With a stylish and cosy interior, Suzuki put heart and soul into new Vitara SUV
Maggie Barry I stepped into the new facelifted Suzuki Vitara and the first thing I noticed were the plush soft-touch materials.
This is not normally my first reaction getting into a car but Dale Wyatt, the UK director of Suzuki Automobiles, had been insistent that in response to customer comments the company had really done a job on the interior.
So there you have it: No more Mr Cheap and Nasty – for 2019, I can vouch for a big, soft smoothy inside the new Vitara.
Suzuki’s small SUV doesn’t have the quirky character of the iconic Jimny but it still manages to look smooth and sporty with a new grille, LED lights, sophisticatedcated roof bars and 17in alloys. It iss also available in certain trim levels with a new two- tone colourway that of fers customers a black roof.
It is not, however, available with a diesel engine because e Suzuki have decided d to dump these in n favour of, in this range, ge, either a 1.0- litre or 1.4-litre petrol withh a manual or automatic tic gearbox. It is a bold step tep but one which the company feel is justified and meets demand. And that demand is rising – sales of the Suzuki Vitara are up three per cent and still climbing despite an explosion in the small SUV market. What Suzuki have done – and have always done – is offer drivers a good- qual ity, good- looking reliable SUV at a decentnt price and, of course, now there are soft-touch plastics too. It is the kind of vehicle that makes the move from m town to country y seaml seamless , the drive from the school gates to cattle ttle showg showground a cinch. ch. And this is where the Vitar Vitara comes into its own. Suzuki, with 50 years of hihistory in al l- wheel drive drives, know how to make a foufour-wheel drive that will reall really work, even in small compact com models like this. In Suzuki speak, it is call called ALL GRIP and is sta standard across the Vitara Vit range, which is quite an upmarket feature tto get in a small SUV and in one priced as competitively as this one.
It is a lovely car to drive – smooth and effortless. I drove the 1.0-litre manual and the 1.4-litre with an automatic box. The manual was eager and peppy and is slightly more fuel efficient with fewer CO2 emissions. The automatic was smooth and comfortable and still managed 336.6mpg. With more power, 140PS,1 it has a better top speedsp and acceleration thanth the manual, which still sti holds its own. The t rim level s are SZ4,SZ4 SZT and SZ5, with a fair spattering of safety features featu such as hill hold control andan hill descent control, dual sensor brake support, lane departure warning and prevention, blind spot monitor and rear-cross traffic alert.
There’s a rear parking camera, adaptive cruise control and ISOFIX child seats. Tech includes DAB, sat nav, bluetooth, USB connectivity and syncing for your smartphone.
Suzuki say their sales of four-wheel drives are much bigger than the market share because that is playing to their strengths – strengths they intend to build on in the 2019 Vitara.