When it comes to being frugal, there seem to be two opposing schools of thought on the matter.
While some manufacturers are going with admittedly clever, but rather complex hybrid solutions, like MG with its high-tech arrangement of multi-speed transmissions, batteries and ICE propulsion in the MG3, with impressive results, others are choosing to go a much simpler route to achieve the same thing.
Suzuki is one of those, with the latest incarnation of the incredibly popular Swift being a particularly shining example of that simpler approach.
Yes, the new Swift is a hybrid, but only barely. It uses a meagre 12-volt mild-hybrid system and a tiny battery for what is really only a boost, with its fuel-miser secret being the fact that it weighs almost nothing.
Well, okay, it weighs less than 1000kg, but that is almost nothing in modern car terms.
We saw the effects of this recently in our comparison between a heavily accessorised top-spec 984kg Swift RSC Hybrid and the much heavier (1308kg) MG3 Essence Hybrid+. Spoiler: they both used around the same amount of fuel.
But the RSC used a continuously variable transmission - what happens if you go for a manual Swift? I mean, traditionally, a car with a manual transmission driven the right way is more frugal than an auto, right?
And, yeah, that is the case here too.
For most of my time with it I drove it the way I drive pretty much every small three-cylinder manual car - I thrashed it literally everywhere.
At just 949kg, the manual GLS weighs even less than the RSC and while Suzuki claims a lesser combined average consumption of just 4.0L/100km for the manual GLS (compared to 4.3 for the RSC), during our time with the manual Swift GLS it returned… about the same as the auto RSC (4.9) and MG3 (4.7) did during our comparison.
But here’s the twist: for most of my time with it I drove it the way I drive pretty much every small three-cylinder manual car - I thrashed it literally everywhere.
This saw it sitting in the low fives most of the time, until I discovered the massive advantage that modest hybrid system truly brings in the form of low-down torque that most tiny triples lack.
This small, but ever-present wodge of torque (sorry for using the technical term) means that you can easily lug the Swift along a gear - or even two - higher than you would normally expect, chugging along at low revs, almost able to hear each of the three plucky little cylinders firing individually.
Doing this not only lops a further litre or so off the consumption figure (our Swift was happily showing 4.3l/100km by the time we returned it) allowing for more of that traditional triple thrashing when you are in the mood for it, it is also massively satisfying to do.
Ever since the modern incarnation of the Swift first appeared 20 years ago it has consistently been one of the most fun small cars on the market.
While it still only has 112Nm of torque to play with, it is particularly noticeable down low. While you can, of course, stall the Swift, the added electric torque means you almost have to be trying to do it on purpose, which makes lugging it around in a higher gear so effortlessly easy.
The Swift is not fast by any definition, but it still features the other massive upside of lightness - utterly superb agility and handling - which makes it hugely fun and satisfying on the open road.
Of course, there is a downside, and that is that the Swift’s manual transmission is only a five-speeder and the car would benefit massively from an extra cog to close up the gaps between gears a bit.
It’s not the worst downside in the world, however, and the Swift’s transmission is still nice enough to use, albeit with a touch of rubberiness to its action.
Yes, the Swift GLS is most definitely built down to a price (the hard interior plastics are a testament to this), but not as much as before and the expected levels of modern tech are present, with everything from touchscreen infotainment, phone projection and adaptive cruise control, right through to driver assists like lane departure prevention and traffic sign recognition being present on this entry level model.
Ever since the modern incarnation of the Swift first appeared 20 years ago (yes, it debuted in 2004!), it has consistently been one of the most fun small cars on the market, and that still applies to this fourth-generation model, regardless of whether you are thrashing it or happily chugging along in a high gear at a low speed.
The fact that it uses hardly any fuel while doing either is just a handy bonus.
