2011 Suzuki Swift 4×4 launched in Germany

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By Brett Davis | January 19th, 2011

Suzuki has just launched an all-wheel drive version of the popular 2011 Suzuki Swift in Germany, called the Suzuki Swift 4×4.

The Suzuki Swift 4×4 is only available in 1.2-litre petrol guise which is matched to a five-speed manual gearbox. Offering 70kW of power, the little Swift still manages to achieve excellent fuel economy figures, even with the extra load of pushing all four wheels instead of just the front runners.

Suzuki says the car achieves an average fuel consumption rating of 5.5L/100km – 4.9 on the highway and 6.7 in the city. It’s a great offering by Suzuki for the European markets as slippery snow conditions are fairly regular. It offers the market a cheap package that is also equipped enough to handle all-weather driving.

The Suzuki Swift 4×4 retails in Germany for €14,490 (around AU$19,440), which means it is still a bargain and comes with all the usual Swift features like a MP3/USB compatible stereo, air conditioning and five-star Euro NCAP safety.

What do you think though, is there demand in Australia for an all-wheel drive Swift?

Vibe

I would have thought that would defeat the purpose of having the SX4 in the model range…
dog@pound.com

Didn’t know that the 1.2L suffered from traction problems.
Driver

It’s common for Japanese manufacturers to build AWD versions of their passenger cars, which are mainly bought by the Northern regions like Hokkaido, etc. And they are always fitted with winter tyres during winter, just like Germany, Scandinavia, etc (AWD can’t help you if all four tyres have 0% grip).

As one would expect, there hasn’t been any real mainstream demand for these cars in Australia, and unless we experience an early ice age, I don’t expect that to change in the future.

Tomas79

Not for snow, but Australia has also a large number of unsealed roads…
Hung Low

The Swift Gti from the 90′s, known as the Cultus in JDM had AWD and 112hp from a N/A 1300cc.

This AWD is good news for Suzuki as they have yet to venture with the Swift in the USA, and when they do it should do pretty well. The AWD SX4 is well received there despite Suzuki sales falling in the US from crappy rebadged GM Daewoos!
70kw from a 1.2 is pretty good as well considering VW would need a turbo to get the same output! But the lack of torque and an AWD driveline would make this a PITA to drive swiftly!

Crossy

Could come in handy if they had the 2.4l turbo Kizashi engine in it instead of the 1.2
Samson

With Australia’s selection of unsealed roads, beaches and snowfields, 4wd would be a great selling point. Heck they could sell it on the back of added roadholding in wet weather.

Hung Low

Suzuki Aus do not market very well here, the QLD distributor has done an exceptional job with the SWIFT!
They have had a damn good little AWD HAtch for years, the SX4 which is quite decent on and off the track but sales have been a flop. The sheeple automatically opt for a Corolla instead!

Andrew of Newcastle

Now all it needs is a transfer case and a suspension lift and they can replace the Jimny as well.
Shak

It would be nice just to have this sort of option on certain cars. And especially on the Swift, but i can understand why Suzuki woudlnt bring it here. Just doesnt stack up as a business case.
Jacob Martyn

The back of the current Swift is good looking.
m2m

There really wouldn’t be much use for an AWD swift. Most of the one’s i see around here have the southern cross sticker on the back and playboy seat covers. They won’t know what to do with it!

But it could be interesting for those in rural areas where sealed roads are rare and snow is common.
Paul Scacco

Give me a supercharged or turbocharged swift sport AWD if the price is right I would buy one.