Review: Suzuki Vitara

There was a word that kept bumping into my mind when I had a week in the revised Suzuki Vitara recently, writes Brian Byrne. Simplicity.

That wasn't that I considered it basic. But the car wasn't hyped up as having lots of tech bells and whistles, and it was a simple and easy car to drive.

The Vitara is perfectly modern and for the day, though. A slightly chunky style in its SUV shape, but with a neatly integrated lights and grille that smiles. The black roof against the red of the review car is smart, the rails adding visual length. A rising character line that widens over the rear wheels, eliminating any tendency for the style to seem slab-sided.


Nice to get into, too. One of the cars where I don't have to force my head under a too-sloping roofline, which I now count as a too-rare blessing.

It follows, of course that once inside there's plenty of headroom for me, which means more than ample for most. A sit-up-straight driving position is comfortable. And that simplicity I've mentioned is there again in the style of the dashboard and instruments. A pair of dials in front, the usual panel between them for other information. A centre stack touchscreen basically divided into four.

However, I might as well get the negatives about both of the above out of the way now. The speedo and rev dials have graphics in a kind of silver-grey and shiny style. If there's any brightness in the day at all, they are virtually invisible. And the volume control on the touchscreen is a flinger-slider that annoys ... fortunately the repeater volume on the steering wheel works perfectly.

Against those, the plus of the rotary knobs for the climate control is welcome.

There's good seating, comfortable and supportive. I have a nerve that gets a little antsy if a seat isn't right and I'm in it for any longish time. Didn't happen here. (On the other hand, there are certain airlines and planes that I wince about even before I board.)

Suzuki doesn't do plush in its interior design. But its practical trim and fittings are always of good quality, and the brand has a very well deserved reputation for excellent build. So my time with the car was everything one could reasonably expect from a motor car.

The power in this one was via a 1.0 111 hp petrol 3-pot, which performed energetically and with the sound I especially like from such a configuration. It didn't do fast sprints, the 12.5s to 100km/h on paper is leisurely, but it felt decent. The 5-speed manual was a nice shifter, though I thought a sixth cog would have been nice.

There's a lot of fuss at the moment about the way fuel consumption is measured and presented. My experience of 5.6L/100km actually matched the suggestion for the old NEDC way, so Suzuki seems to have been doing their measurements OK. Certainly that level of economy underscores the brand's belief that it doesn't need to offer a diesel in this one.

I left the car back at the end of the week with the pleasant feeling of having enjoyed it. Largely because there wasn't a whole rake of driver assist tech that I had to try out and then, usually, switch off if I could.

Hurrah for the simple car.

PRICE: From €22,995; Review car €23,890. WHAT I LIKED: I've already said it, simple. RATING: 4+/5.