The magic word in 2020 to counter the CO2-emissions is 'hybrid'. They're crawling out of the woodwork everywhere in a lot of different shapes.
Full hybrids, plug-in hybrids, but there's also a lot of mild hybrids. A mild hybrid actually is a souped-up starter motor,
which helps a little at driving the car, but it mostly tries to relieve the engine of its duties.
When the combustion engine doesn't work as much, it doesn't emit as much CO2. So that's the emissions taken care of.
That means that the youngest victim of the 'mild-hybridising', the Suzuki Swift Sport, is one of the cheapest sporty hatchbacks available today.
It costs €25.000, and that doesn't get you a Ford Fiesta ST. Not even close, but you do get a Fiesta 1.0 EcoBoost ST-line.
As opposed to a lot of other brands, a sporty trim-level at Ford does actually mean that you get a sports chassis.
So that's the question we're asking ourselves today. Will we be 'Sporting', or will we be 'Lining'?
Because of the addition of the mild-hybrid system, this Suzuki Swift Sport gained a little weight. However, it still weighs less than 1.000 kg empty.
That's incredibly light nowadays. And that lightness is noticeable in everything. It means that you don't have to sturdy everything up to...
have decent handling. Also, you don't need huge brakes and then there's the tires. They're Continental ContiSport Contact 6-tires, sure,
but they're only 195 mm wide. So if you run out of tires, you could almost visit the bike shop for replacements.
It's very close though. Having said that, this is a car which can do a whole lot of stuff. It has lots of grip, it has enough traction...
Mostly that's because you don't have lots of power, but the car really moves underneath you.
Like I said, it doesn't have incredibly hard springs. So when you're looking for the limit, the body rolls a little. But because of that, you can feel what...
the car is doing underneath you. That means it's very accessible to look for the limit. And when you reach the limit and you...
release the throttle, the nose moves inwards and the rear becomes light, but it won't bounce out of your control. That means it's very...
accessible to people who don't have this much experience. At the same time however, it offers enough fun to not become boring when you drive it...
for a while. And that's fun. You don't need to drive at Mach 3 to have some fun with this car. And that's quite an achievement.
Enginewise, it's a little down on power. It's still the turbocharged 1.4-litre 4-cylinder BoosterJet, but instead of 140, it produces 129 horsepower.
On the other hand, the starter motor adds another 14 horsepower. They peak at different times, so you can't speak of a total of 143 horsepower.
But because you do get some help in lower revs from the electric motor, they're pretty much just as fast.
When you start pushing it to the limit, the electric motor kicks in first before the turbo engine starts working.
As a whole however, it reacts pretty well to the throttle. It's an engine which likes to rev, especially in the mid-range.
It redlines at 6.000 RPM, so it's not very spectacular, and it's not incredibly quick. However, like I already said, it's more than quick enough.
You can have lots of fun with it, especially on public roads. It's more than you need to have fun. Also, it's more than...
you get for the same money at the Ford-dealership.
Because for the money you pay for a Suzuki Swift Sport, you won't get a Ford Fiesta ST. It does get you a 1.0-litre EcoBoost ST-line, producing...
125 horsepower. It's a 3-cylinder and it doesn't have the same performance as the Swift Sport, but it does sound very nice. It's a revvy 3-cylinder...
with a nice rumble to it. However, in the lower revs, where the Swift gets electronic support, the ST-Line isn't really awake yet.
So if you look at the 0-100-times, the Swift is over a second quicker. That's pretty big. So when it comes to performance,
it has to acknowledge the Swift as the faster car. However, it does have personality and a very nice 6-speed manual gearbox.
The strokes are a little longer than in the Suzuki, but where the Suzuki has rubbery kind of gear changes, the Ford offers a very mechanical feeling.
You can feel it clicking into gear. That's very nice for a car which likes to grab you and take you for a drive.
So even though the drivetrain is less powerful, it's not a worse drivetrain. It's more refined, and that goes for all of the car really.
Everything you look at looks better than in the Suzuki. It's more quiet, and you really notice how well Ford is able to tune their chassis'.
This is an ST-Line with a sports chassis. That makes it a bit tighter, and the combination with the Michelin PilotSport 4-tires...
keeps the Suzuki very close when it comes to grip. But what Ford has done really well is the way the car reacts when you release the throttle.
You can really feel the car position itself. So you can steer the car both with the steering wheel and the throttle.
That playfulness makes a Fiesta an incredibly fun car to drive. The way it grabs you, the way it involves you... However, if we look at the amount...
of car you get for your money, the Suzuki does offer you a lot more. It might not be a hardcore hot hatch, but it is a Swift Sport.
That just goes beyond the ST-Line. It's a tad more fun to drive and more importantly it's lighter than the ST-Line.
So the addition of the mild-hybrid system seems to be a pretty good move. However, there's good news. Ford is releasing a mild-hybrid system...
in the near future. We'll be able to drive it then, but the best news in this is that we've got another reason to drive the Swift Sport again.