You don’t see so many estate cars these days. Where once suburban streets were chock-full of Escorts and Sierras, Astras and Vectras, Montegos and the odd Allegro (weren’t all Allegros a bit odd?), plus Golfs, Lagunas, and Tipos, the middle management and sales-rep types have all now fell foul to fashion and switched to SUVs.
Funny then, that Suzuki, maker of many-an-SUV – and many-a very good one at that – have also, relatively recently, added an estate car to their line-up. They’ve chosen to call it Swace, and you might well think there’s more than a hint of familiarity about it. If you do, you’re right.
Beneath those exclusive to Suzuki Swace colours (Two choices of white, silver, dark blue, black, brown, or bronze), between those exclusive to Suzuki Swace front and rear bumpers and 16 inch alloys, and behind those sleek looking LED headlights and ever-so familiar Suzuki S bonnet badges, sits a Toyota Corolla Touring. Look closely, the hybrid badges on the front wings are a complete Corolla carry-over.
And so too are all the oily-bits; engine, gearbox, steering, suspension, aforementioned hybrid system (and badges), the lot. The Swace, like the ACross before it, is a Toyota dressed-up in Suzuki’s latest overalls. It all helps keep the costs down; the Swace even comes down the same production line as the Corolla, in Burnaston, Derbyshire, England.
And that’s no bad thing. Toyota may not perhaps be well known for producing particularly exciting cars, but, their build quality, attention to detail, and reliability are the stuff other manufacturers can only aspire to. “It is very well built” said Paul, Suzuki’s delivery driver when he dropped the Swace off. He was by no means wrong. Quite whether his colleague Ade’s comment about the Swace having the most illuminated boot in its class being correct or not, I’m not entirely sure.
What I do know is that the Swace is available in two choices of trim, Motion or Ultra. Motion starts at £28,999, Ultra from £30,799. Neither, incidentally, benefit from built-in sat-nav, but, at least, the 8 inch screen runs Apple CarPlay. In case you’re wondering, you’ll need another £746 on top of that to bag yourself a Corolla (complete with 10.5 inch touchscreen). Is the Toyota badge and extra infotainment really worth the extra outlay? I’ll let you decide. Either way, I suspect the Swace, inevitably (and especially when you consider how many Corollas Toyota have made already), will remain the rarer car.
There’s only one engine choice: power comes from a hybridised 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol engine which in conjunction with an electric motor produces a useful, if not exactly earth-shattering, combined total of 138bhp. Performance therefore is also modest. 0-62 takes 9.4 seconds, and where allowed the Swace, I’m told, will eventually reach 112mph. What’s perhaps more impressive is a CO2 output of just 102g/km, and the promise of 62.7mpg on the combined cycle – if driven carefully perhaps.
That said, the Swace is a car you do drive “carefully”. As precise as all the major controls are, a few miles up the road is all you need to tell you the Swace is not a car that rewards you if you try to hustle it along. The CVT gearbox gets quite vocal if you’re heavy with the throttle, and the chassis is definitely set up for comfort as opposed to anything remotely sporting.
But… The Swace’s forte lies in the way it so goes about its business with such a minimum of fuss. It’s well-built, reasonably well equipped, practical, surprisingly pleasing to drive, and economical to boot. And It’s just so incredibly easy to live with.
So what if it’s not particularly exciting. The truth is, despite what the marketing types and the shiny-suited salesmen will try to tell you, most of those suburban SUVs they’re trying to shift by the bucket-load aren’t either. The Suzuki Swace may not be the first word in fashion; it may not be particularly quick or exciting to drive; it may not even be anything particularly new at all. None of that however, prevents it from being, genuinely, a very likeable car.
Suzuki Swace 1.8 Hybrid Ultra CVT
Engine: 1,798 cc (2ZR-FXE) 4-Cyl 16v petrol hybrid
Power: 102 bhp @ 5,200rpm
Torque: 105 lbft @ 3,600rpm
Electric Motor: Power: 94bhp. Torque: 136 lbft
Transmission: CVT Automatic
Performance: 0-62mph 9.4 sec
Max Speed: 112 mph
MPG: 62.7 Combined (WLTP)
CO2: 102 g/km
Price: from £30,799 otr. (Ultra spec.)
@bird_liam
Many Thanks to Jessica, Ade, Alun, and Paul, at Suzuki UK’s press office
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