You Need This: 1989 Suzuki Swift GTi

I'd much rather have that than my Honda.

Sure... but unfortunately it's automatic

That's a pretty rare car.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: Sure... but unfortunately it's automatic

You know, I totally missed that. Still, yeah, rare car. Sadly haven't seen one in quite a while.

I had a red '89 GTi. Massively fun little car with some of the best seats in the business. Liked it way more than my CRX Si.

I saw that before and was saddened by the automatic. I had a '94 which was my first new car purchase. Loved that car and still kinda wish I had it. They weren't tremendously fast or the best handling, but it was an absolute blast to drive.

-Rob

Sweet, local, and my family has had a white Suzuki since '93.

And then I saw the transmission. Ack.

One of these (with a manual) used to dominate local autocross before costly boost buggies became the order of the day. I was always right on his heels.

Here's the silver lining of it being an auto: You'd probably want the beefier 1.6L Swift sedan gearbox anyway because the ones that come with the Swift GTi are pretty fragile.

The guy who I was always on the heels of also swapped in an Ignis rack for quicker and more highly boosted steering.

I bought one new in '89, a red one. I was cross shopping it with a CRX at the time. I think I paid somewhere in the mid $8k range, where the CRX was going to be around $11k if I remember correctly. Kept it for maybe 4 years. A blast of a little car, but it needed a LSD worse than any car I've ever had. Trim and build quality wasn't the best, but it made up for that with light weight and toss-ability. You're right though, I can't remember the last time I have seen one.

I sold mine to a fellow club member, and he sold it on in the late '90's. I once saw it driving around in Birmingham, still with SCCA stickers in the back windows.