Finding a place to park your car in Dhaka can be quite a daunting challenge. Notoriously famous for its horrendous traffic, the last thing you need is a fuel thirsty 4x4 as your daily drive. The new Suzuki could be the answer to your problem. This fourth-generation Swift, with its sleek design, is sure to turn a few heads on the roads. It follows the same Suzuki design language since their last facelift in December 2016. It comes in six different colour variants: Fire red, Lucent metallic orange, Midnight blue, Magma metallic gray, Silky metallic silver and Arctic pearl white. It is not very common to see vehicles of its grade providing metallic paint as standard, which shows how Suzuki wants to make its ‘Swift’ more appealing, and it has quite successfully done so. The Swift is one of their most popular models, specially to a certain demography -- mostly the young buyers.
Like the older Shift, it is powered by a 1.2L, four-cylinder K12M engine, but a little upgrade when it comes to power generation. This engine produces around 90 horsepower and 113Nm of torque at 4200 rpm, enough for city driving, specially if you are living in a traffic congested city like Dhaka. There is only one option when it comes to transmission, the showroom does not provide the manual but only 5AGS transmission. However, the car feels fast and nimble, as Suzuki was quite successful in getting rid of unnecessary weight. Not only are light weight cars good at accelerating, the brakes work much better too, the brakes seem to do their work pretty smoothly when taken around a curve at relatively high speed. The front wheels are equipped with ventilated disc brakes but the rear ones have basic drum brakes; this, however, does not cause problems, as this car isn’t meant to be driven in high speeds. The steering feels much lighter than that of its previous generation, which makes driving much easier. We all know how hectic it can get when you are driving around the city -- specially around the older parts of Dhaka or even in tight parking spaces in your office garage, turning your car can be challenge at times. The Shift has a 4.8 m turning radius, very standard for a car of its size, the Hyundai i10 (its direct competitor) has the same. However, when it comes to ground clearance, Suzuki should have done a better job with only 163mm off the ground, lower than its competitors. Its an important aspect to keep in mind because the city roads are notorious for the less than ideal road conditions, and nobody wants to scape the bottom of their cars.
There are a few upgrades in the interior too, such as all basic models come with a standard leather wrapped steering wheel with a flat bottom. Flat bottom steering wheels are very useful in a small cars like this -- this keeps the wheel from grinding against your lap every time you turn it, and also makes it look sportier. Ample storage compartments make it easy to keep your phone, wallet and keys without things falling off with every little bump on the road. The dashboard looks great with sporty speed dials; however, the plastic material feels quite cheap and flimsy. The interior comes only in black with grey trim. The rear seats are quite decent too; with a higher roof line, it can accommodate two adults comfortably, with a space for three. It did seem to compromise its luggage space at the back to make room for leg space for rear passengers, which can be justified as it’s meant to be a daily driven car.
The fourth generation Suzuki Swift is priced around BDT 16.5 lacs for its 2018 model. It is very cheap to maintain with very good fuel economy (11km/L) in city. Despite a few drawbacks, you get a lot of features for a reasonable price, making the Suzuki Swift good value for money.