Suzuki Swift Sport Review 2024
Suzuki Swift Sport At A Glance
Suzuki is bang on trend with its latest Swift Sport, which was first launched in 2018, as it now has hybrid power. This is the third incarnation of this car since it made its debut, so we cannot accuse Suzuki of sitting on its laurels. The Swift Sport is an engaging warm hatch when taken on its own, offering decent performance and running costs allied to good handling and a practical cabin.
There have been two significant changes for the Suzuki Swift Sport since this generation arrived in 2018. Firstly, the car was launched with a turbo petrol engine, so saying goodbye to the older non-turbo motor that did so much to endear this mildly warm hatch to so many.
The new engine may have been smaller in capacity, toting 1.4-litres to the previous motor’s 1.6-litre size, but the addition of the turbo boosted power to 140PS.
As a result, the Swift Sport was a much better drive without the need to thrash the engine just to access the power. It was far nicer at everyday speeds too with a less frantic nature and much stronger in-gear acceleration.
On paper it accelerated from 0-62mph in around 8.1 seconds, so wasn’t quite a hot hatch, but did compete alongside 'warm' alternatives like the SEAT Ibiza FR 1.5 TSI Evo and Ford Fiesta ST-Line 1.0 EcoBoost 140.
So far, so good. Then Suzuki got all zeitgeist-y and made the Swift Sport a petrol-electric hybrid. Not a plug-in hybrid or one with an enormous electric motor, just a mild hybrid. Overall, it means power for the Swift Sport has dropped to 129PS while mid-rev shove has risen by a modest 5Nm to 235Nm at 2000rpm.
Fortunately, Suzuki has kept the six-speed manual gearbox as fitted to the old Sport, but performance has suffered and the Swift Sport now takes 9.1 seconds to get from a standing start to 62mph, while top speed is 130mph. Neither is going to blow the socks of performance car fans, especially when the Sport’s price jumped by £3500 with the addition of hybrid tech.
Suzuki argues the latest Swift Sport comes with more standard equipment and that it’s cleaner and more economical. All of this is undoubtedly, unequivocally true, but it’s also a fact the far superior Ford Fiesta ST can be had for the same sort of money.
Take a look at the Swift Sport as a range-topping version of the Suzuki supermini and it’s a more appealing prospect as it does have a lot of enticing kit as standard. It also looks good in a gently sporting manner and it still deals with corners in an enthusiastic fashion.
There’s also the fact the Swift comes as a five-door only model, so it’s more practical than other supermini-derived hot hatches.
Yet the problem remains that on scale of bang for buck, the Suzuki Swift has got worse not better with its latest revision. It’s hard not to miss the earlier 1.4-litre non-hybrid model for its chirpily uncomplicated approach and appeal.