Suzuki Swift - We Want your opinion!!REWARDS GIVEN

mcirl2

We are UCC Business Students and we are doing market reseach on the

SUZUKI SWIFT

We believe that it's actually very good value for the car you get, yet it's not popular at all!! We put this down to bad marketing which causes and has caused an image problem!!

We WANT YOUR OPINION so please give FEEDBACK

PLEASE GIVE US FEEDBACK - We really appreciate it...!!!

WE REWARD ALL FEEDBACK SO EMAIL US @ uccsuzuki@gmail.com

to receive your reward


CHEERS - UCC SUZUKI:D


<<<<<Click here to check out the Suzuki Swift>>>>

BrianD3

Suzuki has a reputation for producing small, tinny, silly, fun, "toy" cars which crumple up in a crash and don't protect their occupants. There is some truth to this image eg the SJ Jeep wasn't a very serious vehicle and Suzukis have tended to do badly in crash tests (eg the Baleno did very badly in a EuroNCAP test around 1997) In this safety obsessed era having an image for producing unsafe vehicles is a big black mark. Even though this image may be based on vehicles which have ceased production years ago.

bmoferrall

IMO, it's the best-looking small car on the market. Don't know if that counts for much in its class though.




No experience with Suzuki, but my perception of them as a marque, right or wrong, is that they're pretty reliable - probably based on their reputation with motorbikes and the fact that they're Japanese.

kaimera

all I know is I bloody want one!! after seeing it up close in the showroom, it has potential

dceire

The Swift is a really funky futuristic kind of car & I'd have one now if I wasn’t a poor student:( but I don’t know why they’re not popular.

I don’t think people recognise Suzuki as a Quality brand when it comes to cars despite the fact their one of the top motorcycle manufacturers.

mcirl2

The Response is great, keep it coming in - we need a lot of opinions !!
Don't forget to send on your emails to uccsuzuki@gmail.com as we need to thank you for responding.


Please write the very first 3 words that come to mind when we Mention the phrase "SUZUKI CARS"
Please send us your thoughts!!

junkyard

The're very light, build quality can be iffey, the're not the nicest looking car around but the're cheap to run, the're out so long now that parts are cheap, new and second-hand, the're very reliable and an all round great starter car. I've sold loads of them over the years and never had any "comeback" problems with them I'd give them nine out of ten.

murphaph

First 3 words, hmmmm, motorbike (I ride a Suzuki), small, topple.

Here's my $0.02-complete lack of advertising. I've actually seen those pics of the Swift and I said at the time, "funky car, would like one", now when I saw your qestion at the top I couldn't remember what a Swift even looks like. I have the attention span of a goldfish, sue me, but that's what advertising is there for, to reinforce the brand/marque in my mind. Suzuki have failed to do this. Do they even advertise these cars on TV?

pedro ferio-vti

Would fully agree with the OP. I used to think that most Suzuki's were crap, no particularly outstanding features and just a cheap crap car basically.

However! After buying one for my mother, a 93 Swift 1.3i 16v my opinion of them has totally changed. They seem to be built as well as any other car of its era. Also the 1.3 injection engine has a good bit of oomph for a small displacement engine.

Great car basically, and unfortunately a victim of non-existant or bad advertising and marketing. Wouldn't want to be in a crash in one but I am not a safety conscious person.

lomb

too dear, should b priced below the pshycological 10 grand mark.
could buy a real car(a volkswagen golf that wont skid out of control into a tree and kill me) for a few K more.
also depreciation is insane, meaning i could drive a new golf for the same money in real terms and id still be alive to tell the tale in 5 years.the swift is a useful exercise in countries like france where they can sell tat like that to poor frenchies who have narrow streets and where even a 10 year old swift is worth 4 grand and they arent afraid to die either...

maidhc

I really doubt if marketing will affect a car to any great degree. The swifts problem is a) It is too expensive, b) It doesnt sell secondhand. The new car also seems only to be available in 1.3, which is going to reduce the market even further. By buying a Swift you are only saving about €500 over a 05 model yaris, the engine of which is almost as powerful, is probably as well specced, has lower tax and insurance, and will have a superior resale value.

I doubt if car buyers are so fickle as to be bought by flashy ads, although Nicole and Papa (Clio Mk1) may not agree.

I would say if the swift was about €1500 or so cheaper than the mainstream it would fly off the shelves, but it hardly makes any sense at the moment. I would say thats the reason why Skodas sell, its not the marketing that has been done, but the fact you get a very good card at a decent price. I dont think they would sell if they were priced like VWs.

bazz26

lomb wrote:

too dear, should b priced below the pshycological 10 grand mark.
could buy a real car(a volkswagen golf that wont skid out of control into a tree and kill me) for a few K more.
also depreciation is insane, meaning i could drive a new golf for the same money in real terms and id still be alive to tell the tale in 5 years.the swift is a useful exercise in countries like france where they can sell tat like that to poor frenchies who have narrow streets and where even a 10 year old swift is worth 4 grand and they arent afraid to die either...

Are there any stats to show how safe/unsafe the new Swift is?

Also the same logic could be applied with buying a new Polo over a second hand Golf. The Polo is even more expensive than the Swift and around the same size, why not go out and buy a Fabia instead unless the badge is more important than the car.

mike65

bazz26 wrote:

Are there any stats to show how safe/unsafe the new Swift is?

euro ncap test 2005

Mike.

bazz26

Cheers Mike. The Swift seems to have performed around the same as the Polo if I am reading it correctly.

lomb

ncap is a marketing joke. the most important component is avoiding an accident. ie dynamic safety meaning safe handeling (composed of a wide track, independant rear suspension to ensure the wheels are always at right angles to the road, a sophisticated front suspension to ensure the same, and traction control) and an excess of power to get u out of trouble coupled with a very strong abs braking system with discs all around. all of which no doubt the swift fails miserably at...

bazz26

In fairness things like all round disc brakes and traction control are not standard in cars the size of the Swift. Similar cars like the Polo, Fabia, Fiesta, Yaris, etc just don't have these things at that price. You would be lucky to find them as an expensive options on most cars a class above.

lomb

aye which is my point, however the likes of a polo/fabia will be much safer handling wise. i drive a yaris sometimes and its unsafe, dreadful car tbh, very very dynamically unsafe. strange because i also drive a corolla and its very very safe.
the golf meets every criteria for safety except an excess of power and it probably costs the same to run than a swift when u factor depreciation into the mix.
my advice is to sell as many of the swifts to the french, might solve one problem:D

murphaph

Lomb, the Golf doesn't have independent rear suspension either. It has a trailing arm type semi-independent setup.

Anyone who thinks advertising has no effect on sales needs their head examined. Vehicle manufacturers (and their shareholders!) don't like spending money on ads for a laugh, they deem it worthwhile and spend a not insignificant portion of their revenues on it.

Supercell

ucc@gmail ...
From the ucc.ie site
http://www.ucc.ie/en/CurrentStudents/

Would all students who have not yet activated their UCC email address please do so immediately. For security reasons, UCC can only communicate with you via your UCC address, not external addresses like Hotmail or Yahoo. If you have not activated your UCC address, you may be missing important information sent to you by your department or the administration. Students should check their UCC mailbox regularly.

Gmail addy's from the marketing students ?!!, more likely the ex UCC marketing ppl working for a Suziki reselller..

lomb

murphaph wrote:

Lomb, the Golf doesn't have independent rear suspension either. It has a trailing arm type semi-independent setup.

dont think so the new mkv is independant as far as i know, it says on vws uk mkv brochure that the rear suspension is independant multi link with 4 links.
and here it says it also http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/road_tests/?id=109
note where it says
" As with the new Audi A3 and the VW Touran MPV, technical enhancements over the Mk IV that give the Mk V such a solid feel include a massively stiffer (80% stiffer) body structure, a different mounting system for the front suspension, multi link fully independent rear suspension and electro mechanical power steering (explained in the A3 test on this site).

The main thing is, the VW Golf is now where is should have been in its Mk III and Mk IV incarnations, but wasn’t. In terms of strength and that hewn from solid feel it is genuinely back at the top of the class."

eyebee

Drove a 1.3 swift for 3 years;great little car,reliable+economic. Fun to drive with better acceleration than most city cars.Was unfairly rubbished by the so called experts due to its east european assembly.Ask the real experts,the people who bought+drove them. The new model looks great as for the price,shop around they can be bought for well under 10K

stratos

suzuki, bland swift , bland and the car, as bland as everything else since ford started this cutting edge design garbage !!!!!

alias no.9

Despite looking somewhat like the bastard child of a new mini and a toyota corrolla, the new swift is definitely one of the most stylish small cars on the road. The suggestion that it's not selling due to failure to market this model is somewhat simplistic.

First of all the brand image of suzuki is that of cheap econo-boxes, almost domestic appliance like.

The entire suzuki range is forgetable yet they have three cars competing in the small runabout segment, the swift, the ignis and the wagon r and then they have the liana in the budget family car segment and the jimny in the mini SUV segment so people predisposed to buying a suzuki will be split between all of these.

Then you've got the name swift, it's always been aspirationally attached to a car that couldn't really be described as being anything of the sort. A new name should definitely have been on the cards but the last time they tried that that they came up with LIANA (Life In A New Age).

Then there's the advertising, Cristiano Ronaldo kicking a ball around with some street kids with fat boy slim music. I see where they're coming from but there is too much ronaldo and not enough car to realise that it's even an add for a car, in fact you never actually see him driving it.



Finally Lomb, you talk about independent rear suspension and how great thew golf is for having it, I'm not sure about the earlier model, but the last model swift, originally launched in 1989 but freshened up a couple of times since was fitted with independent rear suspension, that's right, a whole 15 years before your beloved golf. Next time you're behind one in traffic, just drop your eyes below the bottom of the bumper and you'll clearly see that.

bmoferrall

The swift has just been voted car of the year by Car Buyer's Guide.
Must be as good as it looks so.

synchro

bmoferrall wrote:

The swift has just been voted car of the year by Car Buyer's Guide.
Must be as good as it looks so.

it sure has and noone seems to be talkin bout it1
incredible!

murphaph

lomb wrote:

dont think so the new mkv is independant as far as i know, it says on vws uk mkv brochure that the rear suspension is independant multi link with 4 links.
and here it says it also http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/road_tests/?id=109
note where it says
" As with the new Audi A3 and the VW Touran MPV, technical enhancements over the Mk IV that give the Mk V such a solid feel include a massively stiffer (80% stiffer) body structure, a different mounting system for the front suspension, multi link fully independent rear suspension and electro mechanical power steering (explained in the A3 test on this site).

The main thing is, the VW Golf is now where is should have been in its Mk III and Mk IV incarnations, but wasn’t. In terms of strength and that hewn from solid feel it is genuinely back at the top of the class."

I stand totally corrected . I'm amazed VW finally moved away from the torsion axle. My first car (a 1985 MkII Golf) had one, and my last VW (a 98 Passat) still had the same setup.

lomb

bmoferrall wrote:

The swift has just been voted car of the year by Car Buyer's Guide.
Must be as good as it looks so.

the toyota yaris was car of the year in 2000, and thats an utterly unsafe pile of manure, i mention it because we were stung by that, and bought one...

mcirl2

Thanks Guys, the Response has been great!!!:D

We believe that Most people when they think of The SUZUKI SWIFT they think of the tinny , boxy old model. If Suzuki Concentrated on this problem and advertised the hell out of the Car in terms of image - We think it will make a great difference -
Do you guys agree?????
How could they do this best??? maybe distributing 100000s of Brochures to consumers??
Please give us your IDEAS!!!!!

Thanks again - ucc suzuki:D

mike65

The quickest way to high profile success in a small fairly homogenous market is to get a product ascocciated with a long running TV programme. If Suzuki got a deal to supply cars to Winning Streak they'd double turnover in a season.

Mike.

maidhc

What Mike suggests is more intelligent than distributing 100000's of brochures. Brochures are for disposal.

Give the car a few years, if it is good people will say it to friends etc and things will gather momentum. Who would have recommended the old model?? The first half decent Skoda was launched 10yrs ago (Felicia), it is really only in recent years they are really being taken seriously. (Apologies if this doesnt fit the brief given by the lecturer).

Build it and they will come?

RedorDead

Maybe its more of a success than you are making out. See below from yesterdays Sunday Business Post. Also you have to take into account the size and reach of Suzukis dealer network compared to the likes of Ford and Toyota that may have up to 60 dealer outlets.



Swift sales

06 November 2005
The Suzuki Swift has been such a big hit with Irish buyers that orders have exceeded the stock available.

Suzuki is expanding the Swift range next year with the addition of a higher-equipped GLX 1.3 litre version.

Prices start at €14,995 for the three-door model and €15,395 for the five-door version.

Incidentally, the Swift has just been chosen as Car of the Year by the Irish motoring magazine Car Buyers’ Guide.