Suzuki Swift’s Allgrip digs in – no matter what

It’s showtime, well festival time to be more accurate.

‘Kendal’ Calling, well if you want to be pedantic, it’s more like Lowther Deer Park which is nearer Penrith than Kendal.

Am I too old for music festivals? Yes I am – which is why I’m only dropping off the boy and his friends then heading back to civilisation. I’m not daft.

What’s the killer of any festival? Rain. Well at least there isn’t much of that in Cumbria. Oh dear.

What’s the problem for cars when it’s raining at a music festival? Getting in and getting out again.

Being a deer park, there’s only grass to park on and drive over and that could be a problem. Lowther makes this worse by being held on a series of rolling hills and while there is a decent network of estate roads, once you are off the beaten track you are reliant on the traction of the vehicle you are being carried in.

Let’s face it, a Suzuki Swift might not be your first weapon of choice when you have to go soft-roading, or so you would think.

But this particular model comes with intelligent all-wheel drive.

It’s ‘intelligent’ because you don’t need to worry about, it does all the thinking for you. The system does everything to such an extent that you probably won’t even notice it working.

When conditions are good it is happy to send power through the front wheels and that helps with economy. But when it notices either of the front wheel losing traction then power switches to all four wheels.

So as we travel up an incline on wet grass did it come into play or not? Well, it’s hard to tell unless you have lots of experience of wet grass.

I’m absolutely certain that this particular incline would have had a front-wheel drive car struggling over the wet grass.

But this time, there isn’t so much as a twitch and the little Swift just digs in and gets us where we need to be without any interruption of grip. Brilliant.

It also works on the asphalt. I’m travelling down a twisty wet country road and deliberately explore the levels of grip.

This time I feel the front go light but the back end steps in to correct any hint of a slide. It’s a great system and more remarkable still for the fact that the Swift Allgrip only costs £22k.

In the winter it really will be a must-have addition giving drivers that extra confidence to travel in the wet, sludge, snow and ice.

Festival over and back in one piece, it’s off to the boy’s five-day drama summer school. That’s 289 miles of motorway then in a Suzuki Swift.

Prepare to be amazed again. The little Suzuki is surprisingly comfortable, spacious and capable.

The seats are very supportive and I’m happy to sit there for hours on end.

The driving position is perfect, the clutch is light, the five speed manual gearbox is slick and needs minimal changes and the 1.2 three cylinder hybrid motor is happy to cruise at 70mph while sipping at the fuel – the trip computer is reading more than 60mpg.

Allgrip comes with slightly higher ride height and longer travel suspension which is what you need for our patchwork of lumpy roads and the ride and handling are excellent.

There’s satnav to take me to the hotel, a decent infotainment centre with good sound system for my Spotify tunes and even cruise control and aircon.

The journey is as relaxed as if we were in something twice the price and the economy suits me just fine.

The boot is surprisingly accommodating too and takes the bags we need for the week and there is the peace of mind you get with Suzuki’s utter reliabilty.

The week could not have been more testing, more demanding, and the Swift came up trumps every time, no matter what was asked.

Price, capability, reliability and even personality, the Suzuki has it all and deserves to be in the spotlight every time you consider changing the car.