One Week After Taking Delivery of the Suzuki Swift Sport

It’s been a week since our Suzuki Swift Sport was delivered. I haven’t finished running it in yet, but I’ve driven it almost every day this past week, including on the Royu Driveway and the highway. Here are my first impressions so far. (I’ll share my husband’s review in a future post.)

In a nutshell, it’s fast, light, fun, and unbeatable value for money.

The fundamentals are solid, yet the car responds strongly to the driver’s skill. That makes it rewarding and exciting to drive. We’ve only had it for a week, but I can already say, “I’m so glad we bought it.”

First Impressions of the Suzuki Swift Sport

First of all, the Swift Sport is faster than I expected. The acceleration in second gear is lively, smooth, and satisfying, of course, but what really impresses me is that it keeps pulling in third, fourth, and even fifth gear, across a wide range of speeds.

The acceleration is so light and eager that you could almost wonder, “Does this thing have an electric motor?”

It has a 1.4-liter direct-injection turbo engine producing 140 hp, but it weighs less than a ton (970 kg), which may explain why it feels more powerful and torquey than the numbers suggest. Even on a fairly steep hill, it pulls strongly uphill in third gear.

Its compact size and just-right amount of power also make it great around town. It darts through traffic with ease, and driving it with a manual transmission makes you feel more connected to the car—as if it’s your partner on the road.

I’m also impressed by how planted it feels, despite being such a lightweight car.

I’ve driven a few compact cars from other manufacturers in a similar price range, and, to be honest, their suspension felt less reassuring. I didn’t feel I could fully trust those cars or drive them with complete confidence.

The Swift Sport is built with driving enjoyment in mind, and its suspension feels solid. Even taking a low-speed turn at an intersection in town is fun. At the same time, it isn’t as stiff as the Nissan Note e-POWER NISMO S we used to own. It has some give, which makes for a comfortable ride.

And the gearshift feels wonderful.

The shift action isn’t as crisp and precise as in a modern Porsche, but it’s easy to use, with a little satisfying resistance. It’s so enjoyable that you find yourself changing gears for no reason at all. (笑)

The clutch is light, and the engagement point is forgiving, so setting off doesn’t require much thought. It’s an easy car to drive.

There’s no hill-hold function, so the car can roll back a little when you set off on a slope. (You can use the handbrake, but I don’t.) Even so, it’s not difficult to manage.

On the highway, there’s nothing to complain about when it comes to acceleration for merging—in fact, it’s so quick that it feels great. It’s also stable at cruising speeds. You never get the sense that “it’s so light that it feels wobbly and scary at speed.”

Changing lanes is smooth, too.

It’s hard to believe you can buy such a well-engineered and enjoyable new car for just over ¥2 million.

The Suzuki Swift Sport’s Downsides

On the other hand, if I had to point out a drawback, it would be the road noise. It’s noticeable even at normal speeds on a main road, and gets louder still on the highway.

As a result, the car feels faster than it is on the highway, and I can imagine a long drive—say, from home to Fuji Speedway (okay, that’s really long! lol)—getting a little tiring.

My husband is planning to add sound-absorbing and vibration-damping materials inside the car, which should reduce the road noise considerably. (I’ll write about that in another post, too.)

This next point isn’t necessarily a downside; in some ways, it makes the car more rewarding to drive. But, naturally, the Swift Sport doesn’t have the same level of electronic driver aids as a modern Porsche. So if you take a corner on the Royu Driveway at a decent speed without thinking about how the car will respond, you may get more body roll and find the car drifting wide.

That means you need to stay alert to where the car’s weight is shifting and how it’s moving, and drive with a clear understanding of what the car and the road are telling you.

At first, that felt a little scary. But gradually I started to think, “This is great practice, and it’s so much fun to drive while thinking about and feeling what the car is doing.”

I’m still a long way from trusting the car completely and moving in perfect sync with it. But I can imagine how much fun it would be to drive this Swift Sport as naturally as I move my own hands and feet. It’s the kind of car that makes me want to keep improving my driving until I get there.

My husband put it this way:

I haven’t quite earned the Swift Sport’s trust yet either, but it’s fun learning to read its behavior. It also holds its line well through corners and feels stable, so I find I can trust it more than I expected.
There’s a rumor that the next-generation Swift Sport will be a hybrid, so this might be the last one with a purely gasoline-powered engine. I think we bought it at just the right time, and you should take good care of it for a long time.

That’s what he said.

We’ve only driven about 300 km so far, but this car is genuinely fun and offers incredible value. I only wish we’d bought it sooner. (笑)

I expect the way it drives will change quite a bit as we get more miles on it, so I hope to share more about our experience here on the blog.