Holden Astra vs Suzuki Swift

What's the difference?

The Astra's biggest problem is probably the Holden badge. Despite the company's best efforts, some buyers are wary of the company's longevity and some of the other cars in the range do the Astra no favours - Trax, Colorado and Barina feel cheap, because they are. The Astra isn't cheaply made and holds up very well in excellent company.

The Suzuki Swift GL S Plus offers good value-for-money, strong safety, a competitive ownership package, miserly fuel economy, a surprisingly roomy interior and respectable overall refinement. That's offset somewhat by sluggish performance, a firm ride, sober interior, and a small boot (with the rear seats up). As always, the significance of these pluses and minuses depends on your specific priorities. But we reckon for a car well past mid-life it's still worthy of a spot on your small urban car short-list.

The Astra is a sleek if slightly anonymous-looking thing. Having said that, it's a really nice design that looks more expensive than it is. That's important in this segment. Holden is at pains to tell us it's from Germany (the Astra is manufactured in Poland) and it does look Euro-influenced. Despite its coupe roofline, it's an easy in-and-out proposition but does sit a little lower than, say, an i30.

The odd blacked-out section of the C-pillar takes a bit of getting used to but the sheetmetal is otherwise faultless and well put together.

Inside it's a sea of grey plastic and various shades thereof, but again, it hangs together really well and is a welcome change from the Teutonically angular Golf. The materials are largely reasonable, but for some reason the stalks feel flimsy to touch and use.

The cloth trim is hardy but comfortable and I was grateful for its relative coolness versus what you might expect from the textile leather you're more likely to get at this level.

Suzuki's traditionally followed its own path when it comes to design, and where other current small cars are increasingly a mix of sharp angles and geometric surfaces, the Swift's exterior is a blend of relatively soft forms and rounded intersections.

The headlights and tail-lights are large irregular shapes, and the distinctive side glass treatment tapers towards the rear, the smaller back windows ending in a vertical door handle and a narrow black graphic element which wraps around the C-pillar to the hatch window.

Note to Suzuki designers: The high-set handles may add visual interest, but they're a pain to use.

Interior styling offers a hint that despite upgrades and facelifts along the way this generation of the Swift is now five years old.

The approach is straight bat, with a multi-tiered dash design accommodating conventional analogue dials in a vaguely racy 'twin-peaked' instrument cluster, the multimedia display in the centre stack and ventilation controls underneath that.

Other age-related giveaways are the manual handbrake and uniformly grey colour palette. The only breaks being occasional flashes of faux metal trim and shiny back inserts.

It all works well from an ergonomic point-of-view but lacks inspiration and emotional impact.

Riding in the front, there's room aplenty for passengers, with good headroom and a well-designed space to maximise what's available. Rear seat passengers do okay as long as the front occupants are being generous, but the seat itself is comfortable and there's even good headroom, despite the falling roofline.

Only the front scores cupholders, with the rear passengers making do with door pockets that might swallow a small bottle. There isn't an armrest or air vents back there either.

There's somewhere for one front occupant to put their phone, a horizontal slot that doesn't like phones with covers or the larger format iPhones or Androids. If your phone does fit (iPhone Xs do, as it happens), it's useful because it's in your eyeline, although a bit untidy if you're plugged into the USB.

The boot starts at a class-compeititve 360 litres, rising to 1210 when you fold the seats down.

Measuring a bit over 3.8m nose-to-tail, and roughly 1.7m across, the Swift is perfectly proportioned for the urban environment. And with an overall height of just under 1.5m and a 2.45m wheelbase it maximises the packaging potential for passengers within such a compact footprint.

Interior accommodation is good, with plenty of space up front, and in the back. At 183cm I was able to sit behind the driver's seat set to my position with a surprising amount of head and legroom.

Three full-size adults across the rear seat would be an uncomfortably cosy arrangement, even on short trips. But a trio of up to early teenage kids will be fine.

Seating negatives amount to something of an armrest rant. Specifically, the lack of a front centre armrest, front door armrests that are unreasonably hard, and omission of a fold-down rear centre armrest.

When it comes to storage, there's a reasonably generous glove box in the front, plus bins and a bottle holder in each door, as well as two cupholders and an oddments tray in the centre console.

Those consigned to the rear have to contend with a close to bare-bones layout, with a single cupholder (located at the rear of the front centre console), a bottle holder in each door, and a single map pocket on the back of the front passenger seat.

No adjustable ventilation, again, no fold-down centre armrest, and no USB or 12-volt power outlets. In fact, the only connections available are a 12V socket, USB-A media and charging outlet and a 3.5mm 'aux-in' jack, all in the front console. The kids won't be thrilled.

Boot space is passable rather than spectacular for the class (so that's where the rear seat room comes from...) with 242 litres on offer.

As our photos show, the (admittedly big) CarsGuide pram wouldn't fit, and we could only squeeze in the small (36L) and medium (95L) suitcases from our three-piece test set without removing the cargo cover. Fold the 60/40 split-folding rear seat down and available space opens up to 556 litres.

Worth noting there aren't any tie-down hooks to secure loose loads, and there's a space-saver spare under the floor.

The Swift GL S Plus wears a sticker price of $25,990, before on-road costs, sitting at the upper edge of the 'affordable' small car market, and aiming up at the likes of Kia's Rio GT-Line ($25,590), the Mazda2 G15 GT ($26,290), and the VW Polo Life (manual - $25,250).

Worth noting the car Suzuki Australia loaned us for evaluation is a pre-Feb 2022 update example conforming to the previous Swift GL Navigator (with Safety Pack) specification. So, key upgrades arriving with that change, like a 9.0-inch media screen (up from 7.0-inch), climate control air, four-speaker audio (up from two!), adaptive cruise, and LED headlights, aren't reflected.

But assuming the presence of those features, this city-sized hatch does pretty well with some other handy boxes ticked. Aside from the safety tech covered later, the GL S Plus boasts a leather-trimmed steering wheel, keyless entry and start, sat nav, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity (plus voice control for key functions), and 16-inch alloys. All up, decent value-for-money in this part of the new car market.

The whole Astra range is turbo, but here in the cheaper seats it's a surprisingly capable 1.4-litre unit with 110kW and a healthy 240Nm. Power finds the road via the front wheels and a six-speed automatic. It's an otherwise unremarkable technical story, with start-stop to help cut fuel use.

The Astra is rated to tow 750kg unbraked and 1200kg braked.

The Swift GL is powered by a 1.2-litre, naturally aspirated, four-cylinder petrol engine, driving the front wheels through a continuously variable auto transmission.

Featuring dual variable valve timing to enhance performance, and two fuel injectors for each cylinder (in the name of better fuel atomisation and efficiency), the all-alloy unit produces 66kW at 6000rpm and 120Nm at 4400rpm.

Holden claims the Astra will drink standard unleaded at the rate of 5.8L/100km on the combined cycle.

Our time with the car, which was a 70/30 mix of suburban and highway, yielded 8.3L/100km, and it's worth noting it was stinking hot for most of the time, so the air-con had to work hard.

The fuel tank is a little on the small side at 48 litres, between five and 10 litres smaller than some of its competitors, like i30 and Golf.

Suzuki's official fuel economy number for the combined (ADR 81/02 - urban, extra-urban) cycle is 4.8L/100km, the 1.2-litre four emitting 110g/km of CO2 in the process.

Our time with the car included mainly city and suburban trips, with some freeway freeway running thrown in, and the result was a (dash-indicated) average of 5.8L/100km. Still pretty handy.

Minimum fuel recommendation is 91 RON standard unleaded (or E10), and you'll need just 37 litres of it to fill the tank. Using the official consumption figure, that translates to a range of around 640km.

I'm going to get my biggest gripe with the Astra out of the way first - the driving position is rendered awkward by the pedal placement. Every other part of the driving experience is perfectly fine, with good adjustment in the seat and steering wheel but the pedals are Not Right. The transition from accelerator to brake means a big lift of the right foot rather than a sideways shuffle and that gets boring. Perhaps I'm getting old and my knees are weak, but I ended up left-foot braking for a lot of the time.

On with the show. The Astra's 1.4 litre turbo is a punchy thing, more than vaguely reminiscent of Peugeot's excellent 1.2 in the 308. The six-speed auto isn't quite as well sorted, occasionally lurching a bit on light throttle like a dual-clutch. The pay-off for that is crisp shifts and a positive feel for most of the time.

The thing about the Astra is that it really takes it to its competition from behind the wheel. It feels almost as good as a Golf, i30 and arguably is as good as a Mazda3 thanks to its extra torque and better refinement.

It's very quiet, composed and is good fun if you like that sort of thing. Otherwise, it's streets ahead of the Corolla which continues to sell like it's going out of fashion.

Sure, 900kg isn't a lot of kerb weight, but 66 isn't a lot of kilowatts, and 120 isn't a lot of newton metres. In short, this little car is far from a powerhouse.

It takes a strong and persistent flex of the right ankle to get the Swift GL moving adequately, the CVT auto shuffling itself around to keep the 1.2-litre engine somewhere near its (relatively high) 4400rpm maximum torque sweet spot. Not ideal in dense, slow-moving traffic on tight streets.

If you're after more urgent acceleration in a Swift, the 1.0-litre, three-cylinder GLX Turbo is the better option. It'll hit 100km/h from rest in around 8.0 seconds while this car will take around 11 seconds. Only snag is the $29,790 (before on-road costs) price tag.

On top of the performance challenges, the ride is firm, the Swift's strut front / torsion beam rear suspension transferring a fair bit of bump and thump from our spectacularly ordinary city and suburban roads. This despite the 16-inch rims being shod with 185 width rubber boasting a normally comfort-enhancing 55-series sidewall profile.

Overall refinement is more than acceptable, though. Even while working hard, the engine remains reasonably quiet and outside noise from the urban grind is modest.

The steering delivers good road feel and the brakes (ventilated disc front / drum rear) are also nice and progressive.

No surprise, given the Swift's compact dimensions, that it's a breeze to park in tight spaces, the reversing camera remaining clear day and night.

All Swift GL variants scored a maximum five-star ANCAP score when the current-gen car launched locally in mid-2017, with the assessment updated in July 2020.

Active, crash-avoidance tech includes, AEB (urban and highway speed) with pedestrian detection, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, 'Weaving Alert' (Suzuki's take on drowsy driver detection), blind spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, rear parking sensors, and a reversing camera.

If, despite all that, a crash is unavoidable the airbag count runs to six (front, front side, and side curtain), plus there are three top tethers for child seats/baby capsules across the rear row, with ISOFIX anchors on the two outer positions.

Holden's three year/100,000km warranty includes roadside assist for the duration. You can also extend the warranty by up to three years or to 175,000km, for an extra cost.

Servicing is scheduled every nine months or 15,000km. Holden calls its fixed-price servicing 'Know Your Price' and it applies for the first six services (63 months or 105,000km). The first four services are set at $249 each, and the final three $309.

Suzuki covers the Swift with a five year/unlimited km warranty, which is cost-of-entry now in the mainstream market. Roadside assistance is renewed annually for up to five years if the car is serviced at an authorised Suzuki dealer.

Speaking of which, service is scheduled for 12 month/15,000km intervals, with costs capped for five years/100,000km. The average annual figure over that period is $293, which is competitive in the small car class.