Any Suzuki Swift Sport Drivers?

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shk292

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Reply # 1685657 10-Dec-2016 10:57

Im thinking the Swift is mainly a town car.....i need a fuel efficient daily long distance cruiser....

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/toyota/auction-1121403253.htm

and you'll arrive with a smile on your face...

alasta

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Reply # 1685686 10-Dec-2016 12:56

MikeB4:

trig42:

Focus RS would be a real fun car to do those sort of k's in. Not sure of economy, but I think they aren't too horrible considering the performance.

Focus ST is a nice car too.

Has Ford resolved the transmission issues with the Focus?

The ST and RS are both manual only, so no problems there. As others have pointed out the dual clutch transmission has been dropped from the regular Focus variants.

The RS is really a track car as the the bucket seats do not allow for thorax airbags, and hence it's not 5 star ANCAP compliant. The ST has more than enough performance and is much cheaper.

blackjack17

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Reply # 1685689 10-Dec-2016 13:05

I have a 2006 Subaru legacy 2L station wagon that gets up to 800 km to the tank (50L), super comfy and fun to drive.

The newer ones I imagine would be similar in efficiency.

Scott3

491 posts

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Reply # 1686282 12-Dec-2016 01:09

DickDastardly:

...Not fond of only putting 95 in, i drove a Subaru like that years ago and very quickly disliked only having to put premium to fill up.

Can understand, nowadays gas station don't advertise premium price on the board, and some places charge a massive margin on the slightly higher octane fuel. 91 is where the aggressive price competition seems to be at. Also with fuel cards (I have one that gives me 10c/L off at any mobile) basing their discounts off a liter rate, you are better off with a bigger quantity of cheaper fuel.

DickDastardly:

Thanks to Scott for putting me onto the whole Hybrid scene, not something i had considered.

Spent the day yesterday researching and found the Honda CR Z is loaded with goodies, but I'm not sure id be comfortable taking on a hybrid in terms of the battery replacement. There are lots of stories with batteries of all hybrids giving up after 7 or so years and around 150,000 miles. I see the appeal for Hybrids around town, hence the taxi usage, but not sure of the 100 each way 5 days a week open road hybrid idea.

Cheers, it is where I would be looking. I don't know much about the Honda's, but the reliability of the toyota hybrids is pretty legendary. There is a story of one being driven 1,000,000km on the original battery pack, but it seems the majority make it past 250,000km without giving issues. The industry is now mature, if a single battery module fails, just that single module can be replaced. Used battery packs can be sourced from crashed cars etc...

Hybrids are great around town in terms of fuel usage (they shut off the engine at low speeds & when stopped). In bad traffic my non-hybrid car will sometimes use double the fuel it will on the open road. From a reliability perspective, town usage is rougher on most cars than the open road, so I wouldn't be too worried about that.

On the open road they get better economy by having an engine tuned for economy not peak power (usually running the atkinson cycle), and using the electric motor to make up this power for bursts of acceleration. Plus cars like the prius have good aerodynamics.

Main downside here is low tow ratings, zero on the prius, 300kg on the camry.

I havn't driven either, but imagine the camry hybrid with 152kW should go quite well

I imagine a lexus CT200h (4.1L/100km) would be nice (lexus cars are typically loaded with sound deadening), although reviews slam it as underpowered (it has the last generation prius drivetrain in it. good for reliability, bad for performance in a heavy car)

DickDastardly:

Im thinking the Swift is mainly a town car.....i need a fuel efficient daily long distance cruiser....

I test drove a Swift before I bought my Corolla 5 years ago. They are nice cars, I wouldn't mind doing intercity trips with them, but for 1000+km per week, I would want something with good sound deadening, soft tires & suspension, & an engine that didn't need to be revved high to get power. Obviously these come with performance sacrifices (car with good sound deadening are heavier, soft tire & suspension combo means less tight handling)

How much money were you looking to spend (or are you just looking to minimise total cost of ownership)?

A member of the EV owners group has an audi A3 etron (plug in hybrid) for a 280km return daily open road commute, and getting 4.7L/100km (plugging in at both work and home), could be an option if you want to go euro again.

A left field suggestion is the ford falcon ecoLPI. They are a 198kW RWD with 409 Nm of torque on LPG (something like $1.20/L with a fuel card). Fuel costs come in at around $15/100km which may be a bit high. Plus side is the car has lots of space, and can tow heavy. Downside is it can only go 600 - 650km on a tank, so you will have to go to the petrol station (with LPG) quite a lot compared to the camry at 1,250km per tank.

You mentioned 100km each way 5 times a week. If this is a regular running pattern, and you can talk your employer into allowing you to charge at work, you could save many thousands of dollars on fuel by going for a nissan leaf. The 30KWh variant can do about 180km on a charge, plenty for a one way trip of your commute with the plus side of minimal maintenance requirements & no need to spend time at petrol stations. Renault is releasing a 41kWh version of the zoe eairly next year that should do 300km on a charge.

Scott3

491 posts

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+1 received by user: 226

Reply # 1686283 12-Dec-2016 01:09

DickDastardly:

...Not fond of only putting 95 in, i drove a Subaru like that years ago and very quickly disliked only having to put premium to fill up.

DickDastardly:

Thanks to Scott for putting me onto the whole Hybrid scene, not something i had considered.

Spent the day yesterday researching and found the Honda CR Z is loaded with goodies, but I'm not sure id be comfortable taking on a hybrid in terms of the battery replacement. There are lots of stories with batteries of all hybrids giving up after 7 or so years and around 150,000 miles. I see the appeal for Hybrids around town, hence the taxi usage, but not sure of the 100 each way 5 days a week open road hybrid idea.

Main downside here is low tow ratings, zero on the prius, 300kg on the camry.

I havn't driven either, but imagine the camry hybrid with 152kW should go quite well

DickDastardly:

Im thinking the Swift is mainly a town car.....i need a fuel efficient daily long distance cruiser....

How much money were you looking to spend (or are you just looking to minimise total cost of ownership)?

DickDastardly

224 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 42

Reply # 1691279 16-Dec-2016 21:32

Again i wanted to thank Scott for his almost encyclopaedic answers!

So in between work, kids and other life's challenges I think I'm closer to narrowing down my vehicle choice.

My Googling has revealed I can get some pretty legendary km/l with a VW 1.4 TSI motor.

Looks like goodies are a-plenty too with 7 speed, xenon's, parking sensors, bluetooth, but returning 5.2l/km but without the pesky RUC you have to pay with a diesel.

Now...to narrow my search down to an exact model and spec....

I don't want no sugar in it - thank you very much

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