You get what you pay for
Report 4 Suzuki Swift Sport £17,999 OTR/£17,999 as tested
Nothing too taxing for the Swift Sport this month. Just a battle with the best-selling car in Britain, and TG’s 2017 Supermini of the Year. This Fiesta is an ST-Line (sporty-looking) X (with posh kit) Ecoboost 140 (fastest one before you get to the ST). With 138bhp, a 0–62mph of 9.0 seconds and finance deals bearing it to your driveway for a mere tenner a month more than the Swift Sport, it’s a dead-on rival on paper.
Unfortunately for Suzuki, we don’t drive on paper. The new Fiesta is easily the most fun-to-drive supermini money can buy, and this ST-Line, thanks to slightly firmer suspension, is even sharper, keener, more agile, but with the edges rounded off the full-fat ST’s boisterous ride.
Though it’s 170kg lighter, the Swift oddly struggles to match the Fiesta’s sheer verve. Its narrow Continentals relinquish grip sooner – particularly at the front, and it feels more top-heavy. The overbearingly weighty steering is numb, the gearchange baggier, and it’s got the least charismatic engine ever in a hottish hatch. A three-cylinder would’ve suited the switch to turbo much better, for my money.
As tested, this Fiesta’s a £22,665 car, up from £19,715, plus Ford wants £670 for five doors. This one would set you back £350 a month (which is ‘proper’ ST money), and even rowed back to match the SSS exactly toy for toy, it’s £300pcm. Both average 38–43mpg. First year’s tax for both is £165. The Ford is considerably cheaper to insure (group 15 plays 35). Told you they were closely matched.
So, a conclusion. Buy the Swift Sport and keep an extra fifty quid a month – a tank of petrol, in other words – or stump up three hundred and tiptoe my Fiesta to Farmfoods for the weekly shop?
For me, it’d be the Ford. The upgrade it offers in tech, build quality, space and handling is worth every penny. I want to like the Swift more. I want to applaud its featherweight construction, and its no-bull approach to optioning up a car. But in a fight with the most popular car in the entire country, it comes off second-best.