Suzuki Swift goes diesel

By Paul Bond

31st May 2011

Suzuki has introduced a new 1.3-litre DDiS engine to the new Swift range.

Available in dealers from June onwards, the new 74bhp turbo diesel powerplant emits a tax-friendly 109g/km of Co2, which represents around a nine per cent improvement over the previous diesel Swift.

However as the Japanese company still doesn't manufacture its own diesel engines, the 1.3-litre engine is in fact a more efficient version of the Fiat unit that's currently used in the cute 500 city car.

Fuel consumption has improved too, and the Swift should now return 67.3mpg on the combined cycle, which Suzuki claims gives the newcomer a theoretical range of over 500 miles - certainly impressive for a car of this size.

The Euro V engine will power the Swift from 0-62mph in 12.7 seconds, giving the car a top speed of 103mph - exactly the same maximum as the petrol model, although the lighter 1.2 model is quicker over the bench mark sprint.

Prices start from £12,890 for the five-door model with generous standard equipment including air conditioning, 16-inch alloys, USB port and seven air-bags, but as that's £300 more than the top-spec SZ4 petrol manual, you'd have to be doing very high annual mileages to make it worth the extra cost.