There are a few questions in life that don’t have a straight answer. “Why don’t you eat that food”, “why aren’t you having more kids” and “why do you think that the Suzuki Swift is the best car you’ve ever driven” spring to mind. And to quickly answer the last one, let me tell you about the new Swift 1.2 GL Plus CVT.
Oh no, as the horror violins screech in the background, did he just type CVT? Yup, I most certainly did. But it’s actually one of the best bits about this brand-new and best-selling Suzuki, together with all-around improvements in safety, efficiency, technology and comfort, as is evident from our launch report.
I’d also like to think that we are current industry experts on the new Swift, for two more reasons. Numero Uno, is that Suzuki S.A. lent us a vibrant Swift GLX Manual over the entire festive season 2024/25, during which we couldn’t detect a single deal-breaking fault. Hand on heart, not one, even when we piled it full of peeps and presents.
Reasons Number Two is that my colleague recently bought a new Swift Automatic for a senior family member, so we’ve actually spent a good few months living with various examples of these brilliant little Japanese hatchbacks. And there’s simply no other way of stating this: the new Swift is excellent.
Why? Because they’re compact on the outside, yet fairly roomy inside. Their handling is spirited but somehow they still ride well. They’re a joy to thread through city streets and cramped car parks, yet they easily cruise at motorway speeds or bumble along unpaved roads for hours upon hours. Just ask any tourist at Cape Town International.
Of course there are downsides to the new Swift, and I’ll do my best to showcase them in an unbiased way. Firstly, some people dislike the even rounder (and less defined) exterior design, which makes this fourth generation less distinctive than its cheeky and chunky forebears.
I agree, up to a point, as a darker colour like this helps to accentuate some of its modern design lines. A coat of rental fleet white truly makes any new Swift blend into obscurity. The interior of a Swift has never been award-winning stuff, but we collectively think that playing it safe is the right strategy in a top-selling budget hatchback.
All controls sit where you’d expect them, and pretty much do as they’re told. Typing of which, there are three well-defined trim lines and our mid-spec GL+ spoils its inhabitants with remote central locking, four power windows, a small infotainment system (with smartphone connectivity) and the usual set of modern driver aids.
The next worrisome question we encountered was a lack of power from the new 3-cylinder 1.2L petrol engine which powers the entire range. This is a valid concern for those who expose their vehicles to high altitudes and weight, as the maximum output of 60kW arrives near the top of a (fairly linear) naturally-aspirated power curve.
The good news is that we in Southern Africa get the more potent of these motors, so at least there’s no major deficit when this 1.2 Swifty is compared to its four-cylinder forefathers; or most rivals. And, while glossing over the slick 5-speed manual gearbox, let’s quickly take aim at the brow of that big elephant in the review: this dreaded CVT.
CVT, or continuously variable transmission, is probably the most efficient but despised way of sending power from an engine to a set of wheels, because it can theoretically find any gear ratio (also known as the perfect gear ratio) for any given condition or road speed. Unfortunately it does so with the soundtrack of a slipping clutch.
However, as mentioned in most of our recent CVT-equipped vehicle reviews, this one only emits dying cat sounds when you continuously pin the accelerator pedal down. In normal town driving, it feels no more slushy than a “regular” torque converter automatic and – quite crucially – way more sophisticated than those horrid automated manual transmissions (AMT).
To start swinging back into positives, this little 3-cylinder petrol engine has a wonderfully gruff but pleasant noise when it goes about its business; turning into an almost V6-like crescendo as the tachometer needle nears 6,000rpm. For the record, peak power arrives at 5,700rpm and maximum torque of 112Nm appears around 4,300rpm.
Slow things down to normal-human-being standards and the new Swift CVT pulls another ace out of its sleeve: our was happily averaging below 7L/100km in hectic start-stop traffic, quickly dipping under six if you pointed its visage at a level motorway. That means you should easily top 600km between fill-ups on the open road.
In an effort to start summing up, the 3.86m-long Swift has a few more small surprises in store, like its diminutive 4.8m turning radius, 265L of cargo capacity and 145mm of ground clearance. On top of that, prices for this GL+ Automatic model currently hover around R260,000 with various financing options available, too.
Each new Suzuki Swift is sold with a 5-year/200,000km warranty and small 2-year/30,000km service plan. And to answer all of the questions I posed at the beginning of this text: because I said so!