Fresh off the boat is this 2016 Suzuki Alto Works, a grade 4.5 car with 45,700 miles on the clock. It's the front wheel drive variant, so at 670kg it's the lightest version of Suzuki's most serious kei car. If you've been waiting for an excuse to get into kei cars, this is a good place to start.
Kei cars are having a moment
We've been banging on about kei cars for years, so it's good to see everyone else catching up. The recent Grand Tour series has got people talking about them again. Kei cars have to meet strict Japanese rules on size and engine capacity, which leaves engineers with nothing to hide behind. The good ones rely on low weight, clever packaging and a chassis that makes 64PS feel like much more. The Alto Works is one of the best examples of that approach.
What makes the Alto Works different
The standard Alto is a sensible city car. The Works is what happened when Suzuki's engineers decided sensible wasn't enough. Everything on it points towards driving, from the stiffer suspension to the factory Recaro bucket seats that hold you in place far better than anything else in the class.
The R06A 658cc turbocharged three cylinder makes 64PS and 100Nm, and in a car weighing 670kg that goes a long way. It feels properly nippy, pulling keenly through the gears and darting into gaps that bigger cars can only look at. The five speed manual has a short, sharp throw that makes you want to change gear for the fun of it, and there's a proper manual handbrake between the seats that's asking to be yanked on the way into a tight hairpin.
The suspension is firm. Suzuki fitted KYB dampers developed for the Works, and the car stays flat and eager through corners. On a bumpy B road you'll feel every bump and pothole, and with UK roads in the state they're in there are plenty of those. That's part of the deal though, and most owners wouldn't have it any other way.
Front wheel drive or four wheel drive?
The Alto Works was sold with front wheel drive or four wheel drive. We've driven both, and the front wheel drive car is just as much fun and often more so, especially on tarmac. It's around 50kg lighter, feels a little more alert on turn in and gives you a clear sense of what the front tyres are doing. The four wheel drive version makes sense in snowy Japanese prefectures, but in the UK the lighter car is the one we'd pick.
Quirky looks with a purpose
The styling is an acquired taste that most people acquire quickly. It's boxy and upright with a hint of the VW Up GTI about it, finished with Works detailing and a set of 15 inch rally style alloys that suit it perfectly. The front bumper has plenty of functional air ducts and there's a top mount intercooler under the bonnet feeding the turbo, so the details do a job as well as looking the part.
Inside it's like a Tardis. The tall roofline and square body give you more head and shoulder room than you'd expect from a car this small, and four adults will fit for shorter trips. Red accents and the Recaros stop it feeling like a budget runaround.
Room to tweak
Being turbocharged, the R06A has a bit more to give. Intake, exhaust and ECU upgrades are popular in Japan, and a few extra horsepower are there for the taking without losing the car's reliability or character.
This example
We sourced this Alto Works at auction in Japan through our personal import service. A grade 4.5 is an excellent result for a kei car, since most of them live busy lives on tight city streets, and it tells you this one has been looked after. At 45,700 miles it has plenty of life left and has been used as intended without being worn out.
Why you should import one
Fuel is expensive, speed limits keep dropping and parts and labour prices keep rising. A kei car answers all of that. It's cheap to buy, cheap to run and cheap to own, and it gives you plenty of thrills without turning you into a menace on the road. You can use most of its performance most of the time, which is more than you can say for most modern performance cars.
It's also more fun than it has any right to be. On every photoshoot we do, the kei cars are the ones that give us the most laughs, and the Alto Works was no different.
If you'd like this one, or you'd like us to find one for you, get in touch with the team or find out more about our personal import service. We handle everything from the auction in Japan to delivery in the UK.
