Wheels Australia - June 2018

@wheelsaustralia 117

4

3

002842 WEEK 1

Y MOTORWAY

Bulldog looks, no bark

Suzuki, can you turn up the volume please? One

would think the company would be eager to show the

fact that the Sport is now turbocharged, but there’s a

disappointing lack of aural theatrics to this force-fed

mill.Withhardlyanyrecircnoisesonthrottlelift,

a docile exhaust note and no spooling sounds when

the boost gauge is winding up, the Sport doesn’t

offer enough joy for an enthusiast’s ears.

could be plastered in a My Little Pony livery

and I’d probably still drive it. Even the cringiest

exterior accessories can’t diminish the sheer

fun-factor of the spiciest Swift.

And it’s not like you can see those decals

from the inside, where your bum is hugged by

superb bucket seats and the red-faced tacho

hints that this ain’t your gran’s Suzuki. I’m still

unsure whether I approve of the dot-matrix

red trim on the dashboard and door cards,

and some might argue that the cabin furniture

doesn’t bear enough differentiation from the

GLX Turbo that sits beneath it. I’m not of that

view. Sure, some extra soft-touch surfacing

would be welcome (especially inside the centre

console storage tray to stop phones from

sliding about), but let’s not forget this car’s

roots as a budget light hatch.

Anyway, all is forgiven once you hit the

starter button and get stuck into that joyously

boosty 1.4-litre turbo. It’s got astonishing

flexibility in around-town driving thanks to an

abundance of low-end torque, and the Sport’s

featherweight 970kg kerb mass means the

effect of those 230 Newtons of twist is far more

profound than the bald figure would suggest.

Peak torque arrives at between 2500 and

3500rpm and doesn’t sharply tail off thereafter,

which means that commuting is a much

less frenetic task than it was in the last-gen

Swift Sport, whose atmo 1.6L needed loads of

revs to extract meaningful oomph. Cruelly,

commuting is pretty much all I’ve been able to

do in it so far – I picked up my decal-clad Sport

just a few days before heading off on a three-

week holiday. My loss will be a colleague’s

gain, but once I’m back I intend to give the

Sport a damn good strap – hopefully at speeds

fast enough to peel off a few stickers.

TONY O’KANE

Date acquired:April 2018

Price as tested:$25,600

This month: 775km @ 5.7L/100km

Overall: 775km @ 5.7L/100km

LONG AND

THE SHORT

OF IT

Bonnet is comically

tiny. Cabin is

spacious despite

dinky 2450mm

wheelbase

URBAN COUNTRY SPORTS

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