Suzuki [ Swift Sport ] SOLD

As I’ve said in previous posts, I love my little Swift Sport. I have driven it halfway around Japan, literally the whole of Hokkaido and nearly three-quarters of the main island’s prefectures. The car has given me great confidence in its handling prowess and enjoyment in its comfort and ride quality. For those interested in sporty, yet very practical cars, the Swift Sport is perfect. It features superb handling, good power-to-weight ratio, and a smooth 5-speed manual transmission, all with the practicality of 5 seats and ample hatchback interior space. But I have changed the aftermarket parts off of it in the preparation to sell the car. And now it is gone...

There are quite a few ways to sell a car in Japan, so I carefully considered the pros and cons of each before I finally decided on the best course of action. There are two primary ways to sell a car, directly or through a third party.

Direct
Of course, there is always the most direct method to sell a car, buyer-to-buyer: by finding a buyer through word-of-mouth or by advertising in various forums or online sites. This might net me a fair amount of yen, but it is highly dependent on the appearance of the car in photos and the general desirability of the car… if they’re a dime-a-dozen Wagon R, I highly suspect that people aren’t going to be paying top dollar for your vehicle if they can find another one that looks better. Or if it’s strange or otherwise super eclectic, it won’t draw enough people to search and hunt for your car. And all this requires the greatest amount of effort to spread the word.

The second direct method commonly used is selling through online auctions like Yahoo! Auctions or Mercari. Given the fact I am in Japan, this requires a bit of Japanese language skill and a lot of legwork. First off, customers may ask to see the car before bidding or ask very specific questions that would be difficult to answer. Poorly written replies would draw less confidence in the buyer. After all, they might be putting a lot of money down so they won’t just go spend willy-nilly. Secondly, there is potential for auction failures or bid cancellations. Anyone who has used eBay knows this quite well. It is not uncommon even in Japan for bidders to regret their bids after. Third, but not lastly, even if the car is sold and payment has been made, the issue of arranging pickup and name transfer is not as easy as signing over a pink slip. (I’ve done this nearly a dozen times and it still confuses me.) However, this actually might net me the highest income from the widest potential customer base, dependent on the aforementioned factors.

Third-Party Sales
Many people in Japan end up selling their 10 year-old cars to a used car dealership like Gulliver or Big Motor, two of the more common shops I see around locally, because it is a simple, smooth, and quick transaction. They are typically looking for a certain type of car, usually newer and unmodified, to resell back on their huge lots. Unfortunately, with such huge storefronts, inventory, and staff, they have higher overhead operating costs and will pass such onto any customer looking to sell off a car. Convenience comes at a price, after all.

I’ll give you my own personal example. I brought a friend’s car to Gulliver a few months ago and their quote was… disappointing, to say the least. A perfectly-operating, decently-new kei car with some shaken left should definitely fetch more than 5000￥... the shaken alone would be worth more. Let’s just say I will never be back to support them.

What happens to a car they buy that they are not interested in reselling or doesn’t meet their standards? They end up getting pushed to a second third-party seller by way of an auctioneer….

Which is the last option available to me at this time. A car auctioneer is a licensed dealer who can buy and sell cars at car auctions, none of which are open to the public. Aforementioned dealers will sell their car to these auctioneers for pennies on the dollar as a quick way to rid themselves of excess inventory. They will, in turn, take the car and prep it for the auction block.

If you’re any kind of car fanatic, you would likely have come across a glimpse of this on Mighty Car Mods. If you haven’t watched the video or follow them at all, I would highly recommend checking them out.

Buyers of said auctions will usually be small, niche dealers looking to sell to their local markets, doing minimal maintenance and slapping shaken on it essentially in name only. Buying from such auctions and smaller dealerships is a bit of a gamble; you have to take on a bit of risk with the lower price.

In the end, I took the second-easiest route that will also net me the second-lowest amount, the auctioneer. My friend at Rodeo Cars has a friend in Nagoya working at such a place. So the drop-off was made on Saturday, November 30th.

While the car is gone, it is technically not SOLD. Not just yet. It’ll go on the auction chopping block in the next few weeks. How much it’ll sell for is a complete unknown, but estimations go for about 100,000￥ ($900 USD). Yes, I know it’s not much, but that is how car auctions go. I’ll update when I get the final selling price.

We’ve had a good run, buddy... This is the literal end of the road for us.

Update December 15, 2019: The car sold at auction for 150,000￥, which is actually on the high end of what other Swift Sports go for. Unfortunately, the auctioneer takes a set fee for handling, but overall, I am not displeased.

Time to go car shopping!

[ Swift Sport ] Headlight Restoration & Maintenance

Maintaining a car may not be the most glamorous thing, though it surely might be the most important thing to do. Everyone who has a modicum of knowledge knows it is a necessity to keep the car running right. Oil changes, tires, brakes, batteries…

Heck, if you care about the car, maybe even a car wash or two. Look at that difference…

Before I took my recent Hokkaido road trip, I made sure I did a proper oil change on my Swift Sport which is recommended at about 5000kms. While that is a bit low and often quite unnecessary, I change it at about that mileage due to the more “aggressive” nature of my driving. And of course, after my 5000km trip, another oil change...

Get that dark stuff out! Luckily, unlike my Alto Works <l>, the filter is quite easy to reach at the bottom of the engine block.

The last thing I wanted to do was run the battery down listening to music and get stranded in some remote location in Hokkaido. So the 5 year-old battery had to go. Out with the old…

And in with the new.

As expected with a car that is 12 years old with over 100,000 kms on the odometer, there will be a few things on the exterior that don’t look new. I am lucky because my Swift generally looks pretty good. There are no major dents or scratches anywhere on the car that I could see. However, if you take a look, you can see the left headlight in particular not looking quite squeaky clean.

You can especially see how scratched and “yellowed” it is on the right picture. This is pretty normal for all modern plastic-housed headlights after some time, due to UV rays, salt, heat, and typical scratches. On older glass-based headlights, this will never occur.

There are a few ways to prevent this from happening and to alleviate it if it does happen. The main method of preventing it from even occurring is to never drive your car and park it in a hermetically-sealed garage... I’m kidding, of course. But that’s where clear, outdoor, UV-resistant vinyl comes in. The vinyl protects against the aforementioned wear and oxidation, keeping the headlights looking great for a very long time.

There are pre-cut kits that are model-specific and general sheets that have to be user-cut. While the vinyl is generally inexpensive, the skill necessary to put down vinyl over complex curves (as on a headlight) should be best left to a professional or someone with a bit of experience. Since I have absolutely next to none, I’m not going to do this for now. (I actually did a great job on my Evo X, but a really crappy job on my old Camry Solara,* so…)

However, I can revive my old headlights and bring them back to respectable shape. This is the most typical method to revive an old, scratched cover. There are a wide variety of kits out on the market and generally they include some abrasive materials and a liquid coating. The abrasive materials are simply varying sandpaper grits meant to rub off and even off the surface layer of the headlight. These can often be used with water to help lubricate as you sand. Some kits are meant to be sanded by hand which can be exhausting, so there are attachments meant to go on buffer machines to reduce labor.

For the final step, the coating can be wax or some kind of semi-permanent clear coat. This layer is critical to keeping the headlights look great for a long time. Wax products only last for a few months so some sort of clear coating is preferable. The kit I’m using includes this liquid which they claim is a UV-reducing polymer.

After sanding the crap out of it (perhaps literally), I applied the coating which smells a bit like chemical wax. I question how much different it is from something like 3M sythentic wax.

Either way, it ends up looking like this. Not perfect and like new, but still quite beautiful.

Just a word of note, these sort of kits do not work for any mold or discoloration occurring behind the outer lens, obviously. Also, the proverbial elephant in the room is that all these kits can often be purchased piecemeal if you are a savvy DIY-er… for multiple uses and cars, this can often be much cheaper than buying one-use kits. There is essentially nothing “magical” in these.

*Don’t ask. I am not proud of my car history.

[ Swift Sport ] (Un-) Modifications, Part 6

After my summer long road trip and travel around Japan recently, I feel really connected with my Suzuki Swift Sport. I can say definitively that the car has an amazing balance of everything I look for in a daily driver: sharp handling, good power-to-weight performance, reliability, comfort, and spaciousness. The car can prove itself well up and down curvy mountain passes, have enough power to pass slower cars on the roads, all while having the comfort of carrying two weeks’ worth of clothes, camping equipment, omiyage, and an Alto Works roll cage.

To thank my Swift for soldiering on through tens of thousands of kilometers of highways and narrow touge roads, I accumulated a few “modification” parts: wheels, exhaust, rear wing, rear wiper, seats, steering wheel, floor mat, steel nuts…

You might have noticed that all of these parts are stock parts. You might be asking what is the point of showcasing them in this post? How are they a “mod”?

Well, I’m un-modifiying my car. Let’s take a look in horror and sadness of a car undergoing a transformation back to stock.

All good things must come to an end.

Now that the car is back to as much stock as reasonably possible, what’s next in store for my Swift? Well, if you haven’t already gathered, these changes have been made so that the car can be sold in somewhat original condition.

Much as in other automobile second-hand markets, typically buyers will not want or care about aftermarket modifications, so anything attached to the car will get little to no additional value. In actuality, aftermarket parts often cause a decrease in resale value, as it signals to the next buyer that the car may have been mistreated, damaged, or worn. Perhaps even the previous owner installed parts incorrectly.

Of course, I know better than to put together a shoddy car (okay, maybe my Alto Works exempted), but nonetheless this applies. So if you or someone you know is interested in an amazing, well-maintained sporty hatchback, please drop me a message!

[ Swift Sport ] Project Mu TYPE PS Brake Pads (Modifications, Part 5B)

I agonized weeks over the decision on my replacement front pads, comparing prices, reviews, and brands of several major manufacturers. Prices range from 3000￥ ($25 USD) for OEM-level equipment, to well over 20,000￥ ($190 USD) for track-use pads. Since the fronts do a lot of the braking work, especially for a front-engined, front-drive car, and the fact that I do somewhat harsh spirited street driving, selecting carefully between price and braking performance is critical. Also because this is a daily-driver, cold braking performance, brake dust, and noise are also important.

Due to a lack of real trustworthy reviews I could rely on, I recognized price is not the only determining factor. My Miata has cheap Pep Boys pads, but as I hinted before, pads do not make the only difference. For that car, I used high quality DOT4 fluid… and the car stops consistently well, even after hard autocrossing and track use. Granted, the car is rather light, but that setup is more than good enough for my use.

For my Swift Sport, though, I finally settled on a set of TM Square Street Brake Pads which are priced at 8600￥. TM Square is a small, but well-known manufacturer of primarily Suzuki Swift parts. While I’m fairly certain they don’t make the pads in-house, they claim their pad compound was engineered specifically for them. The company has a lot of race experience with Suzukis, so I expected them to work fairly well.

However, I was glad I was patient on the decision-making because during the waiting interm, I found a great deal on a brand new, unused but “second hand” set of Project Mu TYPE PS pads. They originally retail at  20,000￥, but because they were considered “open box”... they were about 5000￥ ($45 USD), shipped. Ridiculously cheap for arguably one of their best overall pads from a well-respected manufacturer, as these pads claim to have a great balance of braking performance, pedal feel, little noise, and reduced rotor wear.

I opted not to replace the rotors at this time, given that the overall condition of them are still quite good. Maybe after these stiffer pads wear down would I replace the rotors then.

Time to put it up on a lift and replace the brakes. One thing I absolutely love about modern disc brakes is the fact they are super easy to replace. Remove the one lower bolt and the whole brake assembly pivots on the upper bolt.

Perhaps the most difficult task is to push the piston in… without the right tools, it’s a minor hassle, but luckily I have access to a proper piston compression tool here at Rodeo Cars.

After a bit of cleaning and some application of high-temperature lubrication to minimize pad chatter, the whole assembly is back in place. This is also a good time to drain a bit of the brake fluid and replace it with fresh fluid. Since it is still pretty clean from my last shaken, it doesn’t need a full drain or flush.

The first thing that needs to be done once everything is cinched back up is bedding the brakes. The process to bed in a brake pad is pretty easy, but it’s quite important. The main reason to do this is to ensure some friction is done and wear surfaces are mated properly. Essentially, I need to heat the pads and rotors sufficiently by having a few relatively hard high-speed stops. Without anyone around, I found some empty stretches of road nearby where I could do this safely and not bother anyone.

After a few hundred kilometers of fairly typical street driving, my initial impressions are pretty darn good. The brake pads have never squealed (other than the first drive after a wet night due to rotor rust… but that applies with all cars). The brake pedal is firm and braking pressure is consistent.

I only had a chance to flex the pads a bit on some local winding roads before I made this post and I can say quite certainly they are as they claim. I purposely tried to quickly push hard on the brakes on every corner in order to get the brakes as hot as possible. The initial bite is strong and feels consistent through several hard braking passes. Even afterwards, I noticed minor brake dust on my wheels, but it is not that much different than the previous pads and to be fair, I tried to drive relatively hard on them.

In truth, however, I have not tested them to their maximum heat capacity, so how they fare on hard driving or circuit driving is another matter. I do have faith in their advertised performance based on the driving I did thus far and Project mu’s reputation in racing. Brake job done!

[ Swift Sport ] Project Mu TYPE PS Brake Pads (Modifications, Part 5A)

After all my recent Hokkaido and Eastern Honshu road trip around Japan, my brakes have been run down to about a quarter remaining, so I figured one of the most important “modifications” I can do is maintenance in the form of a good brake job on my Suzuki Swift Sport.

Brakes are one of the most important safety aspects of a car. In conjunction with good tires, good brakes can literally be the difference between life and death... or a wrecked car. Almost all modern cars use disc brakes, but some economy cars, such as kei cars, use drum brakes for the rear. Their stopping methods are different and there are some minor positive reasons to use drums over discs for the rear, but suffice to say most sport-oriented cars utilize discs all around.

Disc brakes, as the name implies, use large, typically steel, disc rotors attached to the wheel and hub. One or more brake pistons push against brake pads which apply pressure to the spinning disc, slowing the car down by changing the kinetic energy state to sound, heat, and wear. Most discs also incorporate vents and spacing in the center of the disc to better dissipate heat. More advanced rotors are made of materials that better reject or give off heat like carbon-ceramic or use of mixed metals like steel in the disc and aluminum in the hub hat.

The stopping action of disc brakes is very similar to the way a typical brake system on a bicycle works, with two little pads applying pressure against a spinning disc. Well, in the case of a bike, the wheel itself.

Drum brakes are a completely different design, because they utilize brake pads that push outwards against a spinning brake drum to reduce speed. The main problem with this setup is the inability to reject or reduce heat quickly, critical for sporty applications. 

The benefits of a disc brake are numerous which is why almost all manufacturers currently employ at least disc front brakes. They reject heat quickly, are durable and easily maintained, and may have better stopping power than most drums. Some economy cars utilize drum brakes for the rears simply because of manufacturing costs. However, on off-road truck applications, drum brakes can have some advantages. Drums are essentially sealed items, so in muddy, dusty, or wet applications, drums can still stop despite environmental effects. One additional benefit of drum brakes is the ease and reliability of the mechanical parking brake which does not require the hydraulic booster system to function at all, since the lever actually moves the brake pad directly.

Brakes are an oft overlooked modification for ricers (Iike me). Some car guys dump money into exterior mods or some into improving power or handling… but overlook or cut corners on the brakes. For me, many of the cars I’ve had stop well enough with their stock setup… that’s my excuse at least.

Basic upgrades to brakes mean replacing pads to a more aggressive compound. This usually means more dust and noise, since a more heat-resistant, “stronger” material means more sacrificial wear to the rotors and eventually, the pad itself, resulting in more frequent replacements.

The next level of upgrade is usually to also replace the stock rotors with slotted or cross-drilled disc rotors. Such opening slots allow worn dust and material to be “swept away,” and there are some additional cooling benefits to the increased surface area, but there are some drawbacks like the additional risk of warping or cracking under extreme duress.

The biggest upgrade is to replace the brake system with larger calipers, allowing the use of bigger pads and discs. Some larger calipers also mean there are more pistons which can put more consistent and firmer pressure on the pads, resulting in amazing stopping distances, repeatable over prolonged use. (Assuming the tires are not the weakest link.) Of course, model-specific brake upgrades can be wildly expensive.

Is it all really even necessary? It’s true stock brakes can more than handle slowing a car down quickly for normal day-to-day traffic. But repeated, quick, and harsh stoppages in extreme conditions as found on a racetrack or even on a long touge mountain run, the brakes “fade” and squeak in agony due to warping from heat and pressure, potentially leading to spongy, inconsistent braking feel, weaker pressures, or failure to stop.

It sounds strange to say brakes “fade” because they are still there. It actually just means brake pressures fade or weaken to the point of failing to stop as expected. Assuming the pads and discs are otherwise properly maintained, the most common fault of brake fade during spirited driving is fluid fade, the boiling of the brake fluid itself due to heat transfer. This increased heat in the fluid leads to air separation and loss of pressure. Typically, one can feel the fading gradually from a “spongy” brake pedal that requires more pressure than usual to slow the car.

The commonality of all modern brakes is this brake fluid. The standard OEM-supplied brake fluid is acceptable, but DOT4 or synthetic fluids allow much more heat transfer before the liquid reaches the boiling point, allowing consistent brake feel during aggressive use.

But I digress… it’s time to change the brakes on my Swift Sport!