Crisis? What crisis? Suzuki Vitara finds it's all plain sailing

It almost sounds like a training course for middle managers. What do you do when the world shuts down for months on end due to a pandemic? Then how do you cope when vital components for your products are in short supply? And how will you thrive when you have to ditch the fuel of choice for the last century and go electric?
A smart and unfussy carA smart and unfussy car
A smart and unfussy car

Those three once-in-a-lifetime scenarios are playing havoc with the motoring industry but Suzuki are making a decent fist of it. It seems to relish the situation and the fact that it is one of the comparatively smaller brands means it is more agile than most. Change? Bring it on. That seems to be the company motto.

The company has chosen this most difficult of times to reshape the business and has now completed the monumental task of making every car it sells hybrid. Well, I say completed, but building cars in this ever-changing landscape is rather like painting the Forth Bridge.

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But Suzuki has nailed its colours to the hybrid mast rather than electric vehicle (EV) in the belief that drivers will appreciate the benefits of lower emissions and higher miles per gallon, and it will leave range anxiety to other brands.

The cabin is easy to live withThe cabin is easy to live with
The cabin is easy to live with

And having more than once anxiously scoured an unfamiliar city looking for a charger, I can see Suzuki’s point.

So, that’s why we met in Cheshire for the launch of the Vitara Hybrid with a testing route down to Tal-y-llyn, Gwynedd, in Wales.

I found the Vitara to be fine. It has tremendous road manners for a compact SUV, and while acceleration is nothing to get excited about it has enough power for most situations.

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And while the small SUV market is competitive, with most major manufacturers competing for your business, the Vitara is well positioned in terms of price and equipment.

And Suzuki is famously a trusted brand. It was named the top automotive brand in the most recent UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) results from the Institute of Customer Service.

It was in first position against 26 automotive brands and joint third position overall alongside Amazon, behind First Direct and John Lewis.

This is a 140V full hybrid model which sells alongside the existing 48V mild hybrids.

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The full hybrid comes with two modes – eco and standard. In standard mode the electric unit more frequently supports the petrol engine to allow what Suzuki calls “more spirited” driving.

It is also fitted with what Suzuki calls AGS (auto gear shift) that automatically shifts the manual transmission and gear ratios are optimised to help achieve a good combination of performance and economy. It also has steering wheel-mounted paddles so you can flick up and down gears.

This vehicle is also a proper 4x4 and has a renowned system called AllGrip, which is available as an option on the SZ5 model tested here.

This launch is well-timed. Suzuki is on a high at the moment after the results of the 2022 What Car? Reliability Survey were published. This is where readers report on their car ownership experience from six up to 15 years old. Of the 27 car brands measured, Suzuki is at the top of the brand league table with a score of 97 per cent.

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What Car? received over 16,300 owner responses across all manufacturers and measured 139 different used models across the industry. Owners praised Suzuki for having very few faults to report in their ownership as well as being inexpensive to repair. Vitara recorded 100 per cent reliability with no faults at all reported from owners and was one of only three cars measured to score 100 per cent in the survey.

The good news continued for the popular Swift too as owners reported 97.8 per cent reliability and no repair bill exceeding £100 of the small faults reported. Swift was 13 per cent up on the average small car class rating in the survey.

Suzuki famously has a technical partnership with Toyota rebadging petrol-electric cars such as the latter’s Corolla Touring Sports and RAV4 as Swace and Across respectively but for the Vitara Hybrid Suzuki is going it alone.

Suzuki say that compared with the mild hybrid auto the extra 3.5mpg equates to a real-world £10 per month fuel saving.

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Historically, the Vitara received styling and safety upgrades in early 2019 and then in 2020 was equipped with an even higher specification and 48V Hybrid technology fitted as standard across the range. Vitara is produced at the Magyar Suzuki plant in Hungary that also produces all new S-Cross models for European markets as well as exports around the world.

There is much to admire in the Vitara Hybrid. It is good value, spacious, and balances comfort with the right level of driving involvement.

Suzuki Vitara Hybrid SZ5 2W AGS

Price: £27,499. Range starts at £23,499 for the SZ-T model

Engine: 1.5 litre petrol engine and a 33bhp electric motor fed by a compact 0.84kWh battery for a total output of 113bhp

Performance: Top speed 111mph and 0 to 60mph in 12.7 seconds

Economy: 53mpg on a combined route

Emissions: 121g/km

Insurance: Group 18A

Warranty: Three years, 60,000 miles