During our recent visit to Las Vegas my husband and I had the misfortune (Thank goodness nothing bad happened!) to rent the Suzuki Swift. I didn’t know they still made cars without power steering, but I can assure you they do. That isn’t the car’s fault totally, it is the fault of the car rental agency, but I think Suzuki should also take responsibility, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to drive a car without power steering.

About the car:

The car we rented was a 2000 GA Hatchback 4 cylinder, 1.3 litre with a little more than 40,000 miles on it.

It had the following:

Automatic transmission
Front wheel drive
Air conditioning
Am/fm radio
Cassette player

According to Kelley Blue Book the retail value of this car is $7375. I would buy it for perhaps 1/8 of that price and then I would have to give it a lot of thought.

~According to a site I found using askjeeves.com, which is Suzuki Auto (The url is too long to put in this review.) we are told that this car gets 30 miles to the gallon in city driving and 34 on the highway.

~The fuel tank capacity is 10.3 U.S. gal.

~We also learn that the curb weight is 1929 lbs. (Automatic transmission)

~The cargo capacity is 22.5 cu.ft. (rear seat down)

~The wheelbase is 93.1 in.

~79@ 6,000 = horsepower
~75@ 3,000 = torque

I have no idea what the last two items mean but you may know and want to know.

Remember this is a hatchback, so without the back seat folded down, there is room for perhaps 3 bags of groceries. The back folds down in one unit, not separately so you have an all or nothing situation.

This Swift is a 4 seater. The back has 2 seat belts and perhaps with the passenger seat all the way up, 2 people can fit in the back. The good news is that it is high enough so that my husband who is 5㤓 inches has several more inches of head room and the front seats easily go forward and slide forward so that you can put items in the back easily. I have a BMW – 2 door and I have to squeeze items into my backseat so it is nice to have the front seats do this to make it easier to get in and out and get things in and out.

The interior:

~The car has a few small spaces to hold change, knickknacks and pockets on the doors for maps and napkins. There is a flimsy cup holder that comes out from under the radio. Our small bottle of water kept falling out of it!

~The interior was cloth and the seats were comfortable. In fact, the front seats go all the way down so that I was in a lying position.

~Inside we found a speedometer, odometer and trip meter and trip resetter.

Other information and handling:

~My husband drives a truck so I was surprised that it took him awhile to get used to driving this car. Perhaps because I had been a passenger for a couple of days before I had the opportunity as the designated driver to drive this car, I knew how it would handle. This car won’t start unless you press the gas pedal. Like the non-power steering I thought this type of thing went out with the dinosaurs but I am sure the car experts here will clear this all up for me.

~This car had little pickup. I never feared driving too fast on the highway, that’s for sure. I will say, that in spite of the lack of power steering, I was able to maneuver the car and make u-turns. I would guess that is because the car is small – 149 inches long; 62.6 inches wide and 54.7 inches high. (from the manual) It's stopping capabilities were fine or as fine as I can say about anything related to this car.

~In addition, as a driver and passenger every bump could be felt. In fact if I were laughing, for example, the car would shake or if my husband were singing along with the radio and “performing” the car would shake. This is a piece of tin to say the least.

It comes in white, red, silver or blue. Ours was white.

Warranty:

The new vehicle limited warranty covered the car for the first 36,000 miles or 36 months. Obviously it had passed the warranty period.

My final thoughts:

I would not recommend this car to anyone. Not only is it very small, but it feels like a tin can. There is no pick up and I doubt a manual transmission would be much different. Avoid it, please.


If you are interested in other car reviews, here are my links:

2000 Nissan Altima
2001 Chevy Malibu
2002 Chevy Prizm
1998 Dodge Ram Van
1996 Nissan Sentra
2001 Pontiac Sunfire
1999 Toyota Camry
2001 Hyunda Accent
1998 Chevy S-10 Pick
1999 BMW 323is
2002 Subaru Impreza
2000 Suzuki Swift
2001 Chevy Metro
Amount Paid (US$): 7000
Model Year: 2000
Model and Options: Automatic