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system is capable of delivering a considerable 50Nm of extra shove.

Other nice tricks are the way the IHI turbo is bolted directly to the cylinder head to minimise lag, the adoption of variable pressure fuel injection and piston crowns designed to stimulate turbulence and richen the charge around the spark plug for better combustion.

If that last bit was gobbledegook, hear this – despite its Lilliputian capacity, this little unit grunts from low revs like a 1.6, punches you past slower traffic and pulls like a train in fifth. This downsizing thing is clearly the future.

Obviously, like all crafty car launches, we only got to drive the top SZ-5 spec. There are two other levels – the entry SZ-3 and middle range SZ-T.

The latter should be the UK best-seller with pretty much everything you need for a happy life without stuff that doesn’t matter like keyless start and polished wheels.

There’s no three-door option but the high-mounted, hidden rear door handles give this more practical five-door car the look of one.

So, the new Swift is markedly better than the old one.

Whether you choose it over the other cars in this class will come down to the exact price, to be announced in May.

If the price rumours are true, this is an awful lot of car for the money.