The Mini Cooper VS the Suzuki Swift

The new Suzuki Swift is cute, compact, and looks a lot like the Mini Cooper... or does it? Take a look at some front, rear, and side views of both cars for comparison.

Front View

From the front, it’s already obvious that the Swift is considerably more box-like than the Mini. It lacks certain sleek features that have made the Mini a design favorite. Notice that the bumper bottom of the Mini slopes downward gracefully, while that of the Swift is rather straight. The Mini’s side view mirrors are beautifully curved, while the Swift’s are hard and angular. The horizontal chrome grills of the Mini are also more elegant and prominent than those of the Swift, which are black and recessed.

The Mini also has distinctive round headlights that are slightly set apart from the hood. The signal lights are located in a separate area underneath the headlights. The Swift, on the other hand, has the signal lights placed next to the headlights like most other cars. Its headlights have slightly curved rectangular shapes that seem very Asian. If you were to compare the car to a human being, think of a cute little Asian kid with sharp almond-shaped eyes.

Rear View

Save for the similar placements of the rear lights on the roofs and below the bumpers of the two cars, it’s easy to tell the Swift apart from the Mini.

The angular design of the Swift is, perhaps, most obvious from the back. Its tail lights are also a lot larger than those of the Mini, and they curve over the rear end of the car in a way that makes them clearly visible from the side. (See side view picture below). Now that’s just overkill; what do you need huge tail lights for, anyway? Red is already an attention-grabbing color.

Side View

Strangely enough, from the side the Mini appears more box-like than the Swift. The roof of the Swift has a gentle curve, and so does the front end. The overbearing tail lights remain an eyesore, though.

We also see another design feature that makes the Swift very Asian: shorter front doors. The Mini was obviously built for taller people with longer legs, hence the roomier front area for the driver. The compact front area of the Swift, however, makes it possible to include a second set of doors for the backseat passengers. Of course, it lacks the roominess and ease of entry for the driver that the Mini provides.

Now let’s do a quick comparison of dimensions. The Mini was designed to fit an average British man, so let’s see how the Swift stacks up.

Swift: 3695 mm long, 1690 mm wide, and 1500 mm tall
Mini: 3635 mm long, 1925 mm wide, and 1408 mm tall

That makes the Mini slightly shorter in height and length, but a lot wider. Looks like it could be quite roomy in there.

Interiors

Although the Swift has a three-spoke leather steering wheel with mounted audio controls, the interiors of the Swift look rather bland and outdated. The Mini trumps it with a slicker dashboard layout.

What about roominess? The Swift was designed to fit three people in the back seat, which looks like quite a squeeze for anyone over twelve. On the other hand, the Mini was reasonably designed to fit two adults. The softly padded seats of the Mini also look quite cushy; they're a far cry from the foam seats of the Swift, which look rather stiff with unergonomic head rests. I reckon there's a market out there for replacing Swift car seats.

The Final Word

Without a doubt, the Mini is irreplaceable. You can't hold a candle to millions of loyal fans who consider their Minis as their very own babies. But the Swift is the best-looking compact car to enter the midrange market to date, and bears a fairly good resemblance to the Mini. Whether you choose to consider it a rip-off or a tribute to the design influence of the Mini, it’s a nifty little car that should make a lot of budget-conscious people happy.