SWACE ACE? (some text hidden) --NONE--

By Jonathan Crouch

Introductionword count: 85

By this century's third decade, Suzuki was, literally, on a charge. 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. In this, the second model of that partnership, the curiously-named Swace borrowed the design of the familiar, respected Toyota Corolla Sports Tourer estate to give the Suzuki brand an entrant into the lucrative C-segment compact estate segment. Here, we check the original version out as a used buy.

Modelsword count: 4

5dr Estate (Petrol -1.8)

Historyword count: 275

When is a Suzuki not quite a Suzuki? For mainstream visitors to the brand, the answer to that question back in 2020 was when it was a Swace, the company's version of the Toyota Corolla Sports Tourer estate. 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 wasn't one of those designs. At the end of this century's second decade, 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 has a long-standing history of business partnerships - and this was the result. With this Swace, 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 Swace brought Suzuki back into a market sector it had been absent from since it offered the Baleno estate at the turn of the century - but that car never sold very strongly. Suzuki hoped that with the added draw of electrified technology, it would be a different story for the company in this segment. The Swace sold in its original form until early 2023 when it was significantly updated. It's the earlier 2020-2022-era model we look at here.

What You Getword count: 269

Much like the Across SUV, the Swace almost exactly mirrors its Toyota cousin in design, save for a unique front face with LED headlamps and a prominent Suzuki badge. Even the Hybrid badges on the front wings are Toyota stock items. Unlike its Corolla cousin, the Swace was only available as an estate. Like that donor model, it's quite a sharp-looking car - and a far cry from Suzuki's turn-of-the-century Baleno estate, the brand's last offering in this class. Moving inside, the Swace once again offers few differences over its Corolla cousin, though you get Suzuki branding on both the instrument screen and the centre screen at start-up. Helping with the overall feeling of sophistication is the view you get through the three-spoke leather-stitched wheel - that of a smart instrument binnacle presented with a combination of digital and analogue design. Anything it can't tell you will probably be covered off by this 8-inch 'Toyota Touch 2' centre-dash display that deals with the usual DAB audio, Bluetooth, navigation and online connectivity options. The rear bench is a little tight 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. The footwells are also pretty tight and cramming three adult folk in the back is going to be something of a squash. Out back, there's a class-competitive 596-litre boot. The luggage compartment can be easily expanded into a fully flat space by using sidewall catches to fold down the second-row seats, which creates a total loading space of up to 1,606-litres.

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