Swift Sport ZC33S ownership

[xu5]

I am becoming increasingly interested in getting a ZC33S BOOOOOOOster jet, probably in the spring.

Could any owners share their experiences, the good and the bad? I have heard that the steering rack seems to be giving some issues?

Has anyone been so bold as to modify theirs yet, or try Michelin PS4's in replacement of the standard tyres?

Is it possible to have a spirited drive without any bings, bongs or warnings flashing at you? I saw the off buttons near my right hand leg but even with them off do they still flash on the screen?

So far I have only taken one for a test drive in slashing rain, but even then it seemed pretty decent and rather rapid for a super mini. In the past I have favoured nat asp so the torque coming out of corners (in the wet) took a bit of modulating and I would like to take it for an extended test in the dry to make sure I do like the power delivery.

On the face of it though I think it is a comendable effort by Suzuki, particularly the low weight! The oil temp gauge is a nice touch too.

[horsemeatscandal]

T’other half has had one for 10 months. Don’t like the infotainment, don’t like all the driving aids/safety features, some of which have to be disabled every time you start the car. No issues so far other than a recall for airbags. No exhaust note at all

Other than that, as good as you would expect. Fast, grippy, handles well. Doubt you’d be disappointed if it’s really what you want.

[xu5]

The lack of aural drama from the exhaust was a little disappointing, especially as they went to the effort of making the exhaust look good.

[horsemeatscandal]

xu5 said:

The lack of aural drama from the exhaust was a little disappointing, especially as they went to the effort of making the exhaust look good.

CTC Performance develop loads of stuff for Swifts, including exhausts. Just had a quick look and they’re pricy but are probably a decent investment. I’ve bought stuff off them before but nothing they’ve developed themselves so can’t vouch for it. Worth checking out their Instagram if you’re interested in these cars, they’re currently running one with some stupid amount of BHP that appears to go like the clappers.

If you have any specific questions on the car, let me know. I should hopefully be impartial as it’s not actually my car but I get to drive it a fair bit.

[xu5]

I have compiled a fantasy shopping list on CTC's website! One of their intercoolers and exhausts look good, but yes quite pricey. Maybe a blow off valve for some old school turbo funzies.

From your other halves perspective is she quite happy with it, does she have any gripes? If we do go for it my wife will also be using it. One of the reasons we are looking at changing is that she is too short of leg to drive my current car.

[horsemeatscandal]

xu5 said:

I have compiled a fantasy shopping list on CTC's website! One of their intercoolers and exhausts look good, but yes quite pricey. Maybe a blow off valve for some old school turbo funzies.

From your other halves perspective is she quite happy with it, does she have any gripes? If we do go for it my wife will also be using it. One of the reasons we are looking at changing is that she is too short of leg to drive my current car.

She loves it. Went from a proper bog standard 1.2 of the old shape (still a good car mind) to this new 1.4 turbo, rapid in comparison. Always telling me how she ‘smoked’ one thing or another on the way home from work. Fairly confident the other cars were oblivious to the fact they were in a race.

Sits in a strange niche. A decent step up in performance from say, an Up! GTI but not quite at the level of a Fiesta ST. Doesn’t appear to have any direct competitors. An Abarth 595 is about it.

[DazzaSport]

I say do it.

I ordered my 33S in the first month on sale. Delivered in August last year. Since then, I've done about 11k miles.

I think the car is epic. It's an extremely well judged car. Don't worry about the 'Fiesta ST is better' comments. The Sport is a tremendous car in its own right. Fabulous lightweight handling. It's got the right amount of grip... don't worry about stickier tyres. The CSC5's are perfect. Stickier tyres just moves the handling envelope to a higher speed. On the stock CSC5's the Swift Sport corners more than fast enough - and will allow you to manage a controlled slide around your favourite roundabouts - at sane speeds.

The car is more than fast enough in stock form as well. You'd be surprised how quick the car is for a little 1.4. Shove TM99 in the tank - it will develop 10 HP more with that fuel in it. A Japanese tuning outfit proved the car had exactly 10 HP more when running premium fuel. They drained the tank between dyno tests as well. Mitsubishi - who makes the turbo for the K14C engine - say the engine has 120 kW. Which is equivalent to 163 HP. Don't bother with Shell V-Power. I've tested my car twice on V-Power after running TM99. On both occasions I noticed the car had lost its edge. I don't know what goes into TM99 - but the car is definitely faster with that in the tank as opposed to V-Power.

So how quick is the car? Well, in a straight line, it was 'even Stevens' up to the ton against a 185 HP Focus ST diesel. It's quicker than pretty much any VAG GT / TDI based car. An Alfa Brera was too slow.

But if you factor in some corners... most of those other cars lack the confidence that a Swift Sport gives you to throw it in hard. To this day I'm still gobsmacked at the high speed cornering ability of the 33S. You just cant beat the agility / chuck-ability of a well set up lightweight platform like the 33S.

Going back to the Fiesta ST. It might well be quicker, but I don't think it is a whole lot quicker. It may have a better chassis, but a German based YouTube outfit tested the Fiesta ST, Swift Sport and the current MX-5. The last test was a blast up a wet and slippery mountain pass. At one point the Swift Sport got in front. The guy driving the Swift Sport said it was easy to drive fast up the mountain, however the ST driver said he had to work very hard to stay with the Swift Sport and the ST was 'all over the place'. In the end, they all decided that for the money - the Swift Sport was unbeatable. So when people say 'the ST is better'. Don't take that as gospel. The Swift Sport is also a great handling fun car, and in some scenario's - it could be better.

As good as the ST is, there's no denying that despite being a similarly sized car - it is nearly 300kg heavier than the Swift Sport. The Swift Sport has a considerable weight advantage. As you may well know, lightness of weight improves everything. Not just acceleration.

Steering rack problems? I don't know where this came from. I've heard some people bringing it up on forums - but I've never heard any concrete evidence to say this problem exists. My previous car was a 32S as well. Never experienced any issues with the steering rack on that car either. In fact, that car had zero issues for the time I had it.

As mentioned earlier, my 33S has 11k on the clock now. The steering is as sharp as the day I picked it up. Zero issues with the car. It's a Suzuki - they are not known for breaking down.

Great car IMHO.

[DazzaSport]

Forgot to mention the exhaust. Yes, it is quiet compared to some of the obscenely loud exhausts on cars today. Devoid of pops and bangs as well.

However, the tone of the exhaust has improved with miles. It has a muted bassy thrum at idle to low revs. It is possible to hear it with windows down - driving down tight streets.

When the car is properly warmed up - during a hoon for instance. The exhaust does emit a more meaningful tone.

Personally, I'm not really interested in making a noise for everyone else to hear. As long as the car makes a good noise generally - I'm happy. So the ambient noise of the engine, transmission, intake and exhaust as a whole. Rather than some obscene noise emitting from the tailpipe.

I appreciate that what is good enough for me, is not good enough for someone else, and of course there are aftermarket options for those people.

I like a good sounding car too. But I think this whole noisy exhaust thing has got out of control. There used to be a time when cars could sound reasonably loud - but also sound nice, tuneful even. Now, it seems that most think a good exhaust is the one without any sound deadening at all - and has to sound like gun-shot every time they come off the throttle. These 'new' exhausts don't even sound good in my opinion. It's too 'in your face'. It's just noise... and not a nice noise either.

I must be getting old. LOL.

[xu5]

Thanks for the feedback Dazza, that is a good point you make about the tyres and not wanting to move the envelope out of reach on the roads. I believe some more motorsport inspired wheels (I'm thinking Team Dynamics pro race 3's) would suit it's mini rally car looks.

I had the opportunity to go on a fairly extensive test drive last week on some of my favourite local roads a few days ago, this time in the dry. The car is impressive, I particularly like the suspension being not too hard and supple enough with decent damping. Turn in is very sharp and the car feels very stable at speed with good brakes. I would certainly say it feels like a very healthy 138 bhp! Though ultimate speed isn't really my main priority (I am happily punting about in a bilstein kitted Aygo at the moment), the Swift seems pretty quick. Pleasingly the cockpit ambience reminds me of my beloved 205's thanks to the red accents, thin doors, narrow A pillars, upright windscreen and shallow dash. Overall it does feel like an updated, classic hot hatch.

Being a fan of small, lightweight cars there have not been many cars to spark my imagination in the past decade or so, the ND MX5 was one, which we got and loved, but unfortunately it didn't meet our needs on the practical front. I tried an UP GTI but wasn't too impressed, the fact it weights about 100kg more than the Swift is pretty mental. I do enjoy Fiesta's when I get to try them but they just seem unnecessarily large(!) and heavy for my needs. I don't like the styling of the new one either.

I need to wait till the new year but I think the Swift Sport will happen. Need to decide on which colour!

Edited by xu5 on Monday 28th October 06:31

Edited by xu5 on Monday 28th October 06:36

[CTC P]

Check out Evo Mag this month. Great little car so great in fact that I’m considering selling my 2010 Swift and making the 2018 Blue one into a proper track car.

[anonymous-user]

I may be looking to sell mine in the near future. I'm off to the dealer tomorrow to get a quote for them to buy it back.

I need an estate car for impending puppy arrival.

[ch37]

Had my ZC33S for nearly two months now, love it. It wasn't actually as practical as I needed it to be for the family trips we do, so I added another 320l via a Thule roofbox, so now I have the best of both worlds!

Lane departure is the most annoying 'bing bong', but handily it's also the one setting that actually stays disabled when you start the car again (collision detection needs to be switched off every drive, but false alarms are pretty rare, usually when passing parked cars at the last moment!) TC, Lane Departure, Collision Detection etc have big on/off buttons next to the steering wheel, so are easily disabled without needing to look. It's really impressive that despite it having a load of kit, it comes in below 1000kg, won't find many lighter, modern cars now.

Getting 44mpg with fairly spirited driving, which I have no complaints with, although the small fuel tank makes it feel a lot thirstier than it actually is.

I'm not a fan of the alloys, I think especially with the yellow car some simple motorsport alloys would suit it so much better. Ideally I'd like a set up white Speedline Turini's at some point, although 17" 5 studs are not easy to find.

I was all set to buy an Abarth 595 originally but I went with head rather than heart as the 595 simply wasn't as practical as I needed really. The Swift certainly isn't as raw or as exciting (and it sounds rubbish on idle, but does liven up when you get going), but as a combination of a perfectly usable, practical hatch and something which is great fun when it needs to be, it strikes a nice balance. The 0-62 and quoted power outputs are clearly very, very conservative, it doesn't feel any slower than the Clio 172 Cup I had. I think the official 0-62 is 8.1 seconds, I wouldn't be surprised if it's actually in the high 6s and around 150hp. Plenty of torque too, which makes day to day driving very easy.

CTC Performance in Somerset can extract a lot from the car for relatively little cost and I've only heard good things about them (they specialise in the Swift and Hyundai N models), should you wish to go down the modification route.

Suzuki Swift Sport by Chris Harrison, on Flickr

Suzuki Swift Sport by Chris Harrison, on Flickr

A7307056 by Chris Harrison, on Flickr

Edited by ch37 on Sunday 1st May 12:14

[xu5]

Looks really nice in yellow! Someone on the owners club forum has 17'' Turini's on their Swift and they do look good. Work do some good looking motorsport-esqe wheels aswell, available through Driftworks in the UK. If you are in the mood for some subtle but well worthwhile mods may I recommend a powerflex lower engine mount insert for £28, improves traction, gearshift and makes the front feel a bit tighter. Also a rear arb improves turn in and corner exit traction I found. Glad you like it, I do think the zc33s got a bit of a raw deal from alot of its initial reviews but the car has so much going for it imo.

[tweenster]

I've had my 2019 ZC33S (in Speedy Blue) for about a year now. I've visited the CTC Performance website and added a few bits so it is now running coilovers and about 180bhp, and I have a set of Rota wheels and RARB still to be fitted. I like that few people know what the car is, and even fewer expect it to be as quick as it is. And it is really economical when it needs to be; I recently visited my son and when I got home the computer was reading over 52mpg! I love small hatchbacks and this is a brilliant little car.

[ch37]

Had mine since March and I've seen precisely one in White, one in Red and one another in Yellow (and that one is based at my local Suzuki dealer), and that's having attended loads of events with 'performance' cars in attendance such as Haynes Breakfast Club, Castle Combe Action Days and Festival of Speed.

I guess it's a sign of the times that a car that well specced (and relatively large) has come in at under 1000kg (at least until the recent addition of hybrid) and nobody cares, lighter than cars in whole segments below it (such as the Up GTi)

[Oldybaldy17]

Had mine 6 months now and what a fun little car. Had it remapped a few weeks back, revs higher with better torque, took a few drives to appreciate the difference and use it.
Fitted a aftermarket air filter, powerflex rear engine mount and sound deadening, induction kit next year hopefully. Now have an intercooler, exhaust, brake lines and bov to fit when I can get the time. I'm planning to service it myself as it's easily accessible.
This car is a money pit, but in a good way. It's like when I had motorbikes, loved tinkering and swapping things to make it better.

[samjaynz]

I've had mine for a year now - first car I've ever bought brand new as well. I looked at numerous cars before buying, mostly more powerful/potent ones e.g. a used 308 GTI 270, Astra VXR and 595 Competizione (all for similar money but used) as well as stepping up to a big boy car like an I30n or Golf GTI, but ultimately settled on the Swift as the value was too compelling.

The pricing was the best in terms of vehicle cost, and then the dealer here offers an incredibly comprehensive package where all servicing, warranty, vehicle safety checks etc are included for five years, so my total cost to purchase and run the Swift is less than my old 4x4 cost me each week in petrol and maintenance. NZ is a very different car market to the UK and we don't have the cheap PCP finance deals or great competition between dealers, so Suzuki is a standout in the value department.

Overall, I love the car. It's very frugal when driven normally around town, but huge fun on twisty roads. The power is more than adequate (I'd say it feels quicker than stated figures) and you can really feel how light it is. It's so nice having a small car in an urban environment, but it doesn't feel too small on the open road.

The only things I dislike are the rubbish sound from the exhaust/engine, and the boot space really is mediocre now I need to fit a pram in there from time to time. The infotainment system is also garbage, but I mainly just listen to podcasts in the car so the poor audio quality isn't a big issue for me.

All things being considered, it's an excellent package. It's also one of the last men standing in my local market when it comes to cars you can buy with a manual gearbox (the 595 being the only other hot hatch in close proximity price-wise).

I intend on keeping mine long-term, and as the warranty ticks down I'll look at modifying it for a bit more performance ... if anyone has suggested mods I'm all ears (main thing is I'd like to improve the exhaust note and increase power).

[xu5]

samjaynz said:

I've had mine for a year now - first car I've ever bought brand new as well. I looked at numerous cars before buying, mostly more powerful/potent ones e.g. a used 308 GTI 270, Astra VXR and 595 Competizione (all for similar money but used) as well as stepping up to a big boy car like an I30n or Golf GTI, but ultimately settled on the Swift as the value was too compelling.

The pricing was the best in terms of vehicle cost, and then the dealer here offers an incredibly comprehensive package where all servicing, warranty, vehicle safety checks etc are included for five years, so my total cost to purchase and run the Swift is less than my old 4x4 cost me each week in petrol and maintenance. NZ is a very different car market to the UK and we don't have the cheap PCP finance deals or great competition between dealers, so Suzuki is a standout in the value department.

Overall, I love the car. It's very frugal when driven normally around town, but huge fun on twisty roads. The power is more than adequate (I'd say it feels quicker than stated figures) and you can really feel how light it is. It's so nice having a small car in an urban environment, but it doesn't feel too small on the open road.

The only things I dislike are the rubbish sound from the exhaust/engine, and the boot space really is mediocre now I need to fit a pram in there from time to time. The infotainment system is also garbage, but I mainly just listen to podcasts in the car so the poor audio quality isn't a big issue for me.

All things being considered, it's an excellent package. It's also one of the last men standing in my local market when it comes to cars you can buy with a manual gearbox (the 595 being the only other hot hatch in close proximity price-wise).

I intend on keeping mine long-term, and as the warranty ticks down I'll look at modifying it for a bit more performance ... if anyone has suggested mods I'm all ears (main thing is I'd like to improve the exhaust note and increase power).

For some simple little things that will not present any warranty issues I would recommend solid bushes for the gear stick cradle and gear shift bracket, they will make the gear shift more direct and positive.

Pretty much a must do mod is a stronger lower engine mount bush insert or a whole mount. This will also improve gear shifting, make the powertrain feel more stable and reduce wheel hopping on full bore acceleration. Worn upper mounts are not unheard of on these cars so a stronger lower mount should also protect them.

A small but worthwhile thing to do is change the rubber clutch pedal stop for that of a rubber stop from a Raptor quad bike Suzuki part number 09321-06033. This will reduce the dead travel after the clutch has fully disengaged for a snappier shift all for a couple of bucks.

The world should be your Lobster when it comes to exhausts, plenty to choose from. Personally if you are thinking of upping remaps/chip tuning I would get an upgraded intercooler. The standard one is a bit lacking above standard.

[skedaddle]

samjaynz said:

I've had mine for a year now - first car I've ever bought brand new as well. I looked at numerous cars before buying, mostly more powerful/potent ones e.g. a used 308 GTI 270, Astra VXR and 595 Competizione (all for similar money but used) as well as stepping up to a big boy car like an I30n or Golf GTI, but ultimately settled on the Swift as the value was too compelling.

The pricing was the best in terms of vehicle cost, and then the dealer here offers an incredibly comprehensive package where all servicing, warranty, vehicle safety checks etc are included for five years, so my total cost to purchase and run the Swift is less than my old 4x4 cost me each week in petrol and maintenance. NZ is a very different car market to the UK and we don't have the cheap PCP finance deals or great competition between dealers, so Suzuki is a standout in the value department.

Overall, I love the car. It's very frugal when driven normally around town, but huge fun on twisty roads. The power is more than adequate (I'd say it feels quicker than stated figures) and you can really feel how light it is. It's so nice having a small car in an urban environment, but it doesn't feel too small on the open road.

The only things I dislike are the rubbish sound from the exhaust/engine, and the boot space really is mediocre now I need to fit a pram in there from time to time. The infotainment system is also garbage, but I mainly just listen to podcasts in the car so the poor audio quality isn't a big issue for me.

All things being considered, it's an excellent package. It's also one of the last men standing in my local market when it comes to cars you can buy with a manual gearbox (the 595 being the only other hot hatch in close proximity price-wise).

I intend on keeping mine long-term, and as the warranty ticks down I'll look at modifying it for a bit more performance ... if anyone has suggested mods I'm all ears (main thing is I'd like to improve the exhaust note and increase power).

Thanks for the write up. Like you I'm in NZ. The Swift is tempting. I have been looking at the 595 manual too as I've wanted one since living in the UK. Apparently there will only be auto 595s imported now and most if not all new manual Abarths have been sold. A yellow manual Swift is on the card before they introduce the hybrid engine to NZ.

[ch37]

Global recall on these issued today due to a vacuum pump fault. The parts to fix it don't seem to be available yet so may be a while until people hear anything from Suzuki/dealerships. The recall is now live on the gov.uk site if you pop your numberplate in.

In a spectacular stroke of poor timing, I dropped mine off for a service and MOT this morning. They can't give me the car back until the recall work has been carried out, but may not be able to actually do it...