I greatly enjoyed the latest Suzuki Swift when I tried it last year. I’m a sucker for small, fun cars, and the Swift is among the smallest and funnest you can still buy.
It’s also cheap to run. These days the Swift is a hybrid, of the mild variety, which no doubt helps it towards its 60mpg fuel consumption.
Prices start at £19,199, and Suzuki always seem to manage to have eye-catching finance deals on the go (they’re offering 0% APR and £139 a month at the moment, if you can stump up a 20% deposit).
It should be noted that there is less choice in this part of the new car market than there was even a few years ago. The once mighty Fiesta is a notable absentee, Ford hauling it into retirement to be replaced by, well, nothing really. Other small car stalwarts seem to have grown up, got heavier and more expensive, like Volkswagen’s Polo.
That leaves the generously equipped, smartly turned out and light-on-its-toes Swift as a standout choice.
The last Swift I drove had a five-speed manual gearbox paired to the 1.2-litre three-cylinder mild hybrid petrol engine, sending all of its 81bhp to the front wheels. Other combinations are available, including four-wheel-drive - a technology with which Suzuki is expert - and an automatic CVT arrangement.
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Having experienced the manual car, I was a little sniffy about the auto. Suzuki charges £1,250 for the privilege of relieving you from having to change gears yourself, and I couldn’t see the point when the manual’s shift is such a pleasure to use and so well matched to the engine.
The Suzuki Swift CVT is a car that is as easy to drive as they come; slip the lever to ‘D’ and away you go. It’s smooth, responsive and economical
Weirdly, perhaps, the CVT posts a marginally faster 0-62mph time compared to the manual (11.9 seconds v 12.4 seconds, both firmly in the ‘leisurely’ category) but that on-paper advantage wasn’t enough to dissuade me from dismissing the Swift auto.
However, I was - unlike the Swift itself - a little too hasty to write off the CVT car. The good people at Suzuki were generous enough to let me try one… and do you know what? It’s a lovely little thing.
Whereas a manual gearbox - or a regular automatic for that matter - contain a certain number of fixed ratios, a CVT uses a system of pulleys of variable diameter ‘cones’ to help the engine drive the wheels. With no gears as such, CVTs can be smoother. They are often more economical because they allow the engine to operate more efficiently, more often than conventional gearboxes.
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However, CVTs are often benighted by odd noises and the discombobulating effect of engine revs seemingly out of kilter with road speed and acceleration. These drawbacks were, I’m pleased to say, noticeably minimised in the Swift. Suzuki, a company with a fine engineering tradition, have done a good job here.
Perhaps the fact the Swift isn’t a particularly powerful car or its engine over-endowed with deep reserves of torque helps keep the CVT on its best behaviour.
Either way, this is a car that is as easy to drive as they come; slip the lever to ‘D’ and away you go. It’s smooth, responds quickly to throttle inputs and is economical.
An increasing number of new drivers are apparently eschewing learning to drive a manual car. There’s little point, some say, when automatic transmissions are increasingly prevalent on new petrol and diesel cars and EVs don’t have conventional gearboxes at all. The Swift CVT would be an ideal car for a manual-avoiding learner.
Suzuki offers the Swift in two trim levels these days, named Motion and Ultra. The CVT can be had with either, priced at £20,449 and £21,479 respectively. Both grades are very well equipped, and I can’t really recommend springing the extra £1,000 for the Ultra. These days Suzuki gives you a seven-year/100,000-mile warranty, as long as the car is serviced in their network.
I had feared the Suzuki Swift hybrid CVT would be flat and dull compared to the verve and vim of the manual model, but I am glad to report I was wrong. This is a very likeable car, and another well judged offering from Suzuki. It comes recommended.
