2019 Mazda 2 vs Suzuki Swift

What's the difference?

My advice is this: If you love the Mazda2 aesthetically, which is totally understandable, spend the extra money on a Maxx.

The Neo might have the Mazda hallmarks - a decent engine, good handling, killer looks and standard safety gear - but it's the extra multimedia and better-quality trim in the Maxx that make it more sense for your dollar.

If you're aiming for under $20,000, also consider a Suzuki Swift GL Navi, which can be optioned with better safety or a Hyundai Accent, which has a bigger boot.

The Suzuki Swift Sport puts fun first, and at a reasonable price, too.

You can spend less and get something more suited to a small family, or you can spend more to get track-ready performance, but the Sport gives you something else. It gives you a big, stupid, adolescent smile on your face every damn day. Even in your work commute. And really, that’s where its true value lies.

What draws most people to the Mazda2 in the first place is its great looks. Mazda don't patronize entry-level buyers with a sub-par econobox that doesn't reflect the rest of its range. It shares all the 'Kodo' design language that has become so prevalent on Australia's roads.

That consists of a tastefully executed exterior, with a sophisticated grille, classy chrome touches and strategically placed smatterings of black plastic. Around the side, there's the brand's signature swooping lines, making for a sporty silhouette, toward a slick and resolved rear end. Few cars in this segment or price point can compete. Too bad about those steel wheels.

Inside, the design is just as good, but it's the materials which unfortunately take a dive. Good stuff includes the multi-textured surfaces, with tastefully applied contrast surfaces of chrome and carbon texture.

The dot-matrix multimedia control panel is a bit of a sore spot and is hardly ergonomic to reach across and use.

There's great switchgear, with a tasteful but simple dash cluster. The wheel is one of the better ones in this class in terms of its look, but the acrylic finish is truly nasty. The same goes for the functional but sub-par touchpoints across the doors and rear seats. A centre-console box for resting your elbow on is a $479.35 option.

One personal gripe, which I've heard from other folks in the office as well as private Mazda2 owners, is the odd placement of the wing-mirrors. They're too close to the driver and seem to give a narrow angle of view, leading to a significant blind spot.

Doesn’t this car look like fun? It has all the cutesy-charm of the regular Swift range, but adds a bunch of aggression into the mix, courtesy of a wider, chunkier front bumper, LED light clusters that look almost like the ones off the Jaguar F-Type, huge alloy wheels, and dual-exhaust ports sticking out the back.

This car absolutely owns the 'Champion Yellow' colour it's painted in, which really brings the most out of the black highlights on the bumpers and through the window-line.

Touches like the integrated rear door handles, little roof-spoiler sticking out the back, and the Swift’s signature convex windscreen add a certain polish to the little car’s design. Top models of competitors just don’t have anywhere near the presence of the Sport.

Inside, the Sport has a fair amount of visual flair added, with a solid set of logo-embossed bucket seats, a D-shaped steering wheel which is vaguely reminiscent of an Audi helm and a simple, but effective silver dash cluster.

The Sport gains a few extra features for its screen embedded between the dials, with fun read-outs for turbo pressure, G-force, and power/torque graphs.

The rest of the dash is comprised of the same cheap plastics as the rest of the Swift range, so don’t expect it to be any better to the touch. I’m also not totally sold on the red highlights strewn about seemingly for the sake of it. The gloss finish on them (and some other surfaces) looks naff.

The simple fact is, there are far more practical options in this segment. The Mazda2 has a small boot, zero amenities for rear-seat passengers, and limited on-board space.

Front passengers are treated to bottle holders in the doors, a conveniently phone-sized trench under the connectivity ports, a wallet-sized trench next to the analog handbrake and... well that's about it. The seat grants a nice low seating position, but is a bit flimsy, even for this segment.

Back-seat passengers get... not much. The seats have decent contouring to them, but there's only just enough leg and headroom for someone my size (182cm tall). There are no cupholders, no air vents and only a strange square trench atop the transmission tunnel for your loose objects.

Boot space is a rather limited 250-litres in the hatch. It's much smaller than competitors like the Kia Rio and Hyundai Accent, while landing on-par with its arch-nemesis Suzuki Swift.

If you're in love with the 2 and want a larger storage space, you can do so by choosing the sedan at no extra cost. Doing so will grant 440L of space.

The Swift Sport is a front-occupant focused affair. The driver benefits from a telescopic steering adjust and the front seats grant awesome legroom and excellent bolstering in the corners thanks to their bucket design.

They’re even spongey and supportive for comfort, clad in a sensible synthetic weave, and sit low for a decent driving position. Front occupants also get the lion’s share of what little cabin storage is on offer, with cupholders in the doors, a trench under the dash and the glove box.

Rear passengers get next to nothing. The seat across the back appears to be a single piece of foam with next to no contouring, there are small bottle holders in the doors and an odd little trench between the front seats for belongings. To rub it in, the window line is pretty high, and headroom is limited courtesy of the sloped roofline.

The media system is a tad clunky, but you can remedy that with phone mirroring, and for some reason the reversing camera is super bright, with the glare making it tough to peer into wing mirrors for maneuvering at night.

Visibility is excellent out the front, but the large C-pillar makes for a bit of a rear thee-quarter blind-spot.

The boot is a sad state of affairs, and a consistent Swift weak point. At 265 litres it’s outplayed by almost every segment rival, except for the Mazda2. Unlike the Kia Rio, even putting the rear seats down offers a surprisingly limited amount of space.

Our Swift Sport was a manual which comes in, before on-roads, at $25,490. There’s no denying that’s a lot of cash for a hatch this size. Top models from traditional Japanese rivals include the Mazda2 (Genki, $21,140), Toyota Yaris (ZR, 22,670) and Honda Jazz (VTi-L, $22,990), all of which are significantly cheaper.

None have a 1.4-litre turbo engine from an SUV though… In fact, the closest you can get to a true competitor for the Swift Sport is the Kia Rio GT-Line which has similar sporty styling and packs a 1.0-litre turbo three-cylinder engine.

The Swift Sport comes standard with 17-inch alloy wheels wrapped with aggressive rubber, a 7.0-inch multimedia touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support, built-in sat-nav, full LED front lighting (auto headlights, DRLS and fog-lamps), carbon-fibre trim highlights, bucket seats for front occupants, a D-shaped leatherbound steering wheel, keyless entry, and push-start ignition.

Phew, that’s a lot of kit. The Swift Sport also has all of the safety refinements available elsewhere in the Swift range, read more about that in the safety section of this review.

Suzuki has also re-worked the suspension just for this model and offers either the six-speed manual (as tested here) or a six-speed torque converter auto (good riddance to the last-generation’s CVT) which comes at a $2000 premium.

So, it’s pricier than its competitors, but it’s also more powerful than all of them, has more visual flair and is just as well, if not better equipped. Sure, it’s a choice to buy this over a larger hatch in the segment above, but at least you’re not getting short-changed.

Powering the Mazda2 is just one engine, a 1.5-litre non-turbo four cylinder, although the Neo is the only one in the range with the lower-compression de-specified version. It produces 79kW/139Nm.

These power figures are on-par with much of the competition, but in reality (and perhaps as a sad testament to many of the cars in this segment) it feels relatively good.

Part of this is thanks to the six-speed automatic transmission, which is better than a CVT or four-speed auto.

I adore the simplicity behind this. The Swift Sport has a 1.4-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine dropped pretty much straight out of the Vitara Turbo.

For that, the little (and normally sub-85kW) Swift gets boosted to 103kW/230Nm. Those aren’t huge power figures, sure, but the Swift is light at just 970kg.

To me, the Swift Sport scores bonus points for still being offered with a six-speed manual transmission – an enthusiast’s delight.

Mazda's claimed combined fuel usage figure for the Neo hatch is 7.2L/100km,and I recorded around 7.6L/100km over a week of testing. That's not far off the claimed figure, but it's a high number to begin with, many larger, turbocharged engines in heavier cars will produce better, or even lower figures.

The 2 drinks standard 91 RON unleaded fuel and has a 44-litre tank.

The Swift Sport has a claimed/combined fuel consumption figure of 6.1L/100km and after a week of thoroughly enjoying the manual transmission, I was very surprised to have produced 6.4L/100km.

On my last test of the Sport I scored 8.0L/100km for some reason, so expect that number to vary if you drive it like it wants to be driven every day.

Those numbers might be slightly higher than some competitors, but I can tell you the fun-factor more than makes up for it.

On the downside, you’ll have to fill it up with mid-grade 95 RON fuel.

The Mazda2's more traditional engine and transmission, combined with its small footprint and lightweight body, give it a spritely and agile feel on the road.

For better or worse, it's very mechanical, you still feel each gear change, and you're fairly connected to the road.

It beats most competitor set-ups in terms of feel and real-world power application, and has fast, accurate steering, making it easy to dart down alleyways, and park in tight spots in congested cities.

It does so in decent comfort, but this is one noisy little car. Road noise and engine roar (from as little as 2500rpm) reach the cabin easily, and its lightweight bodywork gives it a bit of a tinny feeling.

The 2 is fun to drive, thanks to a low seating position and a suspension setup lets you feel closer to the road than something like a Kia Rio or Toyota Yaris, but the stiffness of the ride can also cause it to become unsettled over bumps.

As a driver's car, it's one of the better ones in this segment, alongside the Suzuki Swift. You're left with few options, though – given the Yaris, Rio and Accent are all more comfortable, but feel rather lethargic in comparison.

It's really up to personal taste whether you prefer refinement over fun, as you'll have to spend much more to get both.

You can buy faster cars than the Swift Sport, but would you really be getting best bang for buck? Consider this, with the Swift Sport, you can extract almost every last bit of fun this car has to offer as you drive it around each and every day, all without breaking the law.

It’s just formulated to make mundane days plodding around low-speed-limited streets put a smile on your face. The engine surges to life, the wheels chirp off the line, and before you know it your shooting through the gears, weaving between slow goers, but it’s all to scale. You can do it all while staying inside the speed limits.

It never gets old either, despite having this car on test three times in the last year I still get a sense of adolescent irresponsibility every time I lay eyes on it with the keys in my hand.

I said this when I first reviewed the Swift Sport, but it’s all the hot hatch most buyers will ever really need. Sure, you can spend more and get higher performance out of true Euro hot hatches this size like the Peugeot 208 GTi (RIP) and Renault Clio RS, but you’ll need to hit the track to really test their limits.

Plus, the Swift is a more compliant daily driver. The suspension has been re-worked over the regular Swift range to make it more confident around the corners, but it hasn’t been made so stiff you cringe when you spot an approaching pothole too late.

And the steering has been smartly engineered to stiffen up when there’s a chance of torque steer - keeping the wheels pointing in the right direction, and the manual gearbox is forgiving in traffic.

The Swift Sport comes with the full comprehensive safety suite available on the Swift GLX Turbo below it.

Active items include auto emergency braking (AEB, yes – even in the manual), adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning (LDW), and something called ‘Weaving Alert’ (which seems to go nuts when it thinks you’re about to lose traction or hit a parked car).

There’s no blind spot monitoring (BSM), lane keep assist (LKAS), torque vectoring, or traffic sign recognition (TSR).

It’s not the most comprehensive suite on the market, but it is excellent for this class.

Outside of that you get six airbags, auto high-beam, a reversing camera (but no sensors), two ISOFIX child-seat mounting points in the rear, and three top-tethers.

All current Swift variants, including the Sport carry a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating awarded in June 2017.

Mazda offers a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty across its range, which is on par for most manufacturers. The Kia Rio leads this segment with its seven-year, unlimited kilometre promise.

Mazda matches its five-year warranty with five years of capped price servicing. Service intervals occur at 10,000km or 12 months, whichever occurs first. The program has a not-unreasonable average yearly cost of $305.60 and has reasonably priced extras like brake fluid and cabin air filters.

All Swifts are covered by a five-year/140,000km warranty, but it’s conditional on you sticking to Suzuki’s rather annoying and expensive six-monthly/10,000km service intervals through its dealer network.

If you skip a service, or take your car somewhere else, the warranty is just three years.

Service costs are fixed and come in at a total cost of $2362 over the life of the five year warranty, comprised of services costing between $175 and $399.