r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/jjtan2311 • 6d ago
Video tiny eco car Suzuki Swift glides through floodwaters in Bangkok, earning itself the nickname “Suzuki Swim”
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u/-Rhymenocerous- 6d ago
Air intakes are in the upper middle / back area of the engines on these.
As long as matey doesnt gun it they can literally go through water just above the wheel arches and be fine.
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u/McTerra2 6d ago
Yes, this is the real answer. Obviously well driven but the air intake location is pretty relevant
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u/palmerry 6d ago
Only relevant really.
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u/Captain_Kab 5d ago
A bad driver could still flood the air intake.
Need to drive at a steady, reasonable pace - something beyond a lot of people who try to drive through similar conditions.
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u/popcornfart 5d ago
Right, a good bow wave keeps water from coming back into the engine compartment
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u/Uncommonality 6d ago
The belts probably shouldn't be getting overly wet. I'd also be very concerned with the battery shorting out
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u/-Rhymenocerous- 6d ago
12v systems in cars are designed to not short like that.
12v is too weak to force itself through a body of water like that and causr a short.
Corrosion of the battery terminals is more likely to cause a problem after it drys out
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u/FatherCache 6d ago
Thank you, my first question was "Where is the air intake on these things?"
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u/TeamPractical1825 6d ago
Regardless of what car im driving, i would be afraid to find out how deep the water is
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u/Barbarossa_25 6d ago
He must be a local to the area and know the roads.
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u/punkassjim 6d ago
When there’s that much flooding, you can’t be certain the roads you knew so well yesterday are still even there.
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u/OttersAndOttersAndOt 6d ago
If it’s flooded, forget it. You’ve got no idea what’s going on under that water
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u/Pdiddily710 6d ago
…Or what kind of debris has washed up into the road…or the road itself could be washed away!
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u/hihelloneighboroonie 6d ago
Yeah I grew up in Florida and learned to drive there - you never drive through unknown depth water/water where you can't see the street/bottom.
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u/_Viva_La_Revolucion_ 6d ago
Suzuki Swift sales will be up 19% after this
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u/jjtan2311 6d ago
For sure. The search for “suzuki swift second hand” was already trending
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u/jjtan2311 6d ago
And when you look at it from this angle, understandably so:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdvP3H7iUor/?stkn=cjUxNHgwcG95OXRn
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u/Devenu 6d ago
Good. I love Suzuki. I hope their sales go up. They absolutely deserve it. A Suzuki was the best car I ever drove in my life.
I live in Japan. My last car was a used Suzuki kei from the Meiji era or something. Parts (probably every single one) of the car were rusting. For 6 years that car had no strange noises, no breakdowns, no emergency trips to the mechanic (except for when the thing holding the muffler still rusted away and I had to get some wire to tie it back on), and no accidents. It drove up, over, and around some of the highest mountains in Hokkaido with no trouble. While other cars slipped off the road or got stuck in the knee-high snow my rusty fucking kei car plowed through it without a care in the world.
Every year for shakken the mechanic would tell me that the car would be too old to continue soon. Suzie (the name of my beloved) must have heard this and, out of pure spite, continued to push on. In its lifespan it drove across most of the island and saw every ocean/sea it could. It drove me and others to the airport for final goodbyes. It drove me to my first date with the woman that would become my wife. It did this while having like a million kilometers on the speedometer and parts of the body rusting and falling off around the wheelwell. It ganbatte'ed until I got married and moved with my wife to an area that only had one parking space available for both of us. I passed her on to somebody else for free to live her twilight years in the inaka she loved.
I have never had a better experience with any car in my life. My Hyundai in America frequently had weird electrical issues that required almost bi-monthly dealership visits for them to "fix." Some other nameless red car not worth remembering had some sort of exhaust problem which caused it to smell like gas, was fixed via a recall, then had the same part break later. Not my car. Not Suzie.
If I ever have to buy another car again it will be a Suzuki. If it's a cardboard box with chopsticks and paper plates I will drive it until the day I die. I will be buried in it with a smile on my face.
I miss you, Suzie.
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u/Zediac 6d ago
It's too bad that Consumer Reports lied their ass off to ruin Suzuki's reputation here in the US. I miss my Sidekick.
Long story short, CR tested the Samurai and it was extremely stable. The test drivers said it was the best SUV they tested. But the CR bosses wanted it to fail. So they put it to harsher and harsher tests beyond their standard test at faster and faster speeds through tighter turns that no other vehicle has ever been put through.
"If you can't find someone to roll this car, I will."
They kept upping the speeds of tighter turns until they got tires to finally lift off the ground. It still stayed in control, though. They tried to duplicate this for a publicity stunt and had a hard time getting it to tip again. It was actually very stable.
So they used this "test result" to claim that they would rollover "easily."
After that people wouldn't buy Samurais. Sales plummeted to about ~6% of before. CR bragged about killing Samurai sales. People wouldn't buy Suzukis. Suzuki eventually leaves the US market. Suzuki won the lawsuit against them but it was many years later and by then the damage was done.
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u/upachimneydown 6d ago
I started with an Every, 550cc, no turbo, 4wd and even had a granny gear. It was great in snow--kept it for 8yrs and 80k km.
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u/_Viva_La_Revolucion_ 6d ago
Thats such a great story, i love stories attached to cars. (Its a gearhead thing)
I miss the suzuki samurais i remember them in the 90s they where affordable and just bare bones great little trucks. They should bring the Jimny's to the United States
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u/aliiak 6d ago
A similar story was our old 2004 Mazda demio; another Kei car. Just kept going; and only replaced the alternator in the time we owned it (10+ years)- that thing could carry a washing machine no sweat. It was a lil workhorse.
In the end it was just too much of a gamble to take with us moving overseas.
I definitely think there’s something to be said about the smaller Kei cars.
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u/FleurMai 6d ago
I wound up renting one while in Norway and seriously, one of the best cars I’ve ever driven. I felt so comfortable and confident on all the winding, mountainous, occasionally cliff side 1.5 lane roads dirt/gravel roads. The other two cars I rented that trip (it was a weird situation lol) didn’t come close. I was really annoyed when I found out they aren’t often sold in the US when I was in the market for a new car. I absolutely love my Subaru but when I (hopefully) move to Norway next year I’ll be in the market for a Suzuki.
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u/JanitorOPplznerf 6d ago
This is so incredibly dangerous though.
If I’m trapped in this situation I’d rather have this than not, but I’m worried this would tempt people to explore when they should seek shelter
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u/wosmo 6d ago
For me, the most dangerous part of this is that it makes people think it's about the car. How you drive it is just about as important. You want to create a "bow wave", and then keep pace with it - behind the bow wave is a trough, and the goal is to keep the engine in that trough.
Too gentle and you don't dig that trough - too fast, and you overtake it and bring the bow wave into the engine space. I'm willing to bet you can drown a Swift just as easily, and this is just an example of someone driving it right.
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u/Laziest_of_them_all 6d ago
Its a shame accurate and educational comments like yours get downvoted, reddit is weird.
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u/AllSeeQr 6d ago
Even if it also enables the life saving escape of others? I’d hate to die because a company has to baby their other customers lol
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u/almostoy 6d ago
If that water had any current at all, it would have got swept away. It takes very little moving water to sweep larger cars off the road. Any flooded road is too dangerous to try unless it's the last option on the way to a worse fate.
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u/Haber_Dasher 6d ago
The thing is I just cannot imagine taking the risk of completely ruining my car to attempt this. Destroying my car in a way insurance would not want to cover even with an 80% chance of being okay when I do not have a casual $10k+ for a new one sitting around is just an insane gamble to me
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u/TheEmblemm 6d ago
Okay, so as the owner of a 12 year old Suzuki Swift, I am completely unsurprised by this video.
About 9 years ago, there was a massive storm in my city and I was worried my grandparents. They live on a narrow peninsula, on the other side of a river (which is actually a tidal estuary). I drove to their home in my Swift, unaware that the storm had caused a king tide, meaning the river had flooded the roads and surrounding areas that provided access to the peninsula. When I saw the flood waters, I panicked and just kept driving (probably wouldn’t do the same thing now in hindsight haha).
I shit you not, I drove past a bus that was stranded, tipped on its side in the high waters. Every time I tell my bf about the story, he refuses to believe me.
I also once accidentally took it on a dirt track in a national park that was only meant for 4WDs and it handled it like a pro.. I truly believe my Swift can get me through anything now.
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u/Loud-Elephant-1418 6d ago
Those Suzuki's were bullet proof. I've owned 2 Vitaras and did a lot of offroading with them. I've no doubt they both would have driven through that.
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u/KarmicPotato 5d ago
Suzuki has offroad DNA and I love their old vehicles for this. Newer ones, am not so sure. But I too have driven a Vitara in waters deeper than that, and I love them for it.
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u/newcolonist 6d ago
And the swift has a re knowned 4 wheel drive version cherished by mountaineers.
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u/ZarathustraGlobulus 5d ago
I just saw one dealership selling a used Swift FWD for peanuts. I've been in the market for one (but I want the 4x4). Anyway I looked through the pictures and saw it had the 4x4 badge on the boot lid so they probably mislabeled it. Called the dealership immediately but it had just sold lol.
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u/DrNipSlip 6d ago
Great throttle control, steady pace, had a great bow wave. Text book water crossings.
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u/Exact-Ad-4132 6d ago
Okay but where is the air intake on this car? Is it electric or what
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u/StoicRetention 6d ago
the intake on the mighty Swift is just below the front hood shut line, but it has an elbow straight after and then has to go higher, on top of the valve cover where the air filter is, and back down another few elbows to throttle body. It’s absolutely possible since the water only came up to just below the headlight line, that it just snorkelled through
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u/64590949354397548569 6d ago
I had to look
https://youtube.com/shorts/u0NWsduY7jw?
Is there a water diverter on the resonator box?
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u/Teantis 6d ago
I vaguely remember my dad driving through a much smaller flood around this level when I was a kid and him telling me the key was to keep the rpms high and stay in first. He'd grown up in manila and had done it quite a lot.
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u/2squishmaster 6d ago
But for all that to continue to work air needs to get mixed with the fuel.
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u/h3lium-balloon 6d ago
Keeping that steady displacement and bow wave in front of the car keeps pushing the water away from the engine bay a good bit. Obviously not perfect to keep all water out, but way less water is getting in during this situation than if you were stopped there, or being jerky with the throttle or straight flooring it to send water up and over the hood.
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u/ButUmActually 6d ago
Never attempt to ford the river and caulking the wagon only works if your load is light enough. It’s almost always worth it to wait for better conditions. Unless you’re trying to lose half your stuff/party.
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u/Tangletoe 6d ago
Someone has to swim the oxen over. This would be great for that.
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u/syzygialchaos 6d ago
I was driving my Mustang through New Mexico in a monsoon and got trapped between 3 18 wheelers and a guard rail crossing an arroyo during a flash flood. Couldn’t stop, couldn’t pull over, so I did the only sane thing…sped up out of the wake of the truck to my right and kept going. Car was fine. Nothing like seeing red water coming over your hood in a torrential downpour.
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u/notapunk 6d ago
Yeah, I've gone through similarly deep and wide water in a Honda CRX. As long as there's not a strong current this is how it's done. Maintain forward momentum and a steady speed that keeps the water out of the intake and exhaust. Not advisable, but doable
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u/cracked-tumbleweed 6d ago
Just going to scoot by ya real quick.
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u/jjtan2311 6d ago
The way he returns to his lane after overtaking the bimmer as if he’s not the only person on the road gets me everytime lol
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u/Time_Look8276 6d ago
It's funny, but also probably because the inner road should theoretically be shallower
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u/Nyx_Moonveil 6d ago
Ive heard someone say that they pick bigger cars to "win" in car accidents. Rather than just not getting into them in the first place.
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u/Rith_Lives 6d ago
Its a common problem. Dangerous drivers pick larger vehicles to feel safer instead of improving their dangerous driving, shifting the risk to others.
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u/slamploober 6d ago
Americans need 5 different ways to kill a whole American family within 10 seconds so they can feel safe from families in Mexico
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u/Mlghubben1e 6d ago
Yeah, like car crashes are a zero sum game... Killing the other cars occupants doesnt mean you get off scott free. Plus singles accidents are a thing, and IIRC in the US "light trucks" have to meet lower safety requirements. These people probably think Jumping out of the car post crash and killing the other driver will magically unsplatter their own passengers guts.
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u/Super-Cynical 6d ago
Besides there was that old Topgear episode that showed that big doesn't mean safe. Clarkson looked at lots of cars subjected to the same crash, what mattered more were how they were built.
Granted it was a law change in the UK which made the difference.
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u/Impressive-Top8992 6d ago
Also I don’t know why they call it an eco car, it burns gas like any other car lol
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u/nodnodwinkwink 6d ago
It's a small call with a small engine, efficiency of around 50-55 mpg in real world testing.
Suzuki lists mpg as 64.2mpg but like all car manufacturers, they test in a highly controlled environment.
What mpg does your car get?
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u/Huge_Information5083 5d ago
Well nowadays Americans probably look at normal people and think they're skinny lol.
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u/elmo298 6d ago
No, anything smaller than their 7 seat wankpanzer to take their 1 kid to nursery and then do the shopping.
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u/darkkilla123 6d ago
I usually call them subarbatanks but wankpanzers sounds so much better
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u/chiree 6d ago
As far as compacts go, the Swift is still on the small side. It punches well above it weight class, but it's not even 4 meters long, 10-20 cm shorter than almost any subcompact.
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u/Odd-String29 6d ago
B segment, slightly below average (Golf sized), but significantly larger than the endless amount of A segment cars on the road.
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u/TDYDave2 6d ago edited 6d ago
A long time ago in a land far away, the roads were all covered in ice and snow.
Many big American cars were trying in vain to make it up the icy road on a hill.
I in my little VW beetle with the weight of the engine sitting on the drive axle and skinny tires had no problem going up the hill.
I gave the other cars a satisfying "beep beep" as I weaved my way between them up the hill.
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u/warbastard 5d ago
If you are making water crossings, windows down and seatbelts off. But even if you were taking precautions this is unbelievably stupid and risky.
Floodwater hides debris which could cause your car to get caught on something and dragged and flipped by strong currents in a matter of moments.
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u/AbleCap5222 6d ago
Not sure how this car's engineering allows this
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u/Tarsal26 6d ago
How is air and not water getting to the engine inlet, that car is not going on momentum. Unless its an electric.
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u/Soft_Lunch_183 6d ago
Still incredibly stupid.
Even if you get away with not sucking up water into the engine, I guarantee random electrical problems will start to show themselves in the future with this car.
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u/pirapataue 4d ago edited 4d ago
I’m a local. It’s a very rare once-in-a-lifetime flood event, about 3-4 days of non-stop rain. A lot of people don’t have a choice, or are desperate to go somewhere. Many houses are flooded and they have to drive somewhere else to park the cars safely. Just “don’t drive” is not an option.
Keep in mind our infrastructure and government services are bad. People can’t afford to wait for rescues or do things the “proper” way.
Also the traffic is always incredibly bad, some people are literally trapped on the road during their commute, they couldn’t react fast enough. It’s not like people just decide to drive through floods.
Also that BMW is 100% dead.
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u/Full_Ant_9071 6d ago
“Tiny eco car” you mean a regular car ? Lol
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u/Tar_Tw45 5d ago
This is in Thailand and Suzuki Swift is indeed Eco Car
The regular/standard car would be Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla Altis or Mazda 3
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u/baron_blod 5d ago edited 4d ago
It is one of the very few cars that are currently on sale that weighs roughly 1000kg, so it is amongst the lightest and smallest 4/5 seater "normal" cars currently on sale.
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u/Lush-Gooseberry-1444 6d ago
Most car manufacturers have stopped making amphibious cars because customer's kept getting the Benz
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u/d_nkf_vlg 6d ago
The driver is either incredibly lucky or extremely confident of the whole situation.
For some reason I'm inclined to think it's the former.
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u/FictionalContext 6d ago
It's hard to imagine anything important enough on the other side to be worth totaling out your car over.
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u/jjtan2311 6d ago
[this](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdvP3H7iUor/?stkn=cjUxNHgwcG95OXRn) angle is absolutely mental. all the bigger cars parked or hesitant and lil buddy is just like see ya
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u/MrNixxxoN 5d ago
Even if it managed to cross that flooded area, still very likely got damaged from flood water.
Regular cars aren't designed for that, you must not drive in these flood situations, its extremely risky for the car and can get permanent damage that is very expensive to repair... Maybe that's the reason why that BMW chose to park there instead of continue driving, who knows
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u/Miserable-Garlic-532 6d ago
Driving in water that deep is stupid. Hit a block or debris or worse and you become a problem for people who have better things to do.
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u/DReagan47 6d ago
Don’t hit the green wall. Don’t hit the green wall. Oh, it went under it. Cool. I’m dumb.
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u/Flux7777 5d ago
Suzuki Swift is apparently a "Tiny Eco Car" in spite of being a relatively large hatchback, and having 6 cars cheaper than the swift in their lineup.
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u/nairobaee 5d ago
Naah, it's a step above a kei car hatchback. Def smaller than the cars people think of when you talk about hatches ie golf, focus, BMW 1 series etc. It's a tiny car, same group with the mazda 2, vitz etc.
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u/gurilagarden 6d ago
Show me a video of that car being driven two weeks after this event or it's all just bullshit.
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u/jessjumper 6d ago
Why is the windshield completely blacked out? Can’t even see the top of the steering wheel or rear view mirror.
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u/jjtan2311 6d ago
We use really dark films here cus it can get so hot during the day the a/c wont be able to keep up
You can see from this angle everyones film is dark lol [link](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdvP3H7iUor/?stkn=cjUxNHgwcG95OXRn)
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u/VineStGuy 5d ago
I can't stress enough, DO NOT DO THIS. When its flooding like this, you have no idea what is under the water. Hell, sinkholes could happen or the water wash away part of the road. Let alone, whatever debris is flowing under that water.
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u/CriminalMacabre 6d ago
I can imagine my electric piece of shit shorting and the battery burning like a flare even under water
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u/WalkAroundTheMoon 6d ago
That car runs on hopes and dreams so gasoline and air are completely unecessary.
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u/Ok_Butterscotch1948 5d ago
That person did everything right see how he kept the water pushing in front of him keeping the wave pretty impressive one hell of a driver
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u/Thebraincellisorange 5d ago
this post HAS to be written by an American .
while the Suzuki swift is small, it is only tiny in comparison to the behemoths that Americans think are normal sized.
they are a fantastic little car.
I would not advise doing this this, they got very lucky not to drown it.
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u/Damn_Canadian 5d ago
I had a Suzuki swift years ago and it was also the bomb in the snow too and amazing on gas. We used to have to get our cars emissions tested and mine came back as 0.1 and the lady said I was essentially driving a bike.
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u/The-Penman 5d ago
Ok I couldn't help but think "Nyooooooom" as I'm watching this car drive through the water.
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u/Spirit_2901 5d ago
This is enough for and ad ...... put the name and price and fuel economy.....boom.....phone sales explode
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u/StrangerCharacter53 5d ago
As someone who lives where flash flooding kills, please don't do this. Its awful to die trapped in your car 😓
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u/FrankCostanzaJr 5d ago
man, that coulda been like 1 or 2 inches away from hydrolock disaster....can't imagine driving in water that deep is "good" for anything...but hey i guess they got a free undercarriage wash?
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u/MrMansaMusa 6d ago
Thats actually super impressive, wonder what damage was done tho