► We live with the Suzuki Swift Hybrid
► The ride could be better…
► Read month 3
In last month’s instalment I noted the Swift’s sub-par ride quality, and promised to experiment with deviations from its high factory-spec tyre pressures this month. Perhaps a small adjustment would smooth off the rough edges, I wondered.
Those factory tyre pressures are not crazy high, to be fair, but they are higher than most of the rivals I checked – Suzuki recommends 36psi front and 32psi rear (2.5/2.2 bar) for the Swift’s diddy 185/55 R16 rubber with up to three passengers (rising to 41psi/2.8 bar for the rear fully loaded with passengers and luggage).
I thought lowering the pressures by 10 per cent might be a good starting point, but my tyre pressure gauge revealed them to already be in that ballpark when I checked – 32.5psi for both fronts, 29.5psi for both rears. So, they’ve either lost pressure by a very precise amount, or our car’s were dropped before it reached us.
I don’t want to lower pressures beyond that for fear of adding more fuzz to the handling, so the grating ride remains. Most notably it’s a lack of isolation over lateral expansion joints and a shortage of sophistication to the secondary ride, whether I’m dodging potholes in town or holding a 70mph motorway cruise. Poor ride on motorways is perhaps most surprising, given that they’re typically smoother surfaces and higher speeds often calm chassis jitters.
Despite the tough ride, the Swift is actually very softly sprung and rolls generously through corners. In fact, I think it needs more roll-support at the rear as much for comfort as handling – two different people have said it feels a little alarming in the rear seats as it topples about on B-roads.
And the handling generally? Well, press on and it has a fail-safe understeery bias – fair enough for a target buyer not necessarily interested in sharp driving dynamics – but it’s the daily comfort that’s most compromised and most relevant. Given the small wheel size and evidently soft springs, I suspect low-quality dampers.
Lowering tyre pressures, of course, is a great way to lower your fuel economy, but the Swift with its 1.2-litre mild-hybrid three-cylinder continues to be the most frugal car I’ve ever run, even though its modest power output, just 81bhp, encourages the driver to adopt a flat-to-the-mat approach, especially on some of the quiet lanes near where I live.
In fact, this month the Swift recorded a 2-3mpg improvement at 60mpg, and though the majority of its 1409 miles were covered on long motorway trips, a decent portion were outside of rush hour with higher average speeds. I wasn’t hanging about.
While 60mpg is a little off the official 64.2mpg, it’s still so efficient that I’d struggle to spend less on petrol without time-travelling back to a forecourt circa 2004. It also means the tiny 37-litre fuel tank is typically going for 370 miles between fills with a comfortable margin in reserve.
Excellent fuel economy is the most satisfying aspect of running the Swift, but there are other highlights too – crucially just how much space there is inside for one of the shorter cars in this class, measuring as it does just 3860mm from tip to toe. Even with a high seating position, a six-foot-tall driver has inches of headroom, and my teens have room to spare even when I push my seat back. Plus, the boot is reasonably accommodating at 265-litres given the pint-sized footprint.
So, there’s a lot of stuff the Swift does very well indeed, but that ride quality would be top of my hit list for the facelift.
Logbook: Suzuki Swift Hybrid Ultra (month 4)
Price £19,799 (£19,799 as tested)
Performance 1197cc turbocharged three-cylinder, 81bhp, 12.5sec 0-62mph, 103mph
Efficiency 64.2mpg (official), 60.0mpg (tested), 99g/km CO2
Fuel cost 10.7p per mile
Miles this month 1409
Total miles 5958