Kia Rio GT-Line, Toyota Yaris SX & Suzuki Swift GLX Turbo - We Compare 3 of the Best Light Vehicles in Australia

These lightweight car options are all up the price scale in this segment, with each having seen price hikes this year.

The Swift is an upper mid-grade GLX Turbo which sports a healthy safety complement and turbocharged engine, wearing an MSRP of $25,290 (that's the price before on-road costs - not a driveaway price).

Next up we have the Kia Rio GT-Line. Unlike the other cars on this test, the GT-Line is the top of the Rio range, with a sporty focus and great equipment in most areas. It also gets a turbo engine and complex dual-clutch auto. The list price for this model is $23,990, making it the value option of this mix.

Finally, there’s the new-generation Toyota Yaris SX. At $27,020 (MSRP) it’s by far the most expensive car in this test, and despite packing a good amount of standard equipment it’s only a mid-spec SX, and not the fuel-sipping signature hybrid one either.

All cars here have multimedia touchscreens with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, although the Rio is the winner in this category with a larger 8.0-inch screen which also features wireless phone connectivity. The Rio does miss out on built-in navigation which the other two cars get, and its wireless phone connectivity can be glitchy at times.

The Yaris has the smallest and most plain-looking 15-inch alloys, while the Swift gets 16-inch wheels, both cars wear eco-focused tyres as standard. The Rio again appears to take the cake for wheel looks with its relatively huge 17-inch alloys wrapped in expensive Continental performance rubber.

However, the Rio is the only car here which doesn’t get keyless entry or push-start ignition, nor LED headlights, making do with a turn-key and halogen projectors respectively. The Yaris ups the headlight ante to include adaptive/auto on-off high beams.

All cars also score colour multifunction displays in the driver’s instrument binnacle, but none have holographic head-up displays. All cars on this test also make do with cloth seat trim, although the Swift gets semi-bucket seats and the Rio gets partial leatherette trim.

More on the interior over in the practicality section of this review, but for now check out our table below for a full breakdown of the key items available on each car. The winner for value? It has to be the Swift which offers the best bang for buck no matter which way you slice it, though the Rio is the cheapest based on list prices.

Kia Rio GT Line - 8

Suzuki Swift GLX Turbo - 8

Toyota Yaris SX petrol - 6

You’re probably not looking for a car in this segment if you intend on frequently carrying lots of people or things, but is there a winner amongst the choices here?

Let’s start with the Swift. Definitely known in the past as a city-slicker, not much has changed in recent years. The Swift has tight dimensions width-wise, but offers great headroom thanks to its bulbous roof. As already mentioned, the seating position feels high for front passengers, not helped along by how the interior design has you peering downward on the instruments. While the synthetic seat trim looks cheap, the foam material underneath is soft and comfortable, and the side-bolstering front passengers get is excellent in the corners.

The Swift scores dual cupholders in front of the transmission which fit large coffee cups but are a bit height-limited so didn’t fit our 500mL test bottle. There are small binnacles in the doors and a small binnacle under the climate controls to suit wallets or phones. A third smallish cupholder is available for either front or rear passengers.

Rear passengers are near forgotten in the Swift, with tight dimensions thanks to a descending window line and a seat which isn’t really much more than a foam bench. Legroom was surprisingly more than adequate, but the seats here really miss out on the support and comfort available to front passengers. There are no adjustable air vents or power outlets either, and the bottle-holders available in the doors are small.

The Swift also has the smallest boot on this test, weighing in at 242 litres (VDA). The space is tight enough that our largest 124L CarsGuide travel case could only just fit.

Moving on to the Rio and things are immediately much better, even space-wise for front passengers. The low seating makes the most of this car’s height, and its glasshouse means the cabin feels much less restricted than the other two cars here. The Rio is the only car on this test with a centre console storage box with armrest, and offers large cupholders placed alongside the handbrake, large bottle holders integrated into binnacles in the doors, and a two-tiered shelf in front of the transmission for an excellent cabin storage complement.

As we mentioned, while the Rio GT-Line scores some cool stitched seat trim with a contrasting cloth and leather design, the front seats are the least supportive on this test. Back seat occupants have not been forgotten though, as the Rio offers leagues of legroom for a car in this class, and the excellent trim continues for rear passengers, too.

Rear passengers also benefit from a healthy amount of headroom, as well as a single USB port – making the Rio the only car on this test with a rear power outlet. There are still no adjustable air vents, however.

The Rio’s boot is also by far the largest of these three, coming it at 325L (VDA), easily consuming our largest 124L travel case with space to spare.

Finally, we have the Yaris. Its interesting dash design looks more practical than it is mainly because none of the storage cutaways are rubberised, leaving objects vulnerable to an express exit when cornering. It still gets its fair share of storage in the cabin though, with three small but useful cupholders running down the centre, a large storage area under the climate controls, but small bottle holders in the doors which struggled to fit our large test bottle.

The seats land about the middle of the three cars on test in terms of comfort, with decent padding and support on offer. The seats are clad in a typically Toyota rugged synthetic cloth. Head room is excellent for the driver, but not so much for the passenger, with that seat lacking height adjust and taller occupants needing to duck down so as not to hit the headlining.

The rear seat is claustrophobic, with a door which doesn’t open particularly wide in the first place. Once you’re inside the black headliner and small rear windows conspire for a claustrophobic space, although the rear seat design is more contoured and comfortable than it is in the Swift. The door cladding takes a turn for the worse, trading the odd furry plastic for a single-piece hard plastic insert no good for elbows. Legroom and headroom is noticeably tight behind my own driving position.

Rear passengers in the Yaris also miss out on any kind of connectivity and there are no adjustable air vents either. The boot of the Yaris is middle of the pack, at 270L (VDA) - enough for the big case to fit.

All cars on this test have space-saver spare wheels under the boot floor (although the Rio could fit an alloy) and dual ISOFIX plus three top-tether child seat mounting points across the rear seats.

The clear winner here is the Rio with its ample cabin storage and huge boot which could be in the class above.

Kia Rio GT Line - 8

Suzuki Swift GLX Turbo - 6

Toyota Yaris SX petrol - 7

All cars here are powered by three-cylinder petrol engines which drive the front wheels, and all three are closely matched on power outputs.

The Swift GLX Turbo and Rio GT-Line both have 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbocharged engines, with the Swift producing 82kW/160Nm and the Rio GT-Line producing 74kW/172Nm.

Meanwhile the Yaris SX ups the engine size to 1.5-litres but lacks a turbo, still putting out a healthy 88kW/145Nm.

Where these cars are quite different is in their transmissions. The Yaris has a continuously variable transmission (with a launch gear - like a conventional first gear for take-offs, before it switches to that familiar elasticity of CVT auto gearboxes we know well by now), while the Swift has a six-speed torque converter automatic, and the Rio has a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic.

Only the Swift has paddle-shifters to control its transmission, and only the Rio has a stop/start function. The Swift is the only car without alternate drive modes with the Rio and Yaris each featuring three modes. All three cars have manual handbrakes.

Kia Rio GT Line - 8

Suzuki Swift GLX Turbo - 8

Toyota Yaris SX petrol - 7

You might assume small cars like these - some of the lightest cars on the road - are fuel sippers, but with a lot of old engine tech in affordable cars this can be a bit of a myth.

Our cars here don’t have old engines but aren’t amazing on fuel despite what the sticker might say. Official figures for each of the cars here come in at 5.1L/100km for the Swift GLX Turbo, and 5.4L/100km for both the Yaris SX petrol and turbocharged Rio GT-Line.

Our real-world test measured at the pump over the same terrain and distance had the Swift and Yaris both consumed 7.4L/100km, while the Rio overshot the mark by the most, consuming 9.4L/100km.

This makes the Yaris a surprise, as it was closest to its claimed fuel use - and unlike the Swift, it can drink base-grade 91RON.

The Rio can also sip the cheap fuel, while the Swift requires mid-shelf 95RON premium unleaded. The Swift also has the smallest fuel tank, with the Rio offsetting its thirst with a larger fuel capacity. See the table below for details.

Kia Rio GT Line - 6

Suzuki Swift GLX Turbo - 7

Toyota Yaris SX petrol - 7

A big factor in the continually increasing price of small cars is the requirement to comply with ever more stringent ANCAP safety requirements in our market.

All cars here deliver with decent active suites, with a minimum of auto emergency braking (AEB) and lane keep assist.

These systems aren't built equal though, and the Yaris scores pedestrian detection at day and night, cyclist detection during the day, and a new oncoming intersection brake feature. The Yaris' AEB system works from 10-180km/h.

Meanwhile the Swift's AEB suite works from 5-100km/h and only detects vehicles and pedestrians, but not explicitly cyclists. Suzuki does not specify whether the system is able to detect all objects at night.

Finally the Rio's AEB system will brake the vehicle between 10-75km/h for vehicles and 10-85km/h for pedestrians or cyclists. The wording around the Rio's AEB system is the most vague and suggests the system may not operate at night or bring the vehicle to a full stop in some scenarios. Worth keeping in mind.

Only the Swift scores blind spot monitoring and rear cross traffic alert in the grade seen here, while the Rio is the only car to miss out on adaptive cruise control, but gains driver attention alert.

The Yaris is the only car with traffic sign recognition and adaptive high beam headlights. Elsewhere, the Yaris scores an innovative eight-airbag complement (driver, passenger, dual centre, dual side, dual curtain) compared to the Swift and Rio’s six airbags (dual frontal, dual side, dual curtain), and has the most recently developed chassis crumple zones.

All cars here wear maximum five-star ANCAP safety ratings, but only the Yaris is rated to the strict 2020 standard. The Rio and Swift’s scores both date to 2017.

Without conducting a real-world crash test, we can deduce the Yaris is the safest car here, but the Swift is still a strong contender considering its inclusion of blind spot monitoring and rear cross traffic alert at its price-point.

See the table below for more detail.

Kia Rio GT Line - 7

Suzuki Swift GLX Turbo - 8

Toyota Yaris SX petrol - 9