6 reasons why the 2016 Suzuki Alto Works could be the world's most cheap & cheerful new car you can buy from the showroom in 2016
If you don’t know what a 軽自動車 (aka kei car) is and why most have ‘only’ 64 horsepower, watch ‘Kei to the City’ film by Mightycarmods https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu6h5IoqkoA before you read this.
First, a quick history lesson.
Suzuki in Europe are known for the Swift Sport warm hatch. But they’ve also had quite a portfolio of cheap-and-cheerful cars like the Cappuccino, which rivalled the Honda Beat and the Autozam AZ-1. The Cappuccino featured a turbocharged 3 cylinder 657cc engine, producing 64ps- the most powerful kei car in the early 90s. But more importantly, this engine was also fitted to a FWD or AWD hatchback called the ‘Alto Works’ . Unless you knew about this car on Gran Turismo, it has been overlooked through western car community. This 4th generation (codenamed HA11) was very well-received for its affordable price, and often used for one-make races, hill climbs and rallying. Suzuki axed production by 1998 and for the next decade, there wasn’t really a spiritual successor until 2015; where Suzuki unveiled the ‘Alto Turbo RS’. While the RS appealed many local enthusiasts, the performance and driving involvement was hindered by the only transmission offered- CVT.
Now, the car you see in this photo is called the 2016 Alto Works. Yes, the name is back! I know that you can get great used cars for cheap as chips nowadays but here are 6 reasons why the car in this photo could be the world’s most cheap & cheerful car:
TURBO - because who doesn’t like choo-choo sounds? But in all seriousness, you can easily yield more power (at your own risk). Just think about the power-to-weight ratio potential, or even an engine swap from a bigger car…
MANUAL - obviously more driver satisfaction than the 2015 Alto Turbo RS
WEIGHT - With all the modern safety equipment & technology, the FWD model opted with the manual weighs only 670kg. Thats 30kg lighter than the cappuccino, 50kg less than an Elise and half the weight of a MK7 Golf GTI (which is considered a ‘light car’)
PRICE - It starts from 1.5 million yen (you have the internet to figure out the exchange rate for your currency)
OWNERSHIP COSTS - its a kei car after all, cheap on fuel, cheap on tax, cheap on insurance, cheap on replacement parts and consumables compared to a much bigger, heavier and faster car
RECAROs - this has to be one of the cheapest ways to get a car equipped with Recaro seats. Just let that sink in, Recaros on a kei car…
Now how awesome would it be to fit a LSD, grippy & fatter tyres and gain 100hp out from this engine?
As this is a true Japanese Domestic Model, there are no plans of Suzuki to sell this car to those of you who live outside Japan. Are you butthurt that I wasted your time reading all this?
Comments
I can’t be the only one who haven’t thought that the car was new.
that actually looks nice!
Agreed, normally kei cars look really hopeless and ricey but this looks tastefully modified
I’m considering getting one sometime in the future!
I’m still a Uni student, so the cheap displacement tax would help.
Good choice, the only downside about kei cars is, because they are built to a budget and to save weight, the safety isn’t so good but fingers-crossed you won’t hit an SUV hahaha Look out for upgraded turbo kits from companies like Monster Sport too.
The AZ1 is made by Autozam (Mazda) not Suzuki….
Look up for Suzuki Cara on google.
Are you still claiming you’re right?