Roshake 77 came across this poor little SuzukiSwift (Chevrolet Sprint in the US) looking a bit lost among the much bigger contemporary cars of today’s Budapest.
It’s identified as a “Swift 1.0”. The question in my mind is whether that was the version with the 970 cc F-Series Suzuki four or the 993 cc G-Series triple.
I’m not so familiar with the versions exported to Europe, but I assume this is a pre-facelift (1983-1985) version, although it doe not have the flush mounted headlights of some of those. Seems like they came both ways.
I still see one of the gen1 Sprints occasionally, but they were quite common here a few years back. We’ve got a number of them in the archives, but the most comprehensive one is my CC on a turbo version. A veritable pocket rocket.
Suzuki?
Yes, Suzuki. I had Isuzu on the brain from the previous post. No longer.
It’s a Suzuki, not an Isuzu; the companies’ only connection was through GM.
This body style is slightly more rational than the following generation which I think was styled by GM Design, it had a deeper hatch opening and that button hood release on top of the hood. OTOH they must’ve beefed up the synchros at some point, I test-drove two used Sprints in the early ’90s and they both jumped out of second gear, a problem I never had in 5 years of ’92 Metro ownership.
Why are all these cars backed into their parking spots? Is that the law?
Looks like a one way street. You’d be doing a handbrake turn to nose in.
Suzuki have a factory in Hungary for the European market. That’s a local car.
Surely they didn’t back then?
It’s definitely a 993cc 3 cil. with 50 BHP. which was not bad, back then. Torque was not that good however; 75Nm at 3.800.
They were not very common here in Europe, not competitive enough against Uno’s, Fiesta’s, Corsa’s and small Peugeots. All that changed with it’s much better styled runner up.
If it hadn’t been readily identified, I would have guessed this to be some variation of the Subaru Justy or 2nd generation Toyota Starlet.
I used to own its twin. Yes, this is the early model with the same front end as mine and, as Sebastian says, a 993cc triple – which would rev like crazy and sound great doing it. The engine somehow seemed to egg you on. This has more trim on the sides, and a rear wiper which my base model GA lacked. The LWB five doors offered a four cylinder 1.3. I don’t see the 5 speed badge mine had, so I assume this is the basic four speed. They only weighed a touch over 600kg, so the power-to-weight ratio wasn’t bad – until you started carrying passengers. Very handy as a round-town or round-farm runabout.
My mother had a similar car a 84 3 banger Suzuki badged Alto she traded her 68 Viva 2 door for it
When in India, every other uber we used was a Maruti Suzuki Swift. Now, having been in my friend’s Geo Sprint (the second gen) back in the 90’s, I can say they now have much more rear legroom.. They were the four doors sedans there, and had enough power to at least reach approx. 5 mph to keep up with Bengaluru traffic.
Lest any Canadians forget who builds excitement, these were also sold up north as the Pontiac Firefly.
I’m so excited, eh!
And I just can’t hide it, eh!
Oh, sorry; I’m about to lose control and I think I like it!
Ohhh nohh. Not again?! 😳😜
Growing up in the US, I only remember this generation being sold as a Chevy Sprint. The next generation was a Geo Metro, which reverted to Chevrolet badging toward the end. Identity crisis much?
I always referred to the less often seen Suzuki branded ones as a “Swiftkick” (sorta goes with Sidekick), and those more often had the 1.3 four cylinder in place of the usual three pot.
Also notable is it is one of 2 cars that are not black white or grey, which with it being green makes it a biteasier to spot