TeamSwift

I was killing time at a newsstand today...picked up a copy of Collector Car magazine..I forget what I started to read, because in this fine publication, they did an article about the swift gt. Titled " cheap wheels", this section goes looking for interesting semi-collectable cars that are inexpensive to own. the overall content was O.k., but I wish they would have talked to us rabid owners. they listed the sales as 7000 per year, with only 25% being gti/gt models. that seemed low to me. they also say that you should pay around 5000 usd for one in excellent shape. They say this is better than buying a 2004 hyundai the article gives a counterpoint type box in which other editors give pros and cons...all in all a good article, I think they could have used more facts. If you can find a copy...shedswift says "check it out!" what do you think? is the swift gt a legitimate collctable car? or just the ultimate disposable pocket rocket. let the debate commense!!!


I'll put my 2 cents in to start things off: I think it will only be collectable to people who have owned one. I don't think the general public "gets it". cult car status is insured...but not all cult cars were great cars...edsel anyone? any older british roadsters, the original mini cooper...these are cars you collect because you like them, not as an investment.

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a quick fix fails fast... practical knowledge always lasts

small, light, cheap and fast.

if you have all 4, you are pretty much going to have a following who will pay a reasonable amount for quality in a dozen or so years. With the average swift lifespan at about 10 years (to an average owner who used the car for daily transport 24/7/365) it will be hard to find decent rust free cars in the next dozen years.

Let recent history teach us that since the early 50s, there have been cars
that have been all 4 criteria and command reasonable $$ today.

It's not so much that the GTi is unknown, and as such will not become "collectible", it's that once you find out about one, you want it.

Thanks for posting...I'll hafta find the article...and shove it down my appraiser's throat!

TGstring

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2017: I forgot if my memory loss is a good thing or bad thing.

LNLC Founding Member

Certified to advise if this thread is GAY

Well my opinion is that in the late 90's everyone was into Honda and DSM's now other old school cars are finally being remembered like Nissan(early 90's SE-R),240sx's and others. i mean u flipped through a magazine and really nothing on a Nissan,etc it was all Honda.Now it is cool to have a Sentra se-r(90's) or a 240sx which to me isnt that "sporty".Eveyone has their 15 minutes of fame and the swifts time is coming,which could be good,but bad at the same time.But other than a collectable,hey these cars are in limited #'s here in the states,so i really do think it could be a collectable(just think,they didnt think like this with the old Datsun 510 now look!)and in the 60's the Shelbys,Camaro'sCharger's etc the owners had no idea they would be worth anything,now look,what is the going price for a #'s matching hemi cuda,a Copo or Yenko,a real Shelby,etc?as for a $5000 price tag,,,i dont think so,if that is the truth then Kris and I got the total deal of the century!What i mean is that these "Import"cars are todays " Affordable Muscle cars" like how the rave was in the 60's

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"One Of Three ORIGINAL (CERTIFIED) LNLC Co-Founders"
1991 Suzuki Swift GT.
1994 Suzuki Swift GT.
If my Swift was as fast as Tg or m's car I'd be famous...
My car is a trailer queen 'cause it's too slow to merge safely into traffic

as an old timer, i can relate to many cars that have become collectable. when i got down to the specifics of saab 3 cylinder 2 stroke fiberglass bodied 2 seaters, all 256 of which were handbuilt in one year, 1967, i found the true meaning of stewardship.

the fun was the search for parts and that search introduced me to many people, a few of them that became close friends. some of them have even died and when they did, their lifelong collection of parts were distributed to other individuals to store and adore. it was a lesson in the dedication of a person to his hobby.

the curse of the saab sonett was that there were only a small number made. sure, that made it truly collectable but after 37 years just try to find and acquire one of the 350 special triple carb throttle bodies ever cast and just for a teaser, having found one, find that it has the same leaking, bound up triple butterfly shaft that they all had after a mere 20 years. you couldn't find an OEM rear muffler to fit a 2 stroke to save your life after 25 years. they were all plugged up with carbon and oil. i went through 30 years using the ten or so i found and by devising a trick to clean them (i used an oxy-acetylene torch with a carburizing flame to heat the baffles red hot, then cut the gas and opened the oxygen valve to burn off the oil. when she popped all the carbon shot out! unfortunately, sometimes all the guts came out, too )

the blessing of the swift is that there were a great number manufactured and that they share engineering with a bunch of models to make the parts much easier to come by.

of course you'll have the true devotee that will comb the earth for the rarest of parts to enhance their ultimate collection of cultus parts (ahem! )

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1991 Blue Geo Metro Convertible highly modified 1.0L Turbo3 5 spd. - 1991 Red Geo Metro Convertible customized with a Twincam 5 spd.

My Turbo3 Project
My Cardomain Page -Ol' Blue
My YouTube Channel
My Photo Gallery
SAAB Sonett II

In the lightweight sporty FWD class you've got a choice of the Swift, the CRX, or the original Mini. I can't think of any others in the USA. I'm not sure if the Rabbit or the Shelby GLH made the "lightweight" cut.

The Swift may not be the coolest of that bunch but it is the newest (least rust). It has the best HP/weight of the bunch in stock form (I think) and fuel injection is always nice to have. Also, it's probably the cheapest (today) and has the most spare parts (from the GEO).

At least that's why I bought mine.

Unfortunately, after you consider modifications, the Swift will probably end up number 3 of that group.

ed

i don't know, ed.

as i recall it, as usual, the good minis were in canada and weren't exactly legal to import to the usa at the time. the safety conformation act of 1974 absolutely killed the mini in the states.

i was on acquisition missions as a young man and the 1250 cooper gts were not all that and a bag of chips!

you can't "heel and toe" a mini, their transmissons handgrenade and then, just for giggles, sir gilbert ever so cleverly built in the greatest planned obsolescense scheme ever devised - the crankcase and gearbox share the same lubricant

i'm pretty sure that you didn't willfully omit the saab sonett in that short list. my 1968 1500 cc V4 powered saab weighed in at 1275 lbs. wet could kick the snot outta' any of the cars you mentioned in alley rallyes and auto-x (back in the day we referred to those contests as gymkhanas, what can i say? i'm a geezer!

with a bunch of hard core racing mods like trap door oil sumps, crank scrapers, oil cooling, weber dcohII carb, blah, blah, blah, you could get a mighty fine 200 ponies out of the old ford industrial motor without straining it. on the down side, you weren't going to pull that engine by hand (although as a young strapping buck, i would get a big buddy, a 2x4 and a chain and the 2 of us could muscle an engine with the transaxle out.) the v4 responded to tuning the same as a ford 289 small block, because it was essentially a 289 cut in half with the addition of a counter balance shaft and a european water pump.

also, don't discount the old vw beetle. although they were the epitome of a rust bucket, a ditch magnet, and a death trap there were an awful lot of porsche inspired go-fast goodies available through outfits like EICO for them.

i don't know if you would consider the corvair a light weight, but they were cheap and considerably spritely. i'll never forget the look on the face of the guy in the v8 nova after i spanked him roundly in my turbo'd horizontally opposed 6 cylinder "sleeper" spyder. i drove to toronto my first time with 3 other guys with that car and remember getting 3 speeding tickets on the new york tollway on the way home, the band "america" was playing "a horse with no name" on the am radio, the package of oreo cookies was open in the car for too long and the oreos tasted like gasoline, and we were tokin' up the last of the horrible crap we scored on young st! aaahhh, those were the days!

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1991 Blue Geo Metro Convertible highly modified 1.0L Turbo3 5 spd. - 1991 Red Geo Metro Convertible customized with a Twincam 5 spd.

My Turbo3 Project
My Cardomain Page -Ol' Blue
My YouTube Channel
My Photo Gallery
SAAB Sonett II

You may be right. I've never actually sat in a Mini. All I know about them is that I like their looks and a lot of people race them.

Even though a friend of mine was road racing the SAAB Sonett a few years ago, it was kind of before my time. It was a car that nobody really knew about. I remember Autoweek articles about Denise McCluggage having to fight with gas station attentants to put oil in the gas tank. (wimin dont know nuttin about cars duh) That was the earlier version, I don't know when they converted that car to 4 stroke.

Sure, there are several other light weight sporty cars but there aren't that many lightweight FWD sporty cars to directly compete with the Swift GT.

The Ford Fiesta was a popular race car for a while too but I guess I just forgot about all those cars that I didn't like the styling.

In the fuel injected era there simply is no other car like it.

To make a real collectable you need a certain amount of popularity when it was new. The Swift GT is kind of borderline there. I'm not sure enough people knew how good it was to make it a collectible.

ed

Great dicussion, I bought my GT 1990 new and have kept it for many reasons. At the time I looked for cars that were simalar and I could aford. Good gas milage and power!! . I had up to 48 MPG

I had a Honda before Civic CVCC looked for more power at that time 1976 but was limited.

I remember seeing the car for the first time and thinking cute sporty car. I looked at the Honda Si at the time and the Rabit. The honda of that era I don't see much of any more, (Hated honda since the civic) A friend had one, sold it soon after. The price was at a preimum, the Swift was a great deal $11,575.00. Last one for the year. I think this is what killed it later cheap prices for what you were getting. I never thought much about the future value but know the premium models of any car will do the best.

I had a 65 Plymouth sport fury Conv. for over 20 years not much in popularity for many of those, but now it has its place and it worth what you put in to it. Rust is the only thing that will devalue the Swift and most cars. I had mine rust checked from time o time - Just take care of it and I see the day when its value will go up.

Its been the best dam car I have had not one real failure.
Now at 246,000 and turbo kit installed its just that much better.

If modified keep it clean, the ones modified alot will limits its apeel, to the general public.

Also what car are coming out simalar to it now - The new Mini Cooper.
The weight it high

While nice it costs!!!! again the top model will be worth collecting.

I wonder how many clean swift GT will be out there in the coming years

I have not wrote much for some time, looked back at some of my earlier posts. This was 12 years ago!!

I still look often but not much to add, my GT still rests comfortably in storage, I start it and look it over remembering. Hhuuumm...

Car is still for sale.

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90 Swift GT - GT-BBT25 turbo Red - For Sale
99 MX-5 10th AE Saphire Blue
2011 Infiniti G37x
2010 Equator White
2000 Solara convert

I don't think the GTi has reached collectible status just yet. To me, the mk1 and mk2 reached classic car status. (Here i can get insurance for 25+ yo cars cheap because they consider it classic car).
As for collectable status, I'll give the mk1 and mk2 another 15 years.

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1991-GTi: JE 75mm 11:1 pistons,Ported head, Single UD pulley (OCC),Sandros chip,Aluminium flywheel,3tech 222/365 cams, Cultus headers,Cultus IM,50mm tb,Crane cams adjustable cam gears,Apex suspension, 4.39fd GB.
1989-GTi: 3Tech 210/340 Cams,Cultus IM, B&G springs, TD04L turbo, Apexi SAFC, Suzukird UD pulley, Circuitse7en dual boost controller, AEM wideband, AEM water / meth injection kit, HKS bov.
2001-Altezza AS200: Stock.-sold
2003-EVO7 GT-A
Aruba "one happy island".

Thanks. - I understand , we actually have 3 cars in the same group with very cheap insurance, it better be they are not driven that much !

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90 Swift GT - GT-BBT25 turbo Red - For Sale
99 MX-5 10th AE Saphire Blue
2011 Infiniti G37x
2010 Equator White
2000 Solara convert

I think we are still 10 years away from a true 90s cult classic resurgence . You can still find a usable swift for 2500 to 3000 or more if you want one that is heavily modified . Im just holding on to mine as it is now a weekend vehicle along with the other two. Having a company car really helps keep the miles off, as well as to make you not so annoyed with the cars little nagging issues (such as window regulators ). I believe the swift gt/gti vehicles will at some point raise in value but it isn't going to be double the original MSRP in my lifetime .

Frank

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92 Swift GT , 94 Metro 4 door 376k miles , 87 Samurai G16A very modified

Collectible? Maybe.

Hoardable? Clearly

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Spanish Inquisition Racing chip burning service--build yourself a custom chip!
http://www.teamswift.net/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=57216

I still have a 89 gti that has not been driven sense 1994. Its all there like new, i thought about doing some modifications, but it maybe worth more original.

PICS PLEASE!!!!!!!

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92 Swift GT , 94 Metro 4 door 376k miles , 87 Samurai G16A very modified

Can't say much for collectible here in the Caribbean, since people like to drive new cars as their wallets get fatter. But the GT is definitely becoming an endangered species. In the past two months, the only two Swift GT's that were competing in circuit racing have both crashed and the owners have pretty much written them off. Which leaves me with mine....

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~the other Ralph~
Certified Suzuki Owner:
MKIII Swift GTi - The Green Destiny!
2010 Suzuki Jimny - The DD Workhorse!

So there's only one left in Trinidad?

There are only 10 true complete gti left here on the island. Plus there is this awd justy with a 1.6 block / gti head + turbo. There are a few GTi shells around, but they're missing a lot of parts that it's not worth restoring.

And I have the only 2 mk2's left...

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1991-GTi: JE 75mm 11:1 pistons,Ported head, Single UD pulley (OCC),Sandros chip,Aluminium flywheel,3tech 222/365 cams, Cultus headers,Cultus IM,50mm tb,Crane cams adjustable cam gears,Apex suspension, 4.39fd GB.
1989-GTi: 3Tech 210/340 Cams,Cultus IM, B&G springs, TD04L turbo, Apexi SAFC, Suzukird UD pulley, Circuitse7en dual boost controller, AEM wideband, AEM water / meth injection kit, HKS bov.
2001-Altezza AS200: Stock.-sold
2003-EVO7 GT-A
Aruba "one happy island".

if i can find a way of posting photos from my phone to the site. I will do!

@instant_shine....naw, mine is not the only one left. But there are not that many to begin with, and now basically we have no representation when it comes to circuit racing.

By my count, there may only be between five to ten GTi's left, that are driven here.

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~the other Ralph~
Certified Suzuki Owner:
MKIII Swift GTi - The Green Destiny!
2010 Suzuki Jimny - The DD Workhorse!