Unlike in the US, Suzuki Swifts are apparently still very common sights on the streets of Budapest, as this shot by Roshake77 confirms. Well, they were built in Hungary, and for quite a few years (1992-2003), so they obviously feel right at home. Still, no less than four in one shot is pretty impressive.
I had a Swift GT which was thoroughly transformed by Suzuki into a little fun machine with 100 DOHC HP (car weighed nothing), Recaro like seats, sport suspension, etc. – SO MUCH FUN, never shoulda let it get away :^(
I had a regular Geo Metro around the turn of the millennium and wanted to replace it with a Swift GT but couldn’t find one.
I had a regular Geo Metro which I upgraded with brake and suspension parts from the many, many crashed Swift GTs that could be found in junk yards.
Cheap to fuel, cheap to insure, and fast in the twisties.
… Still encountered in Austria too, usually with Hungarian plates, owned by students or laborers travelling between the two countries. There was also a cabriolet model which I think was Europe only. GTs if you can find them have transcended the jalopy status and go for over €4000.
“There was also a cabriolet model which I think was Europe only.”
In the US there was a convertible version of the Geo Metro available (pretty much a badge-engineered Swift). I don’t know if that was different from the European cabriolet model.
I always thought the convertible was US only. Always ready to learn.
Also interesting to note then Subaru got a versionof the Swift aka Cultus in Europe known as Justy G3X with AWD standard. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Subaru_Justy_purple.jpg
Also sold in Oz as the tough, manly, all-Australian, made-in-Japan-by-Suzuki-and-wholly imported Holden Barina. They could’ve used Justy, as I quite approve of these indestructible little jiggers.
Also made in India as Maruti’s, I think.
One of the earliest models to enter in Brazil in 1991 after decades of closed market to importers. It’s curious that the 3 door hatch wheelbase is a little bit shorter than the 5 doors. Suzuki sold there the Swift range until 1995, unfortunately we only could see the Swift again in its 5th gen in 2014. But we could get both Subaru Justy and the Swift with the same design style of the Geo Metro brought by independent importers usually in typical 90’s solid colors as purple, teal blue, pinkish orange and yellow. Those ones were the very few small cars with automatic transmission available for us.
Didn’t know they built them in Hungary…we visited in ’96, in fact I got a speeding ticket after leaving Budapest on the way to Miskloc. My (now departed) good friend at work at the time owned a Swift… He had an old calendar on his wall with photos of the Tatra mountains from the Polish side (he was born in Warsaw). I sent him a calendar I found that similarly featured pictures of the Tatras…but from the Slovak side (I’m 1/2 Slovak, through my mother). He wasn’t good about picking up his postal mail even then, and went about 6 months before checking and seeing the calendar I sent to him.
We saw lots of Hummers in Hungary, but this was around the time of the conflict in former Yugoslavia, so American troops were deployed nearby. We talked to some at a rest stop, they were friendly but seemed kind of close mouthed which I guess you’d expect.