Suzuki Swift - The Trendy way to drive!

Pak Suzuki Motor Company finally launched  Suzuki Swift, a 1300cc hatchback car in mid-January.
“The launch will directly compete with major players in this category i.e. Honda City (Honda Atlas) and Toyota Corolla (Indus Motors)”, an auto expert said in his comments. The company believes that the new model will cater to the local market especially with its powerful engine capacity which is rare in the hatchback category.The PSMC is targeting the 1000cc and 1300cc category, however, the competition will be tough as this segment is already dominated by three major competitors, Vitz, Toyota Corolla and Honda City.

Exterior

The exterior of the car looks way better than any of the hatcback cars available in Pakistani market. The slick short body, flowing front and elegant headlamps give it a modern look. The beautifully curved back makes it look even more chic. Its stylish & trendy from every angle. We could hardly see anything wrong with the styling in the exterior of the car.
The cars comes in several metallic colors which include White, Eminent Blue, Red, Maroon among others. Out of the ones we saw, Grey was definitely the star of the show.Moreover,I believe that this is the 1st time Suzuki is using good quality rims in any of their cars which is a plus point for them.

Interior

At first , the interior wasnt all that inspiring but when we took a ride and spent some time, it grew on us. I must say the interior except for the dashboard is pretty cool. The plastic used on the dashboard, though a bit cheap looking, is still good compared to its competitors especially Cultus and Vitz. The door panels are simply awesome and give a feel of comfort and luxury.The wooden sheet going through the middle of doors is also aesthetically pleasing.Also,the handles & knobs are of much better quality than all the previous Suzuki cars.
Talking about space, the car`s huge from the inside. I mean sitting on the driver seat, it seems much more spacious than  Vitz, which is thought to have a lot of head and leg room.
Rear leg room is not that bad either. In fact,its perfect for comfortable travelling of 4 people and with a bit of a squeeze, if might even handle a party of  5. The interior is very stable and you`d  hardly hear any weird sounds while driving over bumps, which is very un-Suzukish.

Performance & Handling

Driving around the car for a couple of hours gave us very surprising results. Since we were handling a Suzuki,we didnt expect much from the handling but it turned out to be just brilliant! The chasis handles the weight of the car very beautifully and the short wheel base makes its very easy to drive. Once again, something we did not expect from a PakSuzuki car.
The 1300c engine feels great as well and  revs up easily. Although this is the same M13A engine that you get in a Suzuki Liana but as this is a lighter & smaller car ,so it performs really well in this case. The transmission has been changed and has a shorter shift now but it works well with the engine in this car. The gear shifts were pretty slick as well.
The Brakes were satisfying as well and worked okay most of the times.However, the ABS didnt feel a bit mature. The tyres definitely didnt do justice to the car as they seem to lose grip easily when cornering fast & hard .So if you buy one, you might want to consider getting those changed as soon as possible, especially if you plan to thrash the car around a bit.

Pricing

I do not know how to soften the blow, so i'll say it right out; the car costs Rs 999,000 right now! Now thats really a big price to pay for a small hatchback as most of you can buy a 2nd hand Civic in this range.
On spot delivery will cost you around Rs 45000 extra at the moment. The pricing of the car is definitely a bit steep, however, we can't argue much as almost all the cars in our market are quite overpriced already so this is not something we werent expecting from a new release.

Problems

Driving around & spending some time in the car did help us in identifying some problems.For example ,I was really missing the foot rest next to the clutch and also,the mirrors in the sun visors would have come in handy.The standard JVC Headunit is good but the remote of the deck sucks; it's soo freakin tiny & unusable. The biggest problem of the car i guess, is still the pricing. We were impressed by the looks, driving & the handling but I am still not able to convince myself to justify the price tag of Rs.999,000/-

Summary

The Bad : The price tag can not justify the car at all and the interior quality could have been better  

The Bottom Line : If you're looking for a trendy looking Hatchback,then Suzuki swift just might be your thing!

Here's a Video from Motors.co.uk which shows out the Suzuki Swift in action!

What do you think of the new Suzuki Swift? Share you comments below please!