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Saturday, 07 September 2002 |
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Page 4 of 4
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Cheap Car Versus Cheaper Bike
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So, what about the Car?
Suzuki Swift? Like the name Military Intelligence, it may be stretching the truth just a little. While it's not dog slow, I'd rate the acceleration as adequate, rather than swift. Names sell cars though and Swift is probably a better seller than adequate. However, adequate best describes this car as a package. With plenty of leg room to fit my 6'2" frame and storage enough to tote all our gear to our high desert, top secret test facility. This car is certainly adequate enough to serve ones needs as daily transportation. |
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With a ground pounding 79hp at 6000rpm and a whopping 75 lb.-ft of torque available at 3000rpm from its 1.3 liter, 16valve, single overhead cam engine, the swift was the powerhouse of our test and at 1929lbs it was also the heaviest. The Goliath if you will, to the MZ's David. Our Swift gets its prodigious power to the ground through an optional 4-speed automatic "slush-box" transmission and then finally to it massive 165/70-13 front tires via unequal length drive shafts. Torque steer anyone? The EPA rates fuel economy on the automatic equipped model at 30mpg city/34mpg highway. While the manual equipped version gets 36mpg in the city and 42mpg on the open road. It's too bad we couldn't get our hands on a car with a manual transmission because it certainly would have been quicker and it would have done better burnouts.
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Now, when we first received our Swift test car from Fudget Rentals the handling was a bit dodgy to say the least and the steering felt heavy even for a car without power steering. Remembering what a paranoid old geezer once told us at a rental facility in San Jose`, about rental agencies giving cars with low tire pressure just so you got poor gas mileage. We checked inflation pressure on our tires to find 20psi in the front tires and 13psi in the left rear and 6 in the right. Once pressures were set to a more reasonable 35Fr and 32R we found that handling was still dodgy and the steering was still heavy, so much for that theory. At least now there was enough air pressure to keep the tires on the wheels during "spirited" driving.
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Like most passenger cars the Swift's handling balance was weighted heavily towards understeer. While we weren't looking for tail out drifting, the car would not hold a line and early application of the throttle only managed to spin up the inside tire and not propel the car any faster. The parking brake was in good working order and worked well to keep the car pointed in the right direction. However, after only 30 minutes of driving I unbolted the front sway bar to help balance the car. Even though the car had more body roll now, I was able to carry more entry speed and get on the throttle sooner.
As I became more familiar with the car I employed some Schumacher style left foot braking to control the car while we danced on the edge of traction only managing to spin the car once. Unfortunately, it was all to no avail. Even with all the sliding and tire screeching heroics I was still ½ a second behind Mike's best time on the bikes and a full 2.5 seconds behind Alex's blistering times. |
| Performance aside, lets talk about practicality. That's a nasty word around here but it must fit in the equation somewhere. Does it ever rain where you live? Do you ever need to carry more than one person with you at a time? Ever need to travel long distances with some luggage? All these things fit into what you need your basic transportation to do. The cost of entry with the bikes is considerably lower. As a matter of fact if you had the cash lying around you could probably pick up a used Swift and one of the bikes for the cost of a new Swift. But as is often the case, most people need to finance their large purchases and it's far easier to get financing on a car than it is a bike. To most financial institutions a bike is a luxury not a necessity like a car. |
Lets be real for a second. Some people are happy to have a car that runs and keeps them dry, for basic transportation. If you're like me, that's not good enough. I'm willing to give up a bit of practicality for some style. Whether I'm on a bike or in a car I'm into going fast. I'd rather drive an old sports car than a new econo box. And I'd much rather cruise the strip on the SM than rolling in the Swift. Does the Swift wheelie? Will it stoppie? Do little kids wave to you when you drive the swift? Sometimes it's all about the style...
Till it rains.
DaveW
If an MZ is your bag go to Motorradna.com to locate a dealer near you.
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