The return of the Suzuki Swift Sport was worth celebrating with this award.
Car guys all over the world have a soft spot for hot hatches. Unfortunately, Malaysia is not a country that sees a lot of hot hatch options drop in, especially below the RM200,000 mark.
That changed when Naza Eastern Motors reintroduced the Suzuki brand to Malaysia and brought the latest generation Suzuki Swift Sport to the segment with a turbocharged engine for the first time! We absolutely adored this pocket rocket. Even with its auto gearbox, it was an absolute delight to drive and is still not priced too excessively considering the lack of competition in this particular segment.
Its nearest rival in Malaysia right now is the Mini Cooper which is almost double the price. There is no new model Honda CR-Z in sight, Volkswagen is no longer selling the Polo GTi and The Ford Fiesta ST has been retired.
Suzuki Swift Boosterjet Specifications
Engine: 1.4-litre, Turbocharged
Displacement: 1373cc
Transmission: 6-speed auto with paddle-shift
Max power: 140bhp at 5500rpm
Max torque: 230Nm at 2500-3500rpm
Top Speed: 205km/h
0-100km/h: 8.0 seconds
Price: RM139,900.00
About the VOTY Awards 2021
The Vehicle of the Year (VOTY) Awards is sponsored by Allianz Malaysia Berhad and is judged by Daniel Sherman Fernandez, Ross Hadi, Amirul Mukminin and Subhash Nair from Drive Safe and Fast (dsf.my) and GohedGostan.com.
The selection process is simple and clean. All cars launched in Malaysia within 13 months of our cutoff date are eligible for entry. We contact all car brands officially operating in Malaysia and ask them for test cars for each of our judges. There’s no participation fee, no tables to buy, no package deals — nothing. Any judge who drives an eligible car gets to vote for it. A simple majority is all it takes for a vehicle to win in a given category.
The categories are kept as consistent as possible from year to year with some modifications when a certain category is not adequately represented or is over-represented in that particular year. You can view the categories over the years by looking through our “VOTY” tab on the dsf.my page.
Our title sponsor Allianz recognizes the integrity of our team and all players involved in deciding on winners and leaves all decisions to us regarding the winners. We hope our readers appreciate the efforts of all parties involved and provide us with feedback on how we can further improve on this.
