THINK you know all about cars? Then tell me this: what do the following cars have in common - the Subaru Justy, the Pontiac Firefly, the Chevrolet Sprint, the Geo Metro and the Maruti Esteem?

The answer is that they are all variations on the same car - the humble Suzuki Swift.

Since it went on sale in 1986 the Swift has been hugely successful for Suzuki.

The basic design has been licensed by car makers all over the world and has been largely responsible for propelling Suzuki to the edge of the global top ten car makers.

At least, the Swift has been hugely successful everywhere apart, that is, from the European market.

Maybe it's because superminis are so popular over here and the competition is therefore so much tougher, but Europe has never really embraced the Swift.

It has been moderately popular in the UK thanks to aggressive pricing and a reputation for longevity, but Swift sales figures were never going to give the man responsible for marketing the Ford Fiesta sleepless nights.

This situation irks Suzuki. After all, if the company is to realise its plan to break into the world's top ten it needs the Swift to be wildly popular all over the globe.

That's why European input into the fourth generation Swift has been considerable. The chassis and suspension owe nothing to the old Swift, a car that remained on sale too long for its own good. Nor does the cheeky new bodyshell.

If the new Swift owes a stylistic nod to any car then it's probably the BMW Mini.

My two-year-old pronounced the Swift a Mini car' as soon as he set eyes on it and he isn't far wrong.

The floating' roof sitting on blacked out front and centre pillars is classic Mini - as is the chunky wheel at each corner stance, the wide track and the reverse slope rear side windows. Suzuki has gone its own way with the headlights but the way they wrap around the bodywork is standard supermini design these days.

Sure it's a bit derivative, but at least Suzuki picked arguably the best-looking supermini on the market to base its ideas on - and there's no doubting the new Swift is a heck of a lot cooler than its predecessors. Everyone who saw it, male or female, agreed the Swift was a looker, and that's a very difficult trick to pull off.

Sadly, the need to make the Swift cheaply meant Suzuki couldn't afford to copy the Mini's cabin so you'll search in vain for those jewel-like switches and beautifully crafted slivers of chrome and metal that make the Mini such a special place to sit.

Instead the Swift has a perfectly modern - if somewhat modest - seating area trimmed with hard plastics that are predominantly black with just a few splashes of silver paint to brighten the place up.

There's nothing wrong with it. The instrument pack is nice 'n clear (the rev counter needle starts from the six o'clock position, as it does on Suzuki's sports bikes) and the CD player is picked out in fashionable piano black. It's also good to see Suzuki has fitted a bespoke audio unit rather than a stupid (but cheaper) after-market item festooned with tiny, hard-to-see buttons. Sure, the electric windows judder a bit as they move up and down and the stalks feel a bit flimsy but, at this price, the Swift is hard to fault.

Several passengers were surprised by the head and legroom inside because the Swift looks smaller on the outside than it really is. Four adults can be seated comfortably and there are enough cubbies to accommodate the usual family detritis that seems to gather in any car in my possession for more than a few hours.

I had one or two concerns about the build quality, though. The glovebox lid didn't fit properly and there were one or two rattles that mysteriously came and went during the test period. Swifts bound for Europe aren't manufactured in Japan - they're built in Hungry alongside the WagonR and the Ignis.

Quality-wise there should be no difference, though, so check your prospective purchase over diligently.

Overall the cabin ambience is a huge step forward for a small Suzuki, easily on a par with the best us Europeans can muster in the Panda, Corsa and the Fiesta.

Suzuki offers the Swift with a wide range of small petrol engines and a diesel. It has lots of experience making petrol powerplants thanks to the motorcycle arm of the company, but the last Suzuki diesel I remember, the one in the old Grand Vitara, had a touch too much of the Massey Ferguson about it. It clattered like a tractor. Perhaps in recognition of this, the diesel in the Swift isn't a Suzuki design at all. It's a Fiat.

For a while Suzuki and Fiat were close bedfellows. They worked together on the small 4x4 that would become the SX4 and Suzuki got to use the Panda's award-winning 1.3-litre multi jet diesel for the Swift. I have to say that Suzuki got the better deal because the little 1.3-litre oil burner is a cracker.

Once you've grown accustomed to the slight turbo lag and adjusted your driving style to suit, the diesel powered Swift is a flier. It tackles hills and inclines without a hitch whereas the driver of a petrol Swift would need a downchange - and it averages 15mpg more.

Mechanical refinement is good, too, particularly at cruising speeds and there's more than enough comfort and performance to tackle long journeys with confidence.

That being the case you'll need to clock up the miles because the extra cash a Swift diesel demands over its petrol-powered cousins can only be recouped at the pumps.

The Fiat multijet engined version sits in the same road tax bracket as the Swift 1.3 petrol.

In fact, the increasing popularity and price premium turbodiesels command over petrols these days makes the description cheap diesel' something of an oxymoron.

At least the DDiS version should hold on to its value rather better than its petrol rivals because thrifty drivers like nothing more than small secondhand diesels.

The Swift DDiS is also nicer to drive than its petrol-propelled cousins (GTi excepting) and is capable of sustained higher speeds over a longer period of time. It has the cheeky charm of a Mini but costs significantly less. No-one will laugh at your choice of wheels or think that you were forced to buy a cheap car because the Swift doesn't look or feel built to a price point. It's a landmark car for Suzuki - one that should help the Japanese make the breakthrough in Western Europe they crave. It's also a worthy torchbearer for a car company looking to break into the world's top ten.

SPECIFICATION

Engine: 1.3-litre turbodiesel
Power: 69.3 bhp @ 4,000 rpm
Transmission: Six-speed semi-manual
Top speed: 113mph
0-60 mph: 11.5 seconds
Fuel consumption: 61.4 mpg
CO2: 120g/km
Equipment: power steering, electric windows, heated door mirrors, pollen filter, central locking, steering wheel audio controls, six-speaker CD, twin airbags, side and curtain airbags, ABS with EBD, brake assist