2007 Suzuki Swift Reviews

Ewan Kennedy reviews the 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 Suzuki Swift as a used buy.

Suzuki Swift was a big seller in Australia in the 1980s and '90s. Many were rebadged as Holdens and carried Barina badges. For some strange reason imports were stopped in 2000.Thankfully an all-new Swift was imported downunder beginning in February 2005 and is the subject of this week's used-car report.The chunky lines of the body pleased many and the new Swift was a hit from day one. Note that there are no Holden versions of these later models.The Suzuki Swift is a tough little machine that's well know for reliability and long life and has long been popular on the Australian used-car scene.They hold there value well and dealers complain they often can't get their hands on enough of them.Swift has a better sorted suspension and steering than most cars in its class and is appreciated by keen drivers.Good throttle response from the engines is another fun factor. Swift has good interior space for a car in this class.Obviously there isn't space for large adults, but the little Suzuki lets you juggle the seats to get the best from the interior space. The front seats have a good spread of fore-and-aft adjustment and the driver's seat can be raised and lowered.Boot space is good for a car of this size, though small in absolute terms. There's the usual option of folding down the seat back in various configurations to make it a better luggage carrier.A major model change in June 2011 retained the same cheeky look as the 2005 model, but is a little larger, with more space in the back seat.Power comes from a twin-cam, multi-valve engine, with a capacity of 1.5 litres in most of the original Swifts. The engine size on these standard cars was reduced to 1.4 litres in the 2011 Swift, but the new design of engine provides similar performance, uses less petrol and creates fewer emissions than the old 1.5.Unlike many so-called 'sports' models, the Suzuki Swift Sport has better engine and suspension performance than the standard Swifts. It has a larger engine, at 1.6 litres, to back up its firmer suspension, sporty body kit and enhanced interior. The Sport isn't what you would term a hot hatch but it gives you plenty of driving pleasure at a very modest price.Many Swifts in Australia have a five-speed manual gearbox, there's also the option of a four-speed automatic transmission. The auto doesn't take too much away from the performance of this relatively light car. The Swift Sport came only as a manual, a five-speed, until it was discontinued in 2011.There were no imports of the Swift Sport from June 2011 until February 2012 when the new series was introduced with a six-speed manual transmission and the option of a CVT, the latter has seven preset ratios so drivers can make their own choices.Though this is a small car there's quite good under-bonnet space so you can do your own basic servicing without knocking off too much skin.Buy a workshop manual before opening that bonnet, though. Leave anything that could affect safety to the professional mechanics.There are a reasonable number of Suzuki dealers in Australia, though they tend to be concentrated in the metropolitan and major country cities.We have heard of no real problems with spare parts supply and the prices aren't too bad for a fully imported car.Insurance costs are towards the lower end of the scale and we don't know of any companies that charge significantly more for the Sport versions.Be wary of a Swift that has been modified in the body and mechanicals as these may indicate it has had a hammering by a look-at-me driver. Big, noisy exhausts are a prime candidate for caution.Look for body damage and/or signs of it having been repaired.Check that the engine starts within a second of you turning the key, even if it's completely cold in the morning.If the engine hesitates on acceleration or during hard cornering there may be some water in the fuel rails causing a misfire.Fuel filler hoses and clamps were the subject of recalls in March and May 2012. Give a Suzuki dealer a call with the Swift's VIN and they can advise if it has been modified.Manual gear changes should be light, easy and quiet. If not there may be gearbox troubles, or it may be the clutch needs adjusting.Make sure the sound system work correctly. If there's no life from it there's a good chance it has been stolen in the past and the PIN security system has shut it down.

Suzuki Swift was a big seller in Australia in the 1980s and '90s, but was inexplicably discontinued in 2000. Realising they had made a mistake, the importers introduced an all-new Swift in February 2005. The older Swifts, which incidentally were also imported by Holden and badged as Barinas are also worth a

Graham Smith reviews the 2005, 2006 and 2007 Suzuki Swift as a used buy.

The original Suzuki Swift GTi, sold here in the mid-'80s, was a budget-priced bucket of bolts attached to one of the sweetest, micro-sized, twin-cam, multi-valve engines this side of a Suzuki motorbike.You don't see too many of those old GTi Suzies around these days; many were spontaneously added to roadside shrubbery when the engine proved too much for the rest of the car to cope.Still, it was a loveable little rogue of a thing, despite wrist-snapping torque steer and wet-weather handling that left drivers ashen-faced and trembling, as though they'd just been shot (or seen The Catch-Up).Maybe “despite” is the wrong word. The adventurous thrilled in numbers to the GTi's mix of dash and destructiveness, making it an unlikely cult machine. Of surviving GTis, possibly only one or two remain unmodified; such is the fate of the cult car.Twenty years on, Suzuki has incorporated the GTi's DNA into its latest bargain hatchback, the Swift Sport.This isn't as simple as you'd expect. Modern designers face unusual design challenges: the technology exists to make even budget-level cars completely smooth and refined, which sometimes — especially in the case of sporty runabouts — isn't what you want.So some reverse engineering is needed: winding back sophistication to a point where the fun kicks in.The harder you drive the Sport, the more you notice its ancestor's kookiness creeping to the surface.There's barely any torque steer, but enough power is communicated through the wheel to give you at least an idea of something raucous happening up front — without any particular danger that you'll be incorporated into a tree, or oncoming traffic.In fact, given the test car's nuclear yellow paint, there was more danger of blinding oncoming drivers than hitting them. This paint could be seen through walls. It was like driving a glowstick.Forget wet-weather trauma, too — although probably more credit should go to the Suzuki's gluey Dunlops than to its suspension engineers.(By the way, when did tyres become so good? These Dunlops are exceptional, but almost all new tyres are capable of grip levels higher than most competent drivers can exceed. Even those cheap Taiwanese brands with names like Myong Tsing and Tong Foon Speed Monkey Radial aren't entirely dreadful. Someone should re-introduce crossplies, just for nostalgia's sake and to keep the population down.)As with any car so over-tyred, handling in the dry is foolproof. Hit a corner too quickly, and it's no great problem to scrub off speed and change lines.Interestingly, the Sport seems set up to oversteer slightly at exit from medium-quick curves. This is so rare among front-drive hatches as to be almost unique.Suzuki evidently has a playful bunch in its suspension-geometry lab. Hey, for all we know the same guys may be responsible for that hyper-cute exterior.Some gambles have been taken here, but it hangs together well across what is a surprising amount of surface area for such a compact unit.Two things about the Suzuki's interior: it offers enough headroom to wear a top hat, should you be so inclined, and features front seats that, by happy accident, are perfectly sculpted for a certain 42-year-old reviewer's dodgy back.Seriously — and it's purely by coincidence — those seats were perfect. A certain reviewer was tempted to remove them for use in his office.A certain reviewer may even have idly sorted through his tools in search of the correct-size spanners for the job before a certain reviewer considered his bail conditions and woke up to himself.The engine — 1.6 litres, four variably timed valves per cylinder, all the usual tricks — is slightly undersquare (greater stroke than bore) which should provide a little more torque than seems available.No big deal; the engine's sound makes up for that. Suzuki must have had its sonic technicians working harder than Israeli airport security to come up with a note so zesty.For only $24,000, ridiculous value is represented here. It's only after a few days of driving that tiny quality differences between the Sport and its more expensive Mazda and Honda competitors become obvious.They're only small matters — a slightly buzzier reverse gear, for one — and nothing that would be a deal-breaker.Of course, for some drivers wanting to reconnect with some GTi rawness, that buzzy reverse might well be a feature, not a bug.

It has been tough for the BMW group, which created the new Mini and has just gone again with the new-new Mini, and impossible for Volkswagen with its born-again Beetle.If a company gets the rebirth right it will have a surefire winner, such as the latest Ford Mustang in the United States, but . . .Now it's Suzuki's turn with the rebirth of its Swift GTi.It's a return to the hot hatch business and a chance to plug a gap below pacesetters including the Ford Focus XR5, Renault Megane Sport and Mazda3 MPS.The Swift is smaller in size and engine capacity, but Suzuki Australia believes it will sell to an eager audience that already knows the new-age Swift and remembers its 1980s and 1990s incarnations.Except it is not called a GTi now because Volkswagen objected to the use of the label it has applied to its go-faster Golf since the 1970s.So the GTi is now the Swift Sport, with good looks, a price from $23,990 and the twin exhaust pipes and giant wheels that mark any hot hatch in the noughties.It is more than a dress-up job thanks to a larger engine, significant suspension work and changes to steering and brakes.It has far more refinement than any earlier Swift GTi, but there are some questions.Shoppers have the right to ask about a five-speed gearbox in a generation of six-speeders, an engine that is still only 1.6 litres and the absence of a spare tyre.They also need to hear about changes that run much deeper than a blat-blat exhaust and big wheels.Changes run to significant work on the body, interior, chassis, suspension and brakes.The steering is sharper, the brakes more fade-resistant and the body upgrade includes a deep front spoiler and a yellow body colour that is beyond bright.The engine grows from 1.3 litres in the regular Swift — CARSguide Car of the Year in 2005 — to a "big-bore" 1.6. Power jumps from 75kW to 92kW and torque is improved from 133Nm to 148Nm at 4800 revs.Suzuki has fitted a close-ratio five-speed gearbox, put more beef into the driveshafts, and the engine breathes through a large-capacity muffler.The result is a 0-100km/h sprint of 8.9 seconds and a top of 200km/h.The suspension has Monroe sports dampers, a retuned rear set-up stabiliser bar, and 195x50 tyres on 16-inch rims.But the spare is gone, replaced by an emergency reinflation pack, to make space in the boot floor for the giant muffler.The car has excellent Isofix child-seat anchorage that is now the standard in Europe but cannot be used here because of silly local regulations.Suzuki Australia expects the Swift Sport to be a sellout, based on reaction to news of a GTi comeback and the showroom success of the regular Swift.ON THE ROADTHE Swift Sport is a sharp, enjoyable drive. I first tried a preview car in Japan last year at a Suzuki test track, but it was hard to know if it was really a GTi or just a powered-up Swift on a track that was super-smooth and had few testing turns.Now, after a run through the regular test program, I know the Swift Sport is very good and very good value.Is it a true GTi? Honestly, no. It is sprightly and sporty, but I have been spoiled by the new-age Focus, Megane and Mazda3, and by memories of the previous Swift GTi with its raunchy engine, edgy cornering and funky looks.But the Swift Sport is way ahead of baby-class rivals including the Hyundai Getz and Toyota Yaris, which have only dress-up sports models, and undercuts European imports that have nice badges but big pricetags.But would I recommend the Swift Sport? Truly, yes.It is more refined than the earlier GTi and is a terrific drive, particularly on twisty roads where you can work the responsive chassis, feel the tyres working through the tactile steering and short-shift the gearbox between ratios.The engine is strong without being anything special and even revving it to the redline — much lower than I remember from the GTi — does not give much satisfaction.It is solid once you have 3000 revs on board and the close-spaced ratios help to keep it boiling, but it's not what I would expect from a company with the experience of building so many amazing big-bore motorcycles.I was also disappointed by the transmission. Drivers of the test car commented that it needed to be a six-speeder, not a five, and that it was overly noisy and working too hard at a 110km/h highway cruise.Still, fuel economy was good at 8.7 litres for 100km, though the Sport likes premium unleaded.Inside the cabin, the sports front buckets give excellent support, the steering wheel is meaty and feels classy, the sound system is good and the airconditioning works well.So, is the Swift Sport a worthy successor to the GTi? Yes and no.It is not as quick, responsive or urgent as the GTi, but that is probably a good thing in today's world.It is more refined, more comfortable and excellent value, putting it closer to a Ford Fiesta Zetec with its 1.6-litre engine than a Hyundai Getz.It really has no direct competitors and that means Suzuki Australia's prediction of a Swift sellout will probably be spot on.THE BOTTOM LINEGOOD looking, fun and sharp to drive, but missing the sizzle expected in a GTi.77/100