Style and fun on a budget
Suzuki’s new Swift starts from $16,990 drive away, but is the entry-level model the right choice?
WHAT we have here is a dinosaur. No, not the new Suzuki Swift, but its five-speed manual gearbox. Australian new cars sold featuring three pedals is hovering around the 10% mark, and that figure will fall further in future as fewer car manufacturers even offer a manual option.
Subaru’s all-new Impreza and Honda’s new Civic - two of our biggest selling small cars can no longer be had with a clutch pedal.
Some say it’s a travesty, but the market gets what the market demands.
The majority of younger drivers are getting automatic-only driver licenses, so why should manufacturers offer manual gearboxes when the take up is so low and falling?
Well, if we ignore market forces, manuals must survive because they can bring joy to an otherwise mundane motoring life.
It’s personal opinion, but one that’s shared by many who still enjoy the thrill of feeling properly engaged with the driving experience.
Traditional favourite
Case in point? The new Suzuki Swift. In entry level GL guise it comes with a 66kW 1.2-litre four-cylinder naturally aspirated engine mated to a five-speed manual gearbox. All very old-school in this world of ubiquitous turbochargers and automatic or CVT transmissions. Nothing wrong with the latter of course. Autos make city traffic and everyday driving easy and efficient. But in many cases, rather boring.
For zipping around town, give me a five speed manual and an engine that likes to be revved any day (providing traffic’s not bad).
And Suzuki has delivered an awesome little combination in its latest Swift. The manual gearbox is a slick and easy joy to flick between the gears, while the engine, if you keep the revs nice and high, has decent enough urge for darting through the streets.
It cruises well enough at highway speeds albeit with a bit of road noise - but a huge bonus is the fuel economy. I returned 4.7-litres/100km on my test, which is bang on what Suzuki quotes. Brilliant in these times of wildly optimistic economy figures from manufacturers.
Basic needs
Inside the Swift GL offers a tidy and quite classy design.
The dash console has nice red rings around the dials, a body colour coded strip on the dash adds some welcome contrast from the black, while the seats are nicely cosseting.
What the GL lacks is an audio touchscreen, meaning no joys like Apple CarPlay/Android Auto smartphone connectivity, navigation or reverse camera. These can be had - along with alloy wheels, a CVT auto gearbox and fog lights - for just an extra $2000 in the next model up the range, the GL Navi. Such a shame you can’t get this specification with a manual gearbox setup, so enjoyable it proved to be.
The verdict
The new Suzuki Swift range brings you a little hatchback with cheeky good looks and decent specification for not much money.
This entry-level GL misses out on most of the toys so desired by shoppers these days, but if you’re in the market simply for small car driving engagement, this base Swift and its three pedals is an absolute cheap thrills joy.
■ Available from Armstrong Auto, Neil St, Toowoomba