I drove Suzuki Swace Ultra – it’s safe, reliable and practical with a huge boot and mega fuel economy

It’s easy to forget that not everyone likes cars as much as we do.

They only see cars as tools. A way to get from A to B.

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Fun? No thank you. This is for other people.

Which got me thinking. . .

Take the romance of a car, the freedom, the thrill of driving, the wonderful shapes and what does a car have to be in its basic form?

The answer is: It has to be safe, reliable, practical and not cost too much money.

It has to be a Toyota Corolla station wagon.

No car combines all of these things better than a Corolla.

Or, for the purposes of this review, a Suzuki Swace, a restyled Corolla station wagon that was produced alongside the Corolla at Toyota’s Derby plant.

Instead of wasting a lot of time and even more money developing competing engines, the Japanese giants decided to share toys

Namely Toyota’s large car and hybrid excellence in return for Suzuki’s small car competence.

For example, Toyota makes Swace and Across (RAV4) for Suzuki and Suzuki enables Toyota to gain a foothold in India with small cars.

We’ve tried Swace before and liked it.

Now the family station wagon has been updated for 2023 with Toyota’s next-generation hybrid powertrain, boosting total power from 120hp to 140hp and cutting the 0-100km/h sprint by 1.7 seconds to 9.4 seconds.

Nothing to make your toupee slip, but still it’s smooth and easy going and the battery charges on the go so you can cover short distances around town in EV mode. which is nice.

The standard package includes an 8-inch multimedia screen with parking camera, heated front seats and steering wheel, wireless Apple CarPlay, dual-zone climate control and more. Also beautiful.

But the two things that impressed me the most were the boot and the tremendous fuel economy.

Fold down the rear seats and you have a van. tipping is running. golf clubs. IKEA. They call it. It serves its purpose.

We averaged 59mpg over the course of a week without even trying to drive like a nun.

And those who tried it before us even managed 61.6 mpg.

I also doubt that she was a nun. Unless they went to a costume party.

But even that is unlikely.

Fun? No thank you. This is for other people.

So finally.

The Suzuki Swace is a reasonable choice for people who don’t mind staying anonymous on the go but want something that’s reliable and does everything it’s supposed to do really well.

It’s either this one or a Corolla.

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