Dimples: those of the "aww, isn’t he cute, Granny” variety. Dimples may be the easiest way to spot this badge-engineered, estate-only version of the Toyota Corolla, the Suzuki Swace, from the car with which it shares a Derbyshire production line.
The Swace has little cut-outs at the lateral extremes of the front bumper that look like they should route cooling air to the brakes but are actually just styling affectations; the Corolla doesn’t.
There are other ways. Suzuki’s decided to pitch its car – which has just been updated for the 2023 model year – at the lower end of the wider Corolla’s model range as a value offering. So you can have the Swace with only wee-looking 16in alloy wheels and the 1.8-litre hybrid powertrain. Also, it says ‘Swace’ on one side of the bootlid.
Still, if you really do want winning-at-life fuel economy out of a car like this and don’t mind looking a bit like an Uber driver, those things shouldn't bother you. This is a practical, sub-£30k wagon with lots of boot space for airport runs that will do a dependable 60mpg and hardly less in town. And it’s cheaper than the equivalent Corolla Touring Sports by about 5%. Why should it only be private-hire drivers interested in a car like that?
An update for the hybrid powertrain is the main driver of the Swace's dynamic improvements. A lighter battery and a more potent electric motor have caused power to jump from 118bhp to 138bhp and torque to rise by a similar amount. That has brought 0-62mph sprint potential below the 10sec barrier. But perhaps more importantly, it has also extended the capacity for electric-only running – how often and for how long the petrol engine can shut down while maintaining decent urban performance and drivability.
