Prologue Part 1: The Swift

In February 2010, at 18 years of age, I passed my driving test, a momentous occasion in the life of any youngster. On top of that, my parents had promised me that, because I had been such a good boy and got into university, they would buy me a car and pay all the running costs for me (sans petrol). Unfortunately, as so often happens in this scenario, my parents wanted to buy me one sort of car, and I wanted one that was very different. I wanted, it may surprise your to learn, a VW Beetle, the proper one, of course. My dad was actually somewhat keen on the idea at first, as he drove across Australia with my mum back in the early 80s in a VW camper, and knows the brilliance of the air-cooled engine. However, after telling my mother of my excellent choice of vehicle, she flatly refused and became flustered, telling me that it was an old deathtrap with no airbags and that I would crash and that I would die in a mangled mess of metal and fire, or words to that effect. This lead to some arguments where I think I presented a pretty strong case for the Beetle. However, it was all pretty much academic as my parents were in charge of the cheque book, not I. In the end, they insisted that I could choose whatever car I wanted, as long as it was a 21st century creation and had no more than 1.5 litres in its engine. As a compromise, however, they said that after two years of driving a modern car, if I still wanted a Beetle, I would be allowed to sell my current car, and use the sale money to buy one for myself. My guess is that they were hoping I'd come to realise the benefits of modern cars and that I'd want to stick with it after that time. 


So it was that I ended up with this:

This is a 2007 Suzuki Swift. It has a 1.3 litre twin cam straight-4 engine which kicks out about 90 horsepower to the front wheels, and a 5-speed manual gearbox. It set my dad back £6500 and had 26500 miles on the clock when it was given to me. You're probably thinking that, because I was a fickle teenager, I chose it because it has cool alloy wheels, stripes on the bonnet and a chequered roof. It's fair to say that I chose this particular one for those features (it had a boot spoiler and chrome exhaust tip too), but I also really liked the Swift in general. Ever since it appeared on our roads in 2005 and the ads come on the TV, I had always liked the way it looked. I also liked it because it was Japanese, and I love Japanese cars because of their legendary reliability and cheapness to operate and work on among many other things (although I found out later that Swifts sold in Europe are actually assembled in Hungary).


I drove this car for two years, covering 8000 miles, and I liked it. It's a good looking car, very nippy, fun to drive when you put your foot down, and easy to drive when you don't. It got me around 45mpg, and besides needing new brake pads and tyres, it never missed a beat. My friends like it too. However, after two years, I still wanted shot of it, much to the disappointment of my parents. But they honoured our agreement, and allowed me to put the car up for sale in January of this year. The ball had begun to roll.