Brand’s go-to lightfoot hits four figures with Suzuki’s popular hatch.

AN old hand at frugal driving often called upon by Suzuki New Zealand to set remarkable fuel economy returns has done it again.

In squeezing more than 1000 kilometres’ range from the latest Swift in its GLS trim, using both manual and automatic editions, Donn Anderson achieved several hundred kilometres’ additional range than the maker estimates.

Except for Suzuki, extreme economy driving is not often undertaken by car brands here, but the small car specialist finds it to be a useful publicity tool.

A retired motoring journalist who has been involved in fuel economy events for more than 30 years, Anderson has been the brand’s go-to for years.

The trigger for this one appears to be obvious, with high fuel prices and concern about supply now of national interest.

Anderson extracted just 3.0 litres per 100 kilometres’ economy from the manual, a result that is 25 percent more frugal than this version’s factory figure of 4L/100km.

He also saw a best of 3.3L/100km from the CVT auto which is cited for 4.3L/100km by Suzuki Japan.

Wanganui-based Suzuki NZ says this equates to a driving range of 1233 kilometres for the manual and 1121km for the automatic, based on the standard 37 litre fuel tank.

It did not claim the cars were driven the full distance, to point of running dry.

The driving was conducted on North Island roads over a mixture of motorway, rural open roads and built-up city streets, beginning and ending in Auckland.

Anderson said he concentrated on decelerating as much as possible to conserve fuel but noted that the car’s integrated starter system, which shuts off the engine at idle, was also a factor to achieving leanness.