A new year, a new start. While this page is often filled with performance and luxury cars, it starts the New Year afresh with the Suzuki Swift Sport.
The model's range-topper recently made its first appearance in the SAR at a special preview at the brand's Kowloon Bay showroom. First delivery is scheduled for May.
A dedicated car brand for the mass market, Suzuki is naturally nowhere near the most prestigious automotive brands in terms of equipment or street credibility.
It nevertheless has the added flexibility of offering packages for customers who do not count box-ticking among their favorite pastimes.
In the case of the Swift Sport, future owners get a six-speed manual gearbox in an advanced 48volt mild hybrid system - and heritage.
Yes, heritage. The roots of the Swift run deep - to a time when Japan was an aspiring superpower. In the 1980s, the first generation Swift GTi earned an elevated status among young streetracers thanks to its featherweight body and high-revving 1.3-liter engine.
Subsequent Swifts would never reach that status again.
This latest Swift Sport retains some key attributes of its forefather, as car reviewer Daniel Pang found after taking the compact car for a quick spin on Hong Kong Island.
"The Swift Sport is not a particularly quick car by any stretch of the imagination and certainly not a hot hatch," he noted immediately after running through the six-speed gears.
"And I find the second gear especially long for effective use in short burst accelerations."
Though it might not be the most powerful compact hatch money can buy, the latest Suzuki compact hatchback comes equipped with an environmentally friendly hybrid system featuring a 1.4-liter turbocharged engine rated at 129PS and 245 newton meter, and an electric motor that gives an extra 14PS and 49Nm.
Pang found the torque range wide enough. Thanks to the push given by the motorized system, the fourth gear was still rather responsive to throttle inputs.
Anyone who is overly critical of this latest generation of Swift Sport's not getting more powerful must know that the blame lies not with the Japanese carmaker, but increasingly tight emissions rules in the European Union.
Like all other carmakers, Suzuki is obliged to offer better emissions from its powertrains in Europe, which is the car's key overseas market.
Like the vehicle itself, the hybrid system, which combines small-capacity batteries, an alternator and the electric motor, is compact enough, adding the weight of about a case of wine to the hatch.
Tipping the scale at 1,025kg after installation, the Swift Sport is still one of the lightest cars fitting five occupants on the market.
The car's compact size has its benefits on small and twisty roads. "You can carefully and more aggressively position the car round corners, keeping the corner speeds better compared to bigger and more powerful cars," Pang said.
He is also appreciative of the suspension setup. "Although the car's suspension allows fairly noticeable body rolls, the wheels feel planted to the roads across a wide range of road surface conditions."
While he found the manual six-speed slick and approved of the coordination of pedals for more advanced heel-and-toeing, he was not sure about the engine sound, the spacing of the gear ratios, or the overall plastic interiors.
Even seasoned car critics must be reminded that this is a car priced at a relatively affordable HK$228,000.
staff.reporter@singtaonewscorp.com
