Suzuki Swift Sport. What are they like day to day?
Discussion
My OH is getting fed up with our Grand Vitara and wants something smaller to drive and better on fuel.
I really like the look of the Swift Sport. They seem to get decent reviews.
Book MPG figure is just under 40 combined, can I expect 36-37 in reality?
What is rear seat access like? We have a 9 year old daughter that will be climbing in and out. It was a pain in our C1 as the seats didn't return to their previous position.
It would be our 'family' car, so may be used once or twice a year for long trips. Are they bearable at 70 on the Motorway?
Any input would be great.
I really like the look of the Swift Sport. They seem to get decent reviews.
Book MPG figure is just under 40 combined, can I expect 36-37 in reality?
What is rear seat access like? We have a 9 year old daughter that will be climbing in and out. It was a pain in our C1 as the seats didn't return to their previous position.
It would be our 'family' car, so may be used once or twice a year for long trips. Are they bearable at 70 on the Motorway?
Any input would be great.
Rickyy said:
My OH is getting fed up with our Grand Vitara and wants something smaller to drive and better on fuel.
I really like the look of the Swift Sport. They seem to get decent reviews.
Book MPG figure is just under 40 combined, can I expect 36-37 in reality?
What is rear seat access like? We have a 9 year old daughter that will be climbing in and out. It was a pain in our C1 as the seats didn't return to their previous position.
It would be our 'family' car, so may be used once or twice a year for long trips. Are they bearable at 70 on the Motorway?
Any input would be great.
Worth noting they do a 5-door version as wellI really like the look of the Swift Sport. They seem to get decent reviews.
Book MPG figure is just under 40 combined, can I expect 36-37 in reality?
What is rear seat access like? We have a 9 year old daughter that will be climbing in and out. It was a pain in our C1 as the seats didn't return to their previous position.
It would be our 'family' car, so may be used once or twice a year for long trips. Are they bearable at 70 on the Motorway?
Any input would be great.
Presume it is the newer one?
Drove one on a short test drive, seemed good. Gear change was a bit odd, but coming from a Civic Type R maybe affected my thoughts on that. Newer ones have 6 gears I believe and all mod cons like cruise so reasonable as far as a small car goes on a longer journey. Only sticking point for me was the boot space, absolutely tiny!
Do look nice though and the drive on twisty roads was fab.
Drove one on a short test drive, seemed good. Gear change was a bit odd, but coming from a Civic Type R maybe affected my thoughts on that. Newer ones have 6 gears I believe and all mod cons like cruise so reasonable as far as a small car goes on a longer journey. Only sticking point for me was the boot space, absolutely tiny!
Do look nice though and the drive on twisty roads was fab.
Rickyy said:
I'm looking at the early ones. Couple of 08 plates with less than 100k on the clock for around £3k.
Coming from a Grand Vitara, I'm sure the gearchange a million times better!
You score PH points for going three door with a family but the 1.5 GLX in 5 door form would make a lot more sense if you are looking at a £3k budget.Coming from a Grand Vitara, I'm sure the gearchange a million times better!
On a mixed A / B road run 40+ mpg is easy. The 1.5 still has 100 bhp and nice fun handling. 185/60 tyres are cheap, I've got a set of Dunlop Sport Bluresponse which suit it really well.
In isolation they are fine on the motorway but if you switch to a more refined car you do notice wind noise in particular. I used to do a 20 mile each way commute and didn't find it tiring.
Gear change is good. They are easy to work on too - headlight bulbs in 5 minutes, oil and filter in 10 minutes including drain and refil times. With the back seats in place the boot is tiny but they are split fold and give a nice square load area.
As your only car I think you may regret going 3 door.
I have a older one a 09 with 46k on the clocks, Owned it now for 3 years and covered 23k myself in that time
I do half my miles in and around the city and half going to the inlaws 70 miles away every 2 weeks and i love the car
In the city its great, easy to park small enough to get through gaps nippy and averages around 33 mpg
On the motorway run to the inlaws I can get over 40mpg but thats assuming your sticking to the speed limits average for me is 37 at around 80ish mph..
Motorway driving can be buzzy in that at 70mph your sitting on around 4k revs and at around 4.3kish revs the engine note changes along with the exhaust as the car gets into its running shoes.
In the 3 years it has needed the rear brake caliper replaced(done by the dealer i bought it off under warranty)
wishbone bushs due to the 20 speed bumps i need to go over everytime i go out and come back to my house) and thats it.
I would like to think you could get better than a 08 with 100k on the clock for 3k, trade value mine is worth around 1.7k( checked it last week) so maybe 2.5k private sale value. I paid 5k for mine 3 years ago.
I do half my miles in and around the city and half going to the inlaws 70 miles away every 2 weeks and i love the car
In the city its great, easy to park small enough to get through gaps nippy and averages around 33 mpg
On the motorway run to the inlaws I can get over 40mpg but thats assuming your sticking to the speed limits average for me is 37 at around 80ish mph..
Motorway driving can be buzzy in that at 70mph your sitting on around 4k revs and at around 4.3kish revs the engine note changes along with the exhaust as the car gets into its running shoes.
In the 3 years it has needed the rear brake caliper replaced(done by the dealer i bought it off under warranty)
wishbone bushs due to the 20 speed bumps i need to go over everytime i go out and come back to my house) and thats it.
I would like to think you could get better than a 08 with 100k on the clock for 3k, trade value mine is worth around 1.7k( checked it last week) so maybe 2.5k private sale value. I paid 5k for mine 3 years ago.
3 door doesn't bother me so much, providing the seats aren't a faff. We had a 3 door C1 for 3 years and had a Puma for a year when our daughter was 18 months old. 
In response to Rallycross, I think the ride will be the deal breaker. We had a Focus ST170 which had a pretty crashy ride and she wasn't fussed on.
Boot space raises an interesting point though, that's one thing I do like about the Vitara.
In response to Rallycross, I think the ride will be the deal breaker. We had a Focus ST170 which had a pretty crashy ride and she wasn't fussed on.
Boot space raises an interesting point though, that's one thing I do like about the Vitara.
stupidbutkeen said:
I have a older one a 09 with 46k on the clocks, Owned it now for 3 years and covered 23k myself in that time
I do half my miles in and around the city and half going to the inlaws 70 miles away every 2 weeks and i love the car
In the city its great, easy to park small enough to get through gaps nippy and averages around 33 mpg
On the motorway run to the inlaws I can get over 40mpg but thats assuming your sticking to the speed limits average for me is 37 at around 80ish mph..
Motorway driving can be buzzy in that at 70mph your sitting on around 4k revs and at around 4.3kish revs the engine note changes along with the exhaust as the car gets into its running shoes.
In the 3 years it has needed the rear brake caliper replaced(done by the dealer i bought it off under warranty)
wishbone bushs due to the 20 speed bumps i need to go over everytime i go out and come back to my house) and thats it.
I would like to think you could get better than a 08 with 100k on the clock for 3k, trade value mine is worth around 1.7k( checked it last week) so maybe 2.5k private sale value. I paid 5k for mine 3 years ago.
That was just from a brief scan on Auto trader, I'd imagine I'll find cheaper.I do half my miles in and around the city and half going to the inlaws 70 miles away every 2 weeks and i love the car
In the city its great, easy to park small enough to get through gaps nippy and averages around 33 mpg
On the motorway run to the inlaws I can get over 40mpg but thats assuming your sticking to the speed limits average for me is 37 at around 80ish mph..
Motorway driving can be buzzy in that at 70mph your sitting on around 4k revs and at around 4.3kish revs the engine note changes along with the exhaust as the car gets into its running shoes.
In the 3 years it has needed the rear brake caliper replaced(done by the dealer i bought it off under warranty)
wishbone bushs due to the 20 speed bumps i need to go over everytime i go out and come back to my house) and thats it.
I would like to think you could get better than a 08 with 100k on the clock for 3k, trade value mine is worth around 1.7k( checked it last week) so maybe 2.5k private sale value. I paid 5k for mine 3 years ago.
The MPG sounds promising. Local journeys gets me mid to high 20s and a recent trip from South Wales to Liverpool only saw 33 MPG at a steady 70mph.
Power and performance figures are very similar to my old 1.7 Puma and that I managed to average 37MPG from that, I'll be pleased of the Swift can match it.
From which year did they have 6 speed boxes?
As much as I loved our one I wouldn't recommend it for this situation.
As above a great car for shorter or twisty journeys and so much fun.
However we got rid of ours when our son came along, the boot is tiny but the biggest bug is the seats.
They don't return to the previous position so after folding for rear access they reset to bolt upright and fully forward.
This meant it was a pain to see at junctions unless you leant across and repositioned it.
Even worse if you had a passenger who decided they'd just put up with the awkward new position and couldn't be bothered to re-adjust.
Like I say fine when it was just the 2 of us and we didn't use the rear seats often. We'd still own it now had we not had our lad.
Apart from that it was great ours was the newer model (2012) so had a 6spd so wasn't too bad on the motorway, still a fair bit of road noise mind.
The mpg you're after was pretty achievable with ours too.
I'm guessing a 5 door sport is out of budget due to how long they've been out.
What about a panda 100hp?
Similar ethos but with extra doors.
As above a great car for shorter or twisty journeys and so much fun.
However we got rid of ours when our son came along, the boot is tiny but the biggest bug is the seats.
They don't return to the previous position so after folding for rear access they reset to bolt upright and fully forward.
This meant it was a pain to see at junctions unless you leant across and repositioned it.
Even worse if you had a passenger who decided they'd just put up with the awkward new position and couldn't be bothered to re-adjust.
Like I say fine when it was just the 2 of us and we didn't use the rear seats often. We'd still own it now had we not had our lad.
Apart from that it was great ours was the newer model (2012) so had a 6spd so wasn't too bad on the motorway, still a fair bit of road noise mind.
The mpg you're after was pretty achievable with ours too.
I'm guessing a 5 door sport is out of budget due to how long they've been out.
What about a panda 100hp?
Similar ethos but with extra doors.
EddyBee said:
I'm guessing a 5 door sport is out of budget due to how long they've been out.
What about a panda 100hp?
Similar ethos but with extra doors.
The new 5 door sports are still £8k ish.What about a panda 100hp?
Similar ethos but with extra doors.
Don't know why my suggestion of the 1.5 has fallen on deaf ears. 100 bhp and you get keyless and its still fun to hustle. Can be had with a spoiler if the looks are too bland. More comfortable and not as fugly as a Panda.
EddyBee said:
As much as I loved our one I wouldn't recommend it for this situation.
snip
What about a panda 100hp?
We have two kids (5 and nearly 2) and I've just bought a 100hp as a second car for my wife to commute in/do drop-offs with the kids etc. Really pleased with it so far - extra height means the kids get a good view out, rear seats split/fold for load-carrying, fun to drive, cheap to buy and run - what's not to like? snip
What about a panda 100hp?
I even like how they look, although I appreciate that's not everyone's view. They are buzzy/noisy on the motorway, but not unbearable.
Rickyy said:
That was just from a brief scan on Auto trader, I'd imagine I'll find cheaper.
The MPG sounds promising. Local journeys gets me mid to high 20s and a recent trip from South Wales to Liverpool only saw 33 MPG at a steady 70mph.
Power and performance figures are very similar to my old 1.7 Puma and that I managed to average 37MPG from that, I'll be pleased of the Swift can match it.
From which year did they have 6 speed boxes?
From memory the 6 speed box came in around 2011/12 (will prob be corrected later)The MPG sounds promising. Local journeys gets me mid to high 20s and a recent trip from South Wales to Liverpool only saw 33 MPG at a steady 70mph.
Power and performance figures are very similar to my old 1.7 Puma and that I managed to average 37MPG from that, I'll be pleased of the Swift can match it.
From which year did they have 6 speed boxes?
the older ones have a split boot in that you have a shelf and can put aprox 5/6 shopping bags under the shelf and then 5/6 on top so can hold your weekly shopping. It wont hold a bigger box but then you can put the rear seats down ( non splitting in the old sport rear seat)
getting into the back is fine as long as you use the passinger side,.
The 6 speed was indeed introduced in January 2012 on the newer shape Sport, if your budget could stretch to one of these it is well worth the extra due to the nicer spec, more comfortable ride and improved fuel economy.
I can't recommend the Sport enough, I was the sales manager of a Suzuki dealership for 5 years and chose the Sport as my company car despite more expensive models being available and similarly to yourself my kids weren't too fussed clambering in the back of the 3 door ones I had (although we did have a five door car also)
I can't recommend the Sport enough, I was the sales manager of a Suzuki dealership for 5 years and chose the Sport as my company car despite more expensive models being available and similarly to yourself my kids weren't too fussed clambering in the back of the 3 door ones I had (although we did have a five door car also)
_Neal_ said:
We have two kids (5 and nearly 2) and I've just bought a 100hp as a second car for my wife to commute in/do drop-offs with the kids etc. Really pleased with it so far - extra height means the kids get a good view out, rear seats split/fold for load-carrying, fun to drive, cheap to buy and run - what's not to like?
I even like how they look, although I appreciate that's not everyone's view. They are buzzy/noisy on the motorway, but not unbearable.
How do you find the ride? I got the impression that these were very firm, far more so than a swift sport?I even like how they look, although I appreciate that's not everyone's view. They are buzzy/noisy on the motorway, but not unbearable.
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