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Fleet World Fleet: Suzuki Swace 1.8 Hybrid SZ5 CVT

Our long-term Suzuki Swace hybrid estate is proving very easy to live with, says Natalie Middleton.

The Swace feels well-built; solidly made on the outside and good quality on the inside; with plenty of soft-touch plastics on the interior

P11d (BiK): £29,094 (24%) MPG/CO2:64.2mpg/103g/km Test MPG: 51.2mpg

A few months into our test of the Swace and impressions of our long-termer remain good.

It feels well-built; solidly made on the outside and good quality on the inside; with plenty of soft-touch plastics on the interior.

I’m actually liking a return to cloth upholstery rather than leather – maybe a bit more work to clean up when your kids are prone to leaving sticky sweet wrappers around, no matter how much you rant at them, but a lot less of a worry. It also looks good, thanks to the mix of patterns on the materials, the constrasting stitching and the styling of the seats themselves, which are extremely comfortable with plenty of lumbar adjustment.

The Swace is also well-specced; the wireless phone charger has been a godsend since the USB port on my son’s stopped working and I’ve been particularly reliant on the heated seats and steering wheel in the bad start to the summer – and the dual-zone climate control since.

What I am missing though is the lack of sat nav across the range – something that caused me and my family to baulk when, a few days after taking delivery, we tried to find the local Covid vaccination centre. You can make use of Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, but it requires a cable and it’s a bit of a faff. I’ve also dabbled with the autonomous parking in the local supermarket carpark and the Swace comes with adaptive cruise control too. There’s plenty of safety equipment as well, including blind spot monitor, rear cross traffic alert and a rather exuberant lane departure alert.

On the whole, I’ve found the 8-inch touchscreen easy to use and thankfully it has plenty of physical buttons too, which make it easier to use but they’re a bit too small to easily identify in a hurry.

What I’ve also been impressed with is the car’s comfort on long journeys; something definitely being made use of over the summer holidays.

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Natalie Middleton

Natalie has worked as a fleet journalist for over 20 years, previously as assistant editor on the former Company Car magazine before joining Fleet World in 2006. Prior to this, she worked on a range of B2B titles, including Insurance Age and Insurance Day.