Another weekend has arrived, and the day is 12th January 2013. A day where the all new Suzuki Swift 1.4 CBU is officially launched in Penang! I decided to join the launching event at Suzuki 4S Center Jelutong, Penang for a peek of this new car and test it, and of course to get some free food too.
The new Suzuki Swift 1.4 CBU is fully imported to Malaysia. The car was assembled in Thailand by Suzuki’s manufacturer under tight coordination by Japanese’s engineers and only 900 units are available for sale in whole of Malaysia. Basically, it is a limited edition of Suzuki Swift. Then this new Suzuki Swift will be moved to a local assembly site in Pahang. According to the salesman, once the cars are locally assembled, the keyless functions will be removed.
The new Suzuki Swift 1.4 CBU has a lot of similarities compared to the old Suzuki Swift 1.5. Let’s see what new things are there in this new Suzuki Swift 1.4 CBU.
The new Swift comes with a better outlook comprising larger and more stylish headlamps as well as impressive tail lights design.
The new Suzuki Swift has bigger wheels too. It comes with 16 inch wheels with a tyre profile of 185/55/16 to provide better handling and stability and of course boost up the appearance of this fun car too.
Not to forget, this new car comes with disc brakes on rear wheels too. That was one of the big add-on features of this new car.
After waited for more 20 minutes for my turn to test drive, finally I got to test drive it. Yea! 🙂
This new car has the all new interior design. The previous digital multi- information display from center has being shifted to the panel meter.
The dashboard comes with dual toned colors which are black and silver which make the car looks elegant. The dashboard has digital display for audio and air-con. New Suzuki Swift’s air-con comes with an auto climate control system to circulate the air in cabin until it reaches the desired temperature.
When I turn the auto climate ON during the test drive, the air blowing up from the air vent was fantastic and strong even though the car cabin is not big. This feature is definitely useful for Malaysians especially during hot weather or afternoons. It helps to cool down the cabin very fast and efficient.
The new Suzuki Swift has bigger legroom for the rear passengers by 40mm.
Even with the extra 40mm extra length, I still feel the rear seats are cramped for adult passengers.
After I’d tinkled with everything in the interior, we started to move. The gear knob is shifted from ‘Parking’ to ‘Drive’ mode. The car moved responsively compared to the previous model. The responsiveness of the engine seemed equivalent to Toyota Vios and Honda City. I was impressed by the performance!
One thing I like the most about this new Suzuki Swift 1.4 CBU is the design of gear knob. The new design straight way gear knob with sporty clove on it and the ‘Overdrive’ button there. This makes the car, sportier to drive.
The Overdrive function is responsive without feeling any lagging behind. The gear immediately shifted to 3rd gear when I activated it. The function of Overdrive is when you going uphill or downhill, you can switch it off to prevent unnecessary gear changing to 4th gear. It can be used for overtaking purpose too as 3rd gear will give you higher gear ratio.
The new Suzuki Swift 1.4 is lighter by 30kg compared to the old Suzuki Swift 1.5. Thanks to its all new light engine which is built using aluminium blocks. Even though the specification of the new Suzuki Swift is dropped from 1.5 to 1.4 litters, but the new Suzuki Swift 1.4 with VVT engine that delivers 95 PS and 130Nm of torque does not disappoint me.
In fact the car is more responsive after the light engine and higher gear ratio on first gear which from 0.95 to 1.00. Research from Suzuki stated it would provide better fuel efficiency compared to it’s previous model by 5%. The salesman told me this car is able to deliver 14km/l on city drive. I was curious as my Vios VVT-i engine only able to provide me 11~12km/l on city drive. Maybe someone can prove that to me when they own this car.
The all new Suzuki Swift is not only lighter but also has refined handling and driving stability, making the driver feel sporty and confident. This new Suzuki Swift comes with mounted front MacPherson struts (under the top black plastic cover) together with and rear torsion beam set up are also retained with the rear suspension settings being firmed up for better straight-line and cornering stability.
I don’t really feel much body roll during cornering compared to my Toyota Vios, but my cornering was not really fast :P. My test drive was limited to certain short route due to other participants are waiting to test drive too, so I didn’t really get to push the car to spin. I realize the sound proof still does not have much improvement since the previous model.
Safety features of this car comes with 2 front airbags, EBS, BA, Breakforce distribution. The rear number plate seemed to be bigger, proportional to the tail lights too.
Overall, the new Suzuki Swift 1.4 CBU is amazing. The salesman is great and knows very well about this new Swift. You can contact him, Calvin Ch’ng hp# 012-5557989 for test drive. Currently the new Suzuki Swift 1.4 CBU only comes in 2 variants, with on-the-road with insurance price of RM77,888, the Swift comes in Ablaze Red Pearl 2, Boost Blue Pearl Metallic, Snow White Pearl, Mineral Gray Metallic and Super Black Pearl. Another variant is with body kit which costs an additonal RM5,300 on top of the RM77,888.
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Great post with useful information but i’m more interested in the volkswagen polo 2014, quite cheap right haha, waiting for your review :p
Hi Ken,
nice to see you around again 🙂
Sure, stay tune for my test drive story on volkswagen Polo 2014. By the way, are u buying it? haha
Hi Tony, indeed I am agree with you. Suzuki Swift is engineered to a fun to drive car which great handling.
Yes, I have a new 2013 Suzuki Swift, two months old, it is a wonderfully engineered car, in every sense, thorougly enjoy driving it, amazing car, actually feels and drives like a much bigger car.
Great comment, sounds so pro!
buy 1… haha
go buy then fetch me 😀
LOL, thank you Becks!
The one i like still so expensive, juz hate to pay government so many excise tax.. 80-90% of car price '''
HAHA…. the tax you paying will feeding Rosmah's need 😛
I agree with you, chin han.
Nice post kelvin!