Comparison: Ground clearance Suzuki Swift vs. competitors 2025

Ground clearance isn't something that's typically been vaunted when it comes to the Swift – Suzuki's designers were seemingly more focused on carving out a rather charmingly bijou motor than one capable of scaling the Andes. From the earlier generations, where exact measurements are as elusive as a joyous Monday morning, we breeze into the fourth generation (facelift from 2008–2010) where we're standing a tad taller, at 140 mm. This added elevation carried through until the current sixth generation decided to shed some height, trimming down to 115 mm. One suspects that someone in the design team uttered the words 'dynamics' and 'urban agility' more than once.

In the Suzuki stables, the current Swift appears rather close to the ground when compared to its burlier siblings – think of it as the domestic housecat amongst a clowder of cheetahs. The Swift's stablemate crossover, the Swift Sport, perches hardly any higher, at 116 mm – a difference so negligible it barely warrants hiking boots. The Swace, a sort of Swift after a few years of pilates, lunges at 135 mm, while the Vitara and S-Cross, true prodigies of the SUV school of design, stand at a lofty 175 mm. Venture into the wilds and you encounter the robust Jimny, an automotive mountain goat at 205 mm, entirely unbothered by such petty concerns as 'kerb height'. Suzuki Vitara, Suzuki Jimny, Suzuki Swace, and their ilk remind us that Suzuki is no stranger to ground clearance generosity.

When gladiators enter the arena to compete against the Swift, the machinations of ground clearance become glaringly obvious. Take the humble Skoda Citigo, nipping at the Swift's heels with 136 mm, or the VW Up!, strutting about with an identical 144 mm. Yet this pales in comparison to Subaru's Justy, a veritable monster truck in this context, towering at 170 mm. Fiat's Panda, another creature of the urban jungle, scales 165 mm, even on cobblestone roads. And then there's the anomaly that is the Citroen GS/GSA, a relic from an era of hydraulic wizardry, with a haughty 240 mm that could probably clear a sleeping bison.

Yet in the automotive dance of dimensions, where length and wheelbase pirouette with clearance, our Swift holds its own. With competitors like the Honda Jazz (140 mm) and the VW Polo (125 mm) prancing about, the Swift's shorter length and wheelbase present it as the compact city hopper it's always aspired to be. It's perhaps not suited for a jaunt across the Serengeti, but for the world of human-sized anthills we call speed bumps? Absolutely spot on.