Suzuki Swift Sport Mk1 & Mk2: Father Meets Son

The Swift Sport has been dubbed one of the best warm hatches money can buy. It's now time for Mark I and Mark II to meet each other...

Updated: 10 Oct 2024

James Clark meets the 2012 Suzuki Swift Sport MkII

Meeting the new version of a car you own, for the first time, is usually a pretty depressing affair. Standard practice involves you looking longingly at the cool, new features you wish your older motor had; extra power, smarter looks and ever more complicated gadgetry. This wasn’t entirely the case when I met up with the lads from Car Throttle to introduce the new Swift Sport to its Dad.

Let’s get the things I like about my Swift out of the way first: I know motoring types are always scribbling about cars having a ‘rifle-bolt gear change’. I know it's a massive cliché, but now that I’ve experienced one with my own left hand I know exactly what they are banging on about.

Another thing I’m massively keen on is the inside. Sitting in my Swift Sport is a real experience, offering up some racy features without making you feel like a boy-racer cruising along in a badly done-up Corsa with uber-dark tints and a dustbin fitted instead of an exhaust. The pucker grey and red bucket seats are a highlight; being comfy enough on longer drives but still making you feel like you are behind the wheel of a properly special little pocket-rocket.

Not to boast or anything but my car has a much nicer arse. The new SSS may have the prettier nipped-and-tucked face, but it looks like it also opted for some Kim Kardashian-style bum implants on its trip to the automotive version of Harley Street.

Slightly tackier Mk2 instrument panel

Its lack of creature comforts is where my car falls flat on its face. The new Swift has (take a deep breath) xenon front lights, iPod connectivity, cruise control as standard and the feature that I am most jealous of – the sixth ratio in its gearbox. The addition of all those goodies would transform my car into what I think would just about be my perfect warm-hatch. Still being an absolute blast to drive on your favourite back-roads but less of a slog on those long and tedious motorway trips.

Ollie Kew meets the 2012 Suzuki Swift Sport

So, that's what a bona fide Swift Sport owner gets a, erm, boner for on the new Swift Sport. I had a cracking week chucking the new version around some country lanes, but what about the balls Suzuki dropped (leave it) when they made the new car?

I agree, the newer Sport's fake plastic diffuser isn't as racey as the grille on James's, and the interior has caught serious Audi-itus; it's well knocked together and has a serious pile of gadget swag, but it just looks like any well spec'd Japanese or Korean or German hatch, with a bit of red stitching. Nothing terribly wrong with that, but the old timer says hot hatch louder in your ear.

The Mk1 Swift Sport is also slightly smaller, and every little really does help. I'm sure if you got your tape measure out you could see where the extra length, height and width helps out inside, but you can't tell straight off, so I'd rather just have the slimmer Swift, thanks.

And that's about your lot, really. Both are after all rather similar cars, and that makes sense. Why try and fix what ain't broke? The revvy 1.6-litre motor and chuckable handling weren't, and the bills won't leave you broke either.

Give us a slightly hornier interior for the third Swift Sport, and lay off the growth hormones, and it'll be the best one yet: a hat trick of great Suzuki hot hatches.