Suzuki Swift Big On Value

FOURTH GENERATION: LITTLE HATCHBACK EASY TO DRIVE, WON'T BREAK THE BANK AT PUMP

- Mark Jones

It's easy to see why Suzuki are one of the country's fastest-growing brands, and are consistently challenging VW for second spot, behind runaway leaders Toyota.

It's because they continue to be great value for money cars to market that have a reputation of being reliable, frugal and easy to drive. Cars like the new fourth-generation Swift 1.2 GL+ CVT that I spent a week with...well my daughter spent a week with.

I will get to that in a moment, but first a quick overview of the exterior changes.

With over nine million in global sales in the bank since the Swift was first launched in 2004, Suzuki were adamant that they were not going to change the styling too much and force customers to look the other way. So, the Swift you see here is immediately recognisable as the Swift you saw before, and my daughter paid it no attention either way.

But what she was meant to notice was the restyled headlight clusters with L-shaped signature lamps, an oval radiator grille with a piano black finish and a new bumper featuring a more pronounced lower intake.