What's all this about?

Now, here's an interesting one - Suzuki has already slashed the price of the latest, turbocharged Swift Sport, before it has even officially gone on sale. We drove this in April and rather liked it, despite it losing a little of its rev-happy character in the shift from normal aspiration to forced induction... but we were absolutely stunned when Suzuki UK tried to justify its astonishing £17,999 price tag. So good news if you want a Swift Sport, because - when it goes on sale on June 1 - you'll have one whole month to buy an example at the more palatable price of £16,499.

Is Suzuki admitting its mistake?

We think so. But, we must stress, this offer - at the time of writing - is set to end on June 30th. It is available to new and existing retail customers, although a monthly PCP figure has not yet been released for the car.

Would you revise your rating if the £16,499 price holds?

Yes, we think it's easily worth another half star at this price. The problem for the 140hp warm-hatch Swift Sport was always going to be the impending new Ford Fiesta ST, as on the launch of the Suzuki we heard whispers that the Blue Oval would sell its bona fide, 200hp hot hatchback for less than 20 grand. So when Ford subsequently confirmed, during the May launch of the fantastic fast Fiesta, that an ST-1 would be priced from £18,995 in the UK, it made the Suzuki's position almost untenable; £996 of difference is simply nothing like enough to justify turning Japanese for your feisty B-segment supermini, even if the Ford doesn't come with as much kit price-for-price. The fact of the matter is the new Fiesta ST is just a night-and-day better car in every respect.

So the Swift Sport is now a four-star car?

It will be if Suzuki UK sees sense and extends the £16,499 price tag beyond the end of June. Like, until the car goes off sale in about six years' time... Otherwise, we have to keep its rating where it is. Watch this space.

Matt Robinson - 18 May 2018