A Swift DDiS driven by an Auckland motoring journalist has just completed a marathon economy drive down New Zealand’s North Island from Auckland to Wellington and then headed back to within just 60km of reaching home in Auckland before the tank finally ran dry.

Donn Anderson drove a total distance before refuelling of 1,240km (764 miles) and the Swift achieved it on just one 42 litre tank of fuel, recording an average fuel consumption of 3.36 litres/100km or 83.4 mpg across the whole journey – a 16.1mpg improvement on the EC Combined figure. Anderson drove at cruising speeds of between 50 and 60mph where possible and thought that the fuel consumption could have been even better had he not encountered high winds and torrential rain on the journey.

In the UK last year, Swift 1.3 DDiS achieved an even higher mpg figure when entered in the annual MPG Marathon. Suzuki entered two Swifts and one achieved 86.4 mpg over the 370 mile test route with the other not far behind at 84.6 mpg.

The Swift DDiS is one of the cleanest and cheapest cars to run in the Supermini sector with emissions of just 109g/km, annual VED charges of just £20 and an insurance group rating of 10E.