty large and may have contributed to the noise. Other than
that, the Swift was quiet and refined in the way it handled most
roads and even some back-road shockers didn’t upset it the way
they could some other small cars.
Suzuki's Swift is sold in two models; the
standard Swift and the semi-sporty Swift S-series, with alloy
wheels, foglights and four airbags (the standard Swift gets two).
That’s except in Queensland and northern NSW, where a different
import company operates. There the standard model gets called the
Swift GLX and the S-series is called the Z-series.
AT A GLANCE
MODEL RANGE
Swift (GLX) 1.5-litre five-door hatch - $15,990
Swift S (Z-Series) 1.5-litre five-door hatch - $17,990
FEATURES
ABS Brakes: Standard in both models
Air Conditioning: Standard in both models
Automatic Transmission: $2000 in both models
CD Player: Standard in both models
Central Locking: Optional in both models
Cruise Control: Standard in all models
Driver Airbag: Standard in both models
Passenger Airbag: Standard in both models
Front Side Airbags: Standard in S (Z-Series), not offered in Swift
(GLX)
SPECIFICATIONS (Suzuki Swift 1.5-litre
five-door hatch)
ENGINE:
Capacity: 1.490 litres
Configuration: Four cylinders in line
Head Design: SOHC, four valves per cylinder
Compression Ratio: 9.5:1
Bore/Stroke: 78.0 x 78.0mm
Maximum Power: 74kW @ 6000rpm
Maximum Torque: 133Nm @ 4000rpm
DRIVELINE:
Driven Wheels: Front
Manual Transmission: Five-speed
Automatic Transmission: Four-speed
Final Drive Ratio: 4.105:1
DIMENSIONS, WEIGHT AND CAPACITIES:
Length: 3695mm
Wheelbase: 2390mm
Width: 1690mm
Height: 1510mm
Turning Circle: 9.4 metres
Kerb Mass: 1040kg
Fuel Tank Capacity: 43 litres
Towing Ability: Not issued
SUSPENSION AND BRAKES:
Front Suspension: MacPherson struts, coil springs
Rear Suspension: Torsion beam, coil springs
Front Brakes: Ventilated disc
Rear Brakes: Drum
PERFORMANCE:
0-100 km/h Acceleration: 10.2 secs
Standing 400 Metres: 17.3 secs
FUEL CONSUMPTION:
Fuel Type: Petrol 91RON
Fuel Consumption - Combined Cycle (ADR 81/01): 7.5 L/100km
STANDARD WARRANTY:
Three years/ 100,000km
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Marque Publishing Company
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