RE: Suzuki Swift Sport: Driven

[SmartVenom]

The era of the hot hatch was still the 80s and early 90s. They were affordable, capable and fun plus there was more involvement. Not just involvement in terms of driver feedback, but I mean involvement in terms of modding, messing around and just generally car focused things. Now with these ultra hatches that are really aimed at the middle aged driver. They may be great on track, but they rarely make it on to track, after all £35k is a lot of money for a track car. Yes I know some can afford that, but they are exception.

[gweaver]

Mike1990 said:

Got me looking at the first generation SSS now.

Given that every current small warm/hot hatch on sale is now overcomplicated, over-sanitised and underwhelming, the ZC31S Swift Sport and Clio 1*2 look like the high point of accessible, affordable and fun B-road machines.

I have a ZC32S Swift Sport, which makes a great daily driver, but I need to try the ZC31S (again) and Clio 1*2 to see if I'm missing something.

[rjfp1962]

Not a good looking car this! Not many hot hatches are style-icons but this doesn't cut in from any angle.
It is too expensive and when the new Fiesta ST arrives, the deals to be had on it will be much more appealing.
VW has priced it's Up Gti very sensibly and for that reason alone should sell by the bucket load. The insurance
quotes on it shouldn't be too alarming for a younger driver either, and the Fiesta ST would be the normal upgrade
from the Up Gti later on.

[lukeyman]

Looks like they poached the BMW 1 series rear light designer!

[gweaver]

ash73 said:

PLEASE manufacturers stop this trend for diamond cut alloys, they look revolting.

[99dndd]

3yardy3 said:

Hmm... I could get approximately four EP3 Honda Type R's with less than 100k on each for the same price as this fugly looking modern hatch.

I know what i would be doing...

Making a Power Ranger inspired Honda Civic Megazord?

[Esceptico]

The USP of the previous model was its NA engine - last of its kind. Can't help but feel that this new model will struggle even more to win sales from VW and Ford.

The RS3 is not really a hot hatch as they were known and loved in the 80s and 90s. Far too fast, too complex and too expensive. Ignoring the insurance (which unfortunately at the time you couldn't) a great hot hatch like the 205 GTi was more expensive than a cooking (and really boring) 205 but the price was still affordable for younger drivers.

[anonymous-user]

gweaver said:

ash73 said:

PLEASE manufacturers stop this trend for diamond cut alloys, they look revolting.

And they look like complete rubbish when they are a year old and have started to corrode.

[Master Bean]

3yardy3 said:

Hmm... I could get approximately four EP3 Honda Type R's with less than 100k on each for the same price as this fugly looking modern hatch.

I know what i would be doing...

Driving four used cars at once...

[brakepad]

Definitely not as pretty as the previous version, but I'm impressed at an 80kg saving on a car of this size. There are many larger and more powerful cars which would massively benefit from shedding a couple of hundred kilos. No mean feat, but this shows the percentage weight savings that are possible with a little though.

[E65Ross]

Master Bean said:

3yardy3 said:

Hmm... I could get approximately four EP3 Honda Type R's with less than 100k on each for the same price as this fugly looking modern hatch.

I know what i would be doing...

Driving four used cars at once...

I don't understand why people make comments about new vs 2nd hand. I wonder if the EP3 Type R was too expensive when new and they thought "I could buy 4 of xyz cars instead of 1 of these"....well....someone has to buy them new so you get your 2nd hand examples.

It's also very difficult for manufacturers to price their cars the same as much older, used examples, too....just making you aware of that.

[DoubleD]

Wow thats an ugly little thing.

[mrbarnett]

Is peak power at 5500rpm so very un-turbo like? The only blown car I've ever owned was a light-pressure 2.3 litre Saab lump and that's just about exactly where its peak power was found.

[Master Bean]

mrbarnett said:

Is peak power at 5500rpm so very un-turbo like? The only blown car I've ever owned was a light-pressure 2.3 litre Saab lump and that's just about exactly where its peak power was found.

Indeedy. My Saab is all done by 5500. I expected peak power at 6500 for some revvy action.

[richthebike]

Hopefully you'll be able to actually go to a showroom and buy one.
Tried to buy an Up GTI last week, but there's a 39 week lead time quoted in most cases, or November in the best case.
The Q1 VW deals on finance (both rate and contribution) were better than Q2, so I'm having a re-think.

SSS is appealing, but if I'm just running about in it, I'm happy with the previous iteration.
New ST will probably be a bit too sporty for me. A warm micro-hatch sort of fits the right niche in my case.

[andrewparker]

richthebike said:

Hopefully you'll be able to actually go to a showroom and buy one.

At £18k I cant see demand being particularly high.

[Fastdruid]

Joey Deacon said:

8.1 to sixty, I thought this was supposed to be in the low 7's?

Is it maybe a typo? The 0-60 calculator gives an estimate of 7-7.2s (depends on if 0-60mph or 0-100kph) for that power and weight.

[kayzee]

davidc1 said:

not keen on the looks . maybe the colour does it no favours... dearer than i thought it would be also. up gti looks a bargain v this .

Looks better in grey! Although that still doesn't help the ste wheels...



Yeah not really impressed with this thing, which is a shame because my other half considered getting the older shape; they were much nicer!

[David-rtn9t]

I had a 1990 swift GTi 1.3 16v back in the mid 90's and it was unbelivable fun to drive. Hope this one is as good for them because anything since hasn't come close.

Edited by David-rtn9t on Tuesday 17th April 13:53

Edited by David-rtn9t on Tuesday 17th April 13:54

[Mackofthejungle]

It's not competing with the ST really is it? It's competing with the standard zetec Fiesta's, which are very fine cars with far more interesting engines than this. Still, the new Fiesta's are pushing a good 100kgs more than this around - it's good going by Suzuki making this weigh the same as the Up. Not immediately attractive like the old one, but yellow never flatters panel joins on simple hatches - most colours will look better I'm sure.

And Suzuki are a great wee company - very well engineered, simple cars.. Old school Japanese style really, very dependable. And hopefully they'll do a sport version of the Ignis which I think is a cracking looking little car. With 4WD please.