Downsides of the Suzuki Swift Sport

My beloved Suzuki Swift Sport has now passed 2,000 km on the odometer.

At the end of last year, I had lowering springs installed, and without sacrificing ride comfort, driving became even more enjoyable.

It’s light, fast, stress-free both in the city and on the highway, the manual transmission is easy and fun to operate, and I’m gradually getting used to blipping the throttle… I really can’t complain about the driving experience.

That said, after months of driving it, a few inconveniences have started to stand out.

So far, I’ve noticed two main issues.

The first is that the passenger seat’s width is quite narrow. While the driver’s seat feels relatively spacious, the passenger side is tight. When my husband, who is 177 cm tall, sits there, his legs hit the side, and it looks quite cramped.

For me, sitting there feels like, “Well, it’s narrow, but it’s a compact car, so I guess that’s to be expected,” and it’s within an acceptable range. But I think anyone of a certain height sitting in the passenger seat would mostly find it cramped.

Unfortunately, there’s no real way to change this, so it’s something I have to accept.

The second issue is that there’s only a front room lamp, so the rear seats are pitch dark at night. Also, the front lamp uses a bulb, so it’s quite dim.

Because of this, I’ve always struggled to install the child seat in the back.

When trying to connect the two shoulder belts of the child seat and click them into the buckle, I can’t see where the buckle is at all because it’s too dark.

So every time, I have to use my phone’s flashlight and think, “What a hassle…” while doing it.

The Swift Sport has seat heaters for the driver’s seat, but honestly, I think, “I wish they’d put a light in the rear seats before adding this feature…”

Tried Switching the Room Lamp to LED

My husband did some research online and found that changing the front room lamp to LED brightens up the rear seats quite a bit, so we decided to give it a try.

We purchased an LED room lamp set made specifically for the Suzuki Swift.

YOURS(ユアーズ) スズキ スイフト ZC13 ZC83 ZC53 ZD53 (減光調整付き) 専用設計 LED ルームランプセット (専用工具付) [2] M

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Once we swapped it out… it got really bright!

In fact, it’s so bright it’s almost embarrassingly bright (laughs). Thanks to this, the rear seats are much better lit, making it easy to install the child seat without any trouble.

Also, this light’s brightness can be adjusted (for now, it’s set at 100%), so I might play around with the brightness settings later.

For now, problem solved.

Before buying, I hadn’t even considered looking into the room lamp, so recently I’ve been thinking, “You really don’t know until you try.”

This isn’t just about this case — for example, when switching from a Mercedes-Benz to a Porsche model of similar class, I’ve often heard people say, “Wait, this feature isn’t even included? Mercedes had this as standard!” and feel a bit disappointed.

I guess it’s through these personal experiences that we gain wisdom in choosing cars.

As for this Swift Sport, I think I’ll continue customizing it little by little to suit my preferences, and I hope to share those updates here on the blog as well.