2023 (23) Suzuki Swace 1.8 Hybrid Ultra 5dr CVT

By Jonathan Crouch

Introduction

By 2023, Suzuki was, literally, on a charge. By then, not only had it electrified its entire range, but it had also expanded it, albeit with more than a little help from its technical collaborator, Toyota. Launched in 2020, the Swace was the second model of that partnership, this curiously-named model borrowing the design of the familiar, respected Toyota Corolla Touring Sports Estate to give the Suzuki brand an entrant into the lucrative C-segment compact estate sector. By 2023, the car had been updated, with a punchier Hybrid engine, more equipment and an improved cabin. That's the version we look at here as a used buy. Is it convincing enough to win Suzuki some new friends?

History

When is a Suzuki not quite a Suzuki? For mainstream visitors to the brand, the current answer to that question is when it's a Swace, this car, the company's version of the Toyota Corolla Sports Tourer estate. Here, we look at the improved version Suzuki launched in 2023. With most shared product designs, the manufacturers involved take quite a lot of trouble to change the bits you can see to further the pretence that the products concerned are actually different. This isn't one of those designs. Back in 2020, Suzuki needed a quick fix to reduce its average CO2 output in Europe and avoid punitive fines from Brussels. So they turned to Toyota, with whom the brand had a long-standing history of business partnerships - and this was the result. With this improved Swace, as with the original, virtually no attempt at differentiation from the donor car was made, apart from a subtly different nose design and different badges on the wheels and, inside, on the steering wheel. At least you know what you're getting. And what you're getting is the estate version of a car we've previously recommended, the Toyota Corolla, one of the very few family hatchbacks available with a self-charging full-Hybrid engine. The Corolla was substantially improved for the 2023 model year, so the Swace got an upgrade too, creating the car we're going to look at here, which like its predecessor was still British-built by Toyota at Burnaston in Derbyshire. The Swace brought Suzuki back into a market sector that previous to 2020 it had been absent from since it offered the Baleno estate at the turn of the century - but that car never sold very strongly. With the added draw of electrified technology, the brand hoped it would be a different story for its prospects in this segment. But the Swace sold slowly and was discontinued in 2024. What You Pay Prices for this updated Swace model start from around £17,700 (around £19,900 retail) for a '23-plate base 'Motion' version. It's around £1,300 more for plusher 'Ultra' trim. For one of the last late-'24-plate 'Motion'-spec models, you're looking at around £19,750 (around £22,000 retail).

What You Get

Visual changes to this updated Swace were slight; a few exterior styling tweaks and some different lighting finishes - that's about it. Otherwise, it's as you were, which means it's an almost carbon copy of its Toyota Corolla Touring Sports donor model. As before, unlike its Corolla cousin, the Swace is only available as an estate. Moving inside, the Swace offers little differences over its Corolla cousin; apart from the badge on the steering wheel and 'Swace' branding on the mats, there are no differences. Still, perhaps that's a good thing because it means that this this upgraded design got the much improved standard of media connectivity that by 2023 Toyota had introduced into its version of this model. The centre screen remained a modest 8-inches in size (unlike the 10.5-inch screen by 2023 fitted to the Corolla), but in this updated model it was of higher definition and included 'Apple CarPlay' wireless smartphone-mirroring. For the instrument binnacle, there's an upgraded central 7-inch multi-information display. What else? Well the cabin ambiance (just about) matches what you'd expect for the asking price, helped by shiny black finishing, white stitching and silver detailing. These touches, along with soft-touch plastics, help lift the ambience of a slightly dark interior. As before, there's a pretty exemplary, fairly high-set driving position which sees almost everything falling naturally to hand. It's fairly tight space-wise in the rear by class standards, both in terms of leg and headroom, restrictions rather emphasised by the way the curved roof lining slopes down ahead and to the side of you. Out back, there's a class-competitive 596-litre boot. That's better than a Ford Focus Estate (575-litres) but way short of the class-leading Skoda Octavia Estate (640-litres). The rear seat can be flattened in a 60:40-split by using cargo sidewall catches, which creates a total loading space of up to 1,232-litres.

What to Look For

There aren't too many issues with this Swace. Toyota (who built it in Derbyshire) did have to issue a recall early on in production for issues with the CVT auto gearbox but by the time of this 2023 update there were no such issues. A check light might sometimes appear on, illuminating on the dash. This is due to the car's EVAP system; the only solution for this issue is to check the condition of the EVAP system. In the unlikely event that you're looking at a Swace that's done over 50,000 miles, you can expect it to drink a little more oil. Otherwise, it's just the usual things; check the interior for child damage; and the exterior for parking scrapes and alloy wheel scuffs. And of course insist on a fully stamped-out service history.

Replacement Parts

(approx - based on a 2023 Swace 1.8 Hybrid ex VAT) An air filter is priced in the £16 bracket. An oil filter costs in the £5 to £9 bracket. On to brakes. A set of front brake pads tend to retail in the £62 bracket. A front brake disc is around £110; think in the £54 bracket for rears. A set of wiper blades are om the £7-£24 bracket. A pollen filter is in the £15-£48 bracket. A headlamp will cost in the £452-£477 bracket (halogen) and around £893 (LED).

On the Road

Swace folk are only offered the smaller of the two Hybrid engines available in this model's Toyota Corolla donor model, but that's the unit most customers of this Suzuki would want anyway. The 1.8-litre VVT-i full-Hybrid powerplant in question was changed quite a lot as part of this update, its electric motor output boosted from 53kW to 70kW, a 23hp change which increased torque from 163Nm to 185Nm. As a result, the Swace will in this form feel usefully more responsive, should you come to it from the older version. The 0-62mph time consequently dropped from 11.1s to 9.4s. The engine's power output is 96hp at 5,200rpm but taking the electric motor's contribution into account, the combined system output is 140hp (up from 122hp previously). As before, top speed is pegged at 111mph and drive is through a CVT auto gearbox bereft of paddleshifters.

Overall

It might seem odd that Suzuki, often previously such an innovative manufacturer, would merely re-badge a Toyota to widen its electrified model offering. This technology though, demands years of experience and huge investment. Should Suzuki have made its customers wait for full-Hybrid tech - then charge them richly for it? Or use proven tech from an established partner, allowing them to bring this engineering quickly to market at a (relatively) affordable price? You can see why the second approach makes more sense and this Swace model fully embraced it, especially in this updated form. For the money you'd spend to get mild hybrid tech that makes hardly any difference to running costs on comparable estate versions of the Golf, the Focus, the Leon and the Octavia from this era, here you get a full-Hybrid powertrain that can, in contrast, run at times exclusively on full-electric power, so delivering significantly lower running costs. And all at better value pricing than this car's Toyota clone can offer. If that makes sense to you, this car might too.