I traded a 2001 Audi a6 for a 2001 Suzuki Swift.
 

Like the title says, I traded my 200k mile a6 to my dad for a $500 01 Swift off Craigslist. My dad needed a car because his Mercedes s430 spun a bearing, and I lost my job and am doing food delivery. So I needed something with good gas mileage. My wife doesn't like the beat up little Swift, but it is growing on me. I used to think these were nothing cars, but this thing is actually a hoot to drive. I can't wait to get some stiffer springs and some 175 tires for this little sports delivery car lol. Anyways with aggressive driving I'm averaging 35mpg. And on a tank where I was using pulse and glide I was getting 48mpg on the fill up. High mpg is so easy on this compared to my old 89 vw fox I had a couple years ago.

I'm hoping with the help from this site I can make this a nice light weight sporty economy car.

Wow - 4th post since 2014!

Congrats on the Swift. 2001 was the last year of that generation. (You do NOT want a "Swift+" clone of the Chevy Aveo).

I assume since you mentioned pulse & glide that you got a manual? We've had a few members with these cars through the years that were able to get pretty respectable results out of them.

What are your modding plans?

PS: nice since you're in the south that you don't have to worry about tin-worm eating the front control arm mounts away. .. assuming it spent its life down there.

Yeah there is no rust anywhere, but all the paint is faded and chipped, lots of dents.

As far as eco mods, probably just lowering and antenna delete. Maybe a engine kill switch in the shift nob. Most of my economy will be technique over mods. Most of my mods will actually hurt fuel mileage, bigger tires, more sounds deadening etc. My end goal is a sporty small car that I can actually afford the fuel for, plus using it for food delivery.

Definitely do the kill switch and get some instrumentation in there. Makes all the difference.

Do an air dam too. Goes well with lowering.

Those are actually great for a small car. I still see some once in a while, usually in a good shape.

Yeah mines not the greatest shape, but still fun. I purchased a Bluetooth obd2 reader for my torque pro app, but the latency is about 1.5 seconds which makes it hard to use as a tachometer and vacuum gauge. I might have to just get a pillar gauge cluster for it. But first some tires, I'm not trusting my driving habits with these 155s and no abs. Heck even with what ever measly power that comes out of my 1.3 I still light up the tires if I have to pull into a busy road.

I also need to work on body roll. All my previous cars would just start to slip if I accelerated to quick on an onramp, this thing FEELS tippy, though it's probably not as bad as I think. It has the 6 way adjustable seat which suits about 2 inches too high in the lowest setting. I don't know yet how I'm going to solve that one.

Good news is last fill up was 320 miles on 8 gallons while doing food delivery in town, so at least it's serving it's purchase purpose :)

Bigger tyres to reduce rpm will only work on long runs, not when you have to do frequent stop & go's

Bigger rims and/or tyres are heavier
Wider tyres are heavier & cause more drag
They also tend to cost more - unless the smaller size is uncommon & harder to get.
(Had a look, small sizes are expensive in the US, and the choice is ...meagre)

For economy, low unsprung weight is a bonus


My summer tyres are 15" light alloys, 185, 3% oversized, yet despite their better rolling resistance rating, they barely match my FE on 14" steelies, 175, regular sized winter tyres ...

I was thinking 185s on a 14 inch wheel, maybe 175 on The stock 13s. I want a little less stopping distance for emergency braking, this thing locks up the tires instantly.

Chopping the springs (sacreligious, I know) is a common way owners both lower these cars and reduce body roll. I've tried both the chop method and dedicated lowering spring method, and prefer the chop (lowering springs were too harsh).

On my 2000 Metro, I chopped the springs (twice -- first time wasn't enough), then deleted the roll bars. Quite happy with the better handling, lower weight, improved aero. Oh, and the looks. Oh, and it's a free mod. Win-win-win-win-win!

For a sportier feel, these cars need a faster ratio steering rack, but I didn't have any luck finding if there's one available (from the Swift GT, for example).

40 MPG - nice! Stopping the engine when it's not needed?

Post some pics. I want to see this beat up little car.

I don't know how to upload pictures on here.

When pulse and gliding I currently use the ignition switch, I just turn it to the acc position so my radio doesn't reset. I've noticed that the car responds better to restarting if I put it in gear while rolling BEFORE turning the key back to the on position. The only down fall is that the turn signals don't function on acc position.

I might try a front lip spoiler but I tend to pull up to parking curbs. BTW how would removing the sway bars reduce roll? That seems counter intuitive. If cutting the springs give good results I might give it a wack.