I sat in the new Swift Sport at the Frankfurt motor show a couple of months ago. This wasn’t a particularly professional moment. There’s no time for indulgences such as this on the press day of this sprawling German show, even if you do happen to like the car. I glanced around the bonsai cabin and noted the new dash, the contrasting stitching and a general, pleasing absence of bling. Six speeds on the shift, I noted, wondering if they’d shortened the gearing to give it more fizz and then banged on a ludicrously overdriven top ratio to keep emissions and consumption down (they have).
I liked the old model, a giant-killing act of some aplomb. While it couldn’t match the sheer brio and firepower of today’s Renaultsport Clios, it was a fine warm, rather than hot, hatchback. This is a type of affordable, everyday car with enough vim to bring a smile to your face when the road starts to curl and curve. Funnily enough, Renault used to produce the best-ever warm hatch in the Nineties, the Clio RSi; bad name, great car, terrific prices.
I had wondered what might happen to cars like the Swift when Volkswagen, which owns a fifth of Suzuki, started throwing its weight around. The Germans wanted the Japanese to do as they were told, mop up VW’s surplus capacity in engines and suspensions and give VW the key to Far Eastern markets such as India, where Maruti Suzuki is the leading brand. It was all one-way traffic and VW sniffily dismissed any suggestion that it could learn something from Suzuki about making small cars. Finally, at this year’s Frankfurt show the Japanese signalled that they had had enough of this patronising – the deal is currently being unwound. Which leaves Suzuki independent, with the world’s most eclectic model range and the Swift Sport unmolested by Germany’s finest.
The new car is slightly larger and heavier than the old, but retains the Nautilus-style wraparound windscreen and Giugiaro-inspired window line. The 1.6-litre twin-cam fizzes out slightly more power with better emissions and its 136bhp with 118lb ft of torque is enough to throw this one-ton, three-door hatch up the road at a top speed of 121mph and accelerate from 0-62mph in 8.7sec, yet give a Combined fuel consumption of 44mpg and Band F CO2 emissions of 147g/km.
Climb inside and it’s hard to avoid a nostalgic rush as you contemplate the old-school plastic trim and simple two-dial binnacle. Only the piano-black centre console pumping Metronomy instead of Duran Duran reminds you this isn’t the Eighties and this isn’t a Peugeot 205 GTi. Even the seats are those tight-fitting buckets that make you feel like a rally star but attack your spine after half an hour.
I liked the old model, a giant-killing act of some aplomb. While it couldn’t match the sheer brio and firepower of today’s Renaultsport Clios, it was a fine warm, rather than hot, hatchback. This is a type of affordable, everyday car with enough vim to bring a smile to your face when the road starts to curl and curve. Funnily enough, Renault used to produce the best-ever warm hatch in the Nineties, the Clio RSi; bad name, great car, terrific prices.
I had wondered what might happen to cars like the Swift when Volkswagen, which owns a fifth of Suzuki, started throwing its weight around. The Germans wanted the Japanese to do as they were told, mop up VW’s surplus capacity in engines and suspensions and give VW the key to Far Eastern markets such as India, where Maruti Suzuki is the leading brand. It was all one-way traffic and VW sniffily dismissed any suggestion that it could learn something from Suzuki about making small cars. Finally, at this year’s Frankfurt show the Japanese signalled that they had had enough of this patronising – the deal is currently being unwound. Which leaves Suzuki independent, with the world’s most eclectic model range and the Swift Sport unmolested by Germany’s finest.
The new car is slightly larger and heavier than the old, but retains the Nautilus-style wraparound windscreen and Giugiaro-inspired window line. The 1.6-litre twin-cam fizzes out slightly more power with better emissions and its 136bhp with 118lb ft of torque is enough to throw this one-ton, three-door hatch up the road at a top speed of 121mph and accelerate from 0-62mph in 8.7sec, yet give a Combined fuel consumption of 44mpg and Band F CO2 emissions of 147g/km.
Climb inside and it’s hard to avoid a nostalgic rush as you contemplate the old-school plastic trim and simple two-dial binnacle. Only the piano-black centre console pumping Metronomy instead of Duran Duran reminds you this isn’t the Eighties and this isn’t a Peugeot 205 GTi. Even the seats are those tight-fitting buckets that make you feel like a rally star but attack your spine after half an hour.
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