2018 Suzuki Swift
 

This is my Mum's brand new Suzuki Swift SZ5 auto in Speedy blue with a silver roof. It has an awesome peppy little 1.0 litre 3 cylinder turbocharged engine know as boosterjet by Suzuki. With a very low kerb weight of less than a ton (about 2000 lbs?) it has fantastic performance, agility and economy too. I've been messing around with the trip computer, and seen figures of anywhere between high 50's to a best of 68.3 UK MPG. Even assuming the computer is optimistic, these are diesel like numbers, hard not to be impressed. It also has Bridgestone Ecopia tyres, similar to those fitted to my old insight, so they will work wonders for the economy.

It has a conventional auto box which I usually hate, but unusualy on a box of this type, it has paddle shifters. You can flick them at any time to temporarily put the car in manual mode, for overtaking for example, and it will automatically go back into auto mode if you don't touch them. Alternatively, you can keep the car in manual mode by selecting it on the gear lever. Driving gently and slowly, the car will shift very smoothly and quickly through the gears. Only the auto has 6 gears, the manual bizarrely only has 5.

It also has some semi autonomous tech, radar braking, adaptive cruise control, collision detection and lane assist too. I've used them all, it's no Tesla Autopilot, but it locks onto the car in front, and brakes when they do, and accelerates when they do too. Takes a little getting used to. The lane assist feature gives you a visual warning and gently nudges the wheel to centralise the car again. The collision detection also noticed some pedestrians who were walking in the road. For a small relatively cheap car, this thing is loaded! It also has full front and rear LED lights with auto dipping feature, reversing camera, start button, keyless entry etc. Nice little car, hoping to start a fuelly profile as I'll be refuelling for her. There is a mild hybrid version of this car too, but it isn't available with this auto box.

I also made a short POV YouTube video showing the features for you:
https://youtu.be/7bc4ImRTREA

It's a very good looking car. I like when the door handle is integrated into the c-pillar, makes it look like a 2 door coupe. The silver roof and mirrors is cool too. Is this car made in the UK or somewhere else?

Yea I convinced Mum to go for the roof/mirrors as it makes it stand out more, and was only £165 more with the metallic paint. I think most Suzukis are still built in Japan and imported over. Some of the cheaper ones used to be built in India, not sure if that's still the case. They're not sold in North America any more? Shame.

After a Google search, the latest Swift is built in Japan, Hungary, India and Thailand. Most likely then, this one was assembled in Hungary, given its the closest, but I could be wrong. The new Sport model has just arrived too which looks fun.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_Swift

I have fancied a Swift since the 2004 model. Almost got one before I bought the Jazz.

When I lived in Hungary in the 90s most new cars on the road were Suzuki Swifts since they were made there. I think they still make the Suzuki there and the Audi TT (or its engine). Hungary also makes a number of Porsche parts. Since Hungary joined the European union they started making a lot of cars / parts for VAG.

The sticker on the driver's side door sill usually says where the car was made.

Interesting. I've noticed many car makers use Eastern European places to build cars and parts, most probably for cheaper labour and taxation reasons. I'll look for stickers tonight, I saw the car fresh from the ports with protective film on, and there was a Zeebrugge sticker on the windscreen where it came through the port at Belgium.

So my uncle was so taken by my Mum's new Swift, he went to exactly the same dealer whilst visiting and bought one today. His is the slightly larger naturally aspirated 1.2 litre mild hybrid system, but it's also 4 wheel drive too. So its a top of the range model with all the same tech, a manual gearbox (the hybrid is only available as a manual, as is the 4Wd version) is finished in solid shiny red and has 6 miles on the odometer. The 4WD version has 20 mm extra ground clearance also. Looking forward to driving it on Friday.

That sounds cool. Post some pics if you can for those of us in boring car land.

We collected the car this morning. Took it for a quick 46 mile shake down, I drove. Drives great, you can feel the motor giving that extra kick nice and low in the Rev range. Doesn't seem to kick in unless you've got 3 or bars of battery, there's only 5 total as it's a mild hybrid and the battery is small capacity. The little illustration you can choose to display shows whether you're using just the engine, the engine and the motor, or the arrows flip around going down hills to show you that you're recharging the battery.

You can feel the regen as soon as you lift off, don't really need to brake going down hill, the regen keeps the car from running off, and the bonus is you have a full battery at the bottom. Pretty trash weather, and I wasn't trying very hard, but yielded about 57 UK MPG which isn't bad at all, especially as this is a 4WD vehicle too. Won't be able to track his fuel usage as my uncle lives several hundred miles away and only visits now and again. I like this little car alot!