As a maker of reasonably competent cars that sell in moderate numbers, Suzuki is not a manufacturer that has generally troubled the thoughts of those who dish out car awards.
Its new Swift, however, is tampering with that wisdom. Not only did it take away two gongs at the Scottish Car of the Year Awards best small car and the safety award, for including seven airbags and ESP as standard but every motoring hack I know who’s driven it has liked it a great deal.
Now it’s my turn. First off, it looks a lot better than the old Swift. Though not as handsome as the Fiesta, its cheeky appearance put a smile on my face most mornings.
The range starts at £9995 for the three-door version in SZ2 trim. It comes with heated door mirrors, a USB port and steering wheel-mounted audio controls.
The SZ3 model tested here costs £1000 more (plus £450 for the extra two doors), for which you get 16″ alloy wheels and manual air conditioning.
A further £800 buys you the SZ4, whose standard equipment includes automatic air-conditioning, Bluetooth-integrated audio with music streaming capability, electric rear windows (the front ones are electric on all models), push-button start, automatic headlights, cruise control and rear privacy glass on five-door models.
All Swifts (apart from the Sport, which has a 1.6 litre, 125hp engine) are powered by a 1.2 litre four cylinder petrol unit developing 94hp, which is a lot for a non-turbocharged unit of this size.Lovely ride but little bootThough it needs to be revved to the high heavens to get the best out of it, the unit at least sounds sweet up to the red line, and it will move you along briskly enough when used in a more normal fashion.
The Swift has won particular praise for its ride and handling, and this is well deserved. The suspension is soft and absorbent, soaking up imperfections nicely for a car this size, yet it remains agile and grips well in cornering.
The five-speed gearbox has a smooth and easy action and it is a fun and easy car to drive. I drove from Dundee to Glasgow through driving snow and the car behaved beautifully.
Front passengers will be happy inside the Swift, rear occupants less so. There’s plenty of room up front and the dashboard is laid out in a pleasingly modern style.
A shortage of legroom will hamper rear passengers, but my biggest criticism of the Swift is reserved for its boot, which offers just 211 litres.
Not only does this paltry cubby space fall well short of the 280+ litres you’ll find in a Fiesta, Polo or Corsa, it’s less even than the 224 litres in Ford’s baby Ka, which is nine inches shorter.
Assuming you can live with a titchy boot and don’t regularly ferry lots of tall people around, however, the Swift is an excellent choice.
For my money it doesn’t quite knock the Fiesta off the supermini top spot but it’s good looking, reasonably priced and equipped, fun to drive and probably the safest car in its class.
Price: £11,495.0-62mph: 12.3 seconds.Top speed: 103mph.Fuel economy: 56.5mpg.CO2 emissions: 116g/km.