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Suzuki Vitara 2019 SZT


tiv

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The Review

So it all started when I decided to replace my Suzuki Hustler,

Nice little car, thus the little part got to me, needed something bigger

Pondered with playing my budget, sell something that I own? Or go new, went behind Merc CLAs, GLB 200s, Nissan Patrol, 150 Prados, CHRs so on, while in the works, a colleague on a visit to my workplace bought one, caught my attention, decided to go see one, then next day that was sold as another colleague took my word for it, saw it and advanced. Well finally after an extended hospital stay due to dengue hemorrhagic fever and its complications, finally made up my mind and imported a new one, fresh off UK.

As usual this won’t be the brochure, so please do tolerate, this is going to be long though,

Please note as I don’t have a professional cam, I’ll use professional promotional pics to make my point

The exterior,

In my personal opinion, it has a boxy look, just like an old school SUV, no sloping roofline, coupe looks etc, plenty of headroom and leg room is also tolerable, my family being mostly obese can fit in,

It has pretty normal looking wheels 17”, with road tyres, 40psi and cladded wheel arches, giving this mild off roady yet practical look, it has lock nuts from factory, discs all around,

One thing you would notice the door sills are huge, about 8 ” wide,

My most favorite feature is the ground clearance, the way they’ve protected the undercarriage gives it ample ground clearance for even mild off roading, wheel articulation is not that good though. Tyres float easily, cross axling is certain

Being the SZT trim, headlights are halogen, same with the fogs, it does have a very appealing set of drls, again it has a practical appearance, nothing fancy, almost a dinosaur when you look at newer pugs and the chr, hence why I love it, I went with the complete white, rather than the fancy 2 tone colours.

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The rear door handle is In the right place, in line with the front!

The doors and the clamshell hood close with a very reassuring thump, this model does not have the panoramic sunroof or the safety / autobrake radar guidance kit.

The rear is very simple, huge hatch, button operated, manual pull up and down. Led lights large and simple, I do like the fact the blinkers are hidden in the red taillight

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It has a large single reverse light, with an integrated red rear fog light, UK stuff!

Its got large mirrors, power but they don’t fold, no winker lights, just fender indicators

Folks in UK have heaps of good reviews all over as well. One reason I went ahead with it as they abuse their cars mostly.

 

The interior,

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The SZT trim comes with Key start, which again I prefer

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Honestly love the interior, very plain, simple lines, the gauge cluster is very pretty functional, old school needles, pleased with the led display in the middle, shiny plastics easily scratched though

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Seats are hard but comfortable enough, they are very stingy on carpeting though, but gone ninja on soundproofing, door cards are wide but very plasticky, the upper half of the dash is padded,

Paddle shifters move with the wheel – not a fan, well the steering is telescoping and adjustable and a very nice bit of kit, got all the multifunction luxuries, all lit in a nice red

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I feel the interior is extremely well insulated, being UK spec, as It tends to hold a temp for upto 6 hours in the cabin.

There are very recognizable deep footwells, allowing dirt to collect, a vacuum is a must, rear being a bit small but can easily accommodate,

Rear headroom is like in a van, zero issues, and you can easily look out the window unlike the CHR and vezel, or go all german shepherd with it down

The glovebox is nice, the movement is damped, its lit, door cards have some storage,

Rear seats do fold to give a slanted surface and does come in line with the boot, this model doesn’t have a spare wheel, hence the rear load tray can be placed at 3 levels, in one level you can hide the parcel shelf in the floor! Plenty of space in the boot, more than enough for 4 sri Lankan(s)  luggage, again very stingy on the carpet, plenty of storage pockets, the repair kit is also rather small and tiny,

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It has a normal headliner, light colour, but very thick door seals,

Overall rear and door trim feels plasticky yet, I mean not even comparable to a euro, but definitely better than a typical new jap, trim parts are firmly fixed, zero play

Geek stuff

Well its got TPMS, fancy MID, nice graphics there, torque power graphs, stuff of swifts! And IDLE stop, which can be delayed permenantly,

Programmable lights, warnings, footwell lights, various blinks on rear lights, wiper timing, aircon levels,

Infact there is a geek fest hidden menu in the MID, many settings to play with, including thank god! UNITs, it has the metric option on demand, and the clock has gps mode and manual mode!

Its got 6 airbags, and fancy seatbelts, and a fest of isofix mounts

 

THE SOUND SYSTEM?

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This is where the interior shines, the head unit is bosch, with Suzuki software, speakers I’m yet to confirm myself but my sales contact in UK, the sudda said they are sourced off JBL. The sound quality speaks for itself, go test one, don’t believe me. Zero distortion! This will be my first car where I have not replaced the door speakers or head unit, no need for a sub either, the factory software is epic, I had a leaf with BOSE gear, yet I did some changes but this, let it rest

Nothing fancy, no graphics, fancy bits, but loaded with everything, within 4 squares, its even got carplay and android auto, I’m yet to find a way to install a local map to the gps, BT SD cameras, USB, etc it has all

Call integration on this is better than a high end pioneer unit, has a separate steering control pad as well

ENGINE and DRIVETRAIN

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The engine well, all 1000cc’s of underpowered goodness? Well no, actually I can’t thrash it as its still run a few km and need a break in, doesn’t feel slow, turbo is very responsive, but tiny in person, fits on your palm tiny! With a cute little BOV that whispers

Being a 3 cyl. The engine ain’t noisy, no vibrations either, very impressive, I mean its enough for an SUV, I live up a almost 30 degree incline and it does climb up in 2nd or 3rd gear, the all grip system, is a poor excuse for 4wd, honestly other than auto whatever the mod, its like a dog on skates, sends too much of torque to wheels, everything starts to slip, yet I’ve never got the requirement to run it in 4wd under normal circumstances! Being FWD it just crawls on, just tested it

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The gearbox, this thing is like its on meth, constantly playing with the gears, revs the nuts off the engine, its not cvt, conventional, and noticeably jerky, moves gears too fast, very rev happy, loves to kick down and hold a low gear, bad recipe for breaking in

I’m yet to get in sync with it, it loves to run the engine on high revs 2000 and up, which I don’t, it has enough gut to go in low revs, the best part is the paddles respond even when on D, allowing me to go in higher gears at will.

Fuel economy- its got a PPF, so specced at 95 OC , lot of horror stories to come.

10kmpl that’s it for me, near far wherever you are

Brakes, 4 moderately sized discs? What more do I say

THE DRIVE

Well this is where things change, most people like this, but was a let down for me, It handles like  a car, suspension is not very soft, extremely comfortable, null body roll, very tight on corners, a very fast steering rack, I expected the whole boat bubbly SUV feel which this doesn’t have, probably shares something with the swift, brakes are superb, the engine has a nice little hum, can’t say roar, hell no

Aircon, really good, no drop in power when its on, basic climate control system, simple display works well, no rear vents though but no complaints. Yet to try in Colombo

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Very good grip on 2wd mode, putting it on Auto is ok but on other modes is like sticking it in 2nd gear forever, doesn’t freewheel

WHAT I HATE

The horn, sounds like an orgasming cat,

Carpets, it’s an SUV? Why the bloody kei car carpets

Those wide door sills, will break an ankle shortly

Yellowish halogen lamps, many telepathic communications regarding the mom of the guy who decided to put em.

Wheel size, I prefer a chunkier tyre, smaller rim,

Rear seats, can’t slide front and back, hence they’ve permanently left a large boot

That center reverse light, I like a bit of symmetry! UK things,

Bit of padding on the upper part of the doors?

The antenna, of course its got GPS Glonass and all that, but a sharkfin? No option now

The center arm rest flips up to reveal a small bin, where you can’t even shove a wallet in

 

Overall,

Again honestly I’m very pleased with it, finding every excuse to put a few km in to ease the break in mileage, it was a win-win for me, as I got it during the GBP dip, I’m hoping to keep this for a long time, probably a decade, and its got bucketloads of accessories online from UK, hence will manage keeping me broke for a long time, and yea I pissed the wife, she liked the small car, buying this I had to leave ‘her vitz’ in the rain as my garage got too crowded, after much torment ended up making a DIY cantilever extension, which managed to hold in this torrential weather and ended me falling of a 8ft ladder, cheers!

 

 

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19 Comments


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Sweet! But modern SUVS are now leaving the land of true SUVS which is no secret. Though purists may like this trend, the brand has to appeal to the general public. Hence why the car-like handling. But it may be a good thing in one way or another I guess.

Again, congrats on the purchase & hope you have a great experience with it!

BTW was that sarcasm or are you okay after falling off that ladder??

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1 hour ago, □AVANTE□ said:

Sweet! But modern SUVS are now leaving the land of true SUVS which is no secret. Though purists may like this trend, the brand has to appeal to the general public. Hence why the car-like handling. But it may be a good thing in one way or another I guess.

Again, congrats on the purchase & hope you have a great experience with it!

BTW was that sarcasm or are you okay after falling off that ladder??

Oh yea I really did fall and nothing broken, lot of friction burns and sore shoulder and thigh, post dengue low platelet counts gave me some lovely bruises, bleeding

Edited by tiv
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Your writing felt like driving down a moderately steep slope in neutral... was a pleasant experience 'cause there was zero traffic and the road was buttery smooth with minimal corners!

... and the car looks great too (although I'm no fan of the look of SUVs/hatches in general, Suzuki has done something right here).

Wishing you many enjoyable and safe kilometers! Do keep this thread updated with your adventures with her as frequently as possible ❤️

 

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Superb writeup. Compared To mine and as your input. it’s a completely different class of vehicle than previous generation of Grand Vitara / Escudo.

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First of all, the review is a joy to read with a bit of humor sprinkled. Really enjoyed reading it!!! Totally unbiased... Thumbs up for that???

There were some interesting facts I came to know about this new kid on the block. One is that it has JBL sourced speakers, which really makes me eagerly waiting for one to be tested out.

What are the modifications you did to the Bose system in the Leaf? I’d really like to know?

Again, a great and honest review??

 

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1 hour ago, alpha17 said:

First of all, the review is a joy to read with a bit of humor sprinkled. Really enjoyed reading it!!! Totally unbiased... Thumbs up for that???

There were some interesting facts I came to know about this new kid on the block. One is that it has JBL sourced speakers, which really makes me eagerly waiting for one to be tested out.

What are the modifications you did to the Bose system in the Leaf? I’d really like to know?

Again, a great and honest review??

 

Yes he specifically said jbl, well it does sound jbl, I still dont have the guts to take apart a door just to verify this, but I eventually will give in, 

Yes the leaf, I had the bose efficiency series, meaning it's just the bose label, mediocre output, so updated the pillar tweeters to kenwood, the tweeters were cheap, nothing to do with bose, however I gave them with the car nicely wrapped and all, installed a 2 channel amp with an RCA out, the amp worked with speaker feeds used the amp outs on the stock front speakers, hid the amp under the seat, was a tiny Sony explode, used the RCA outs to run an active sub, again under the other seat as the bose sub didn't do much, but eventually chickened out on the active sub, pulled it out in a day or two,  but left the amp in situ till I sold the car, as the range kept reducing all electrical extras became a burden. This was a jdm leaf, I think uk leafs bose system was different, I never pulled a door to see if the speakers said bose, it just had this tiny ridge behind the rear seat, with bose on it, and a bose logo on top of the display. An entry pioneer system home built on a normal car will run rings around it.

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1 hour ago, tiv said:

Yes he specifically said jbl, well it does sound jbl, I still dont have the guts to take apart a door just to verify this, but I eventually will give in, 

Yes the leaf, I had the bose efficiency series, meaning it's just the bose label, mediocre output, so updated the pillar tweeters to kenwood, the tweeters were cheap, nothing to do with bose, however I gave them with the car nicely wrapped and all, installed a 2 channel amp with an RCA out, the amp worked with speaker feeds used the amp outs on the stock front speakers, hid the amp under the seat, was a tiny Sony explode, used the RCA outs to run an active sub, again under the other seat as the bose sub didn't do much, but eventually chickened out on the active sub, pulled it out in a day or two,  but left the amp in situ till I sold the car, as the range kept reducing all electrical extras became a burden. This was a jdm leaf, I think uk leafs bose system was different, I never pulled a door to see if the speakers said bose, it just had this tiny ridge behind the rear seat, with bose on it, and a bose logo on top of the display. An entry pioneer system home built on a normal car will run rings around it.

That’s some job?. Still I even don’t have the guts to take off the doors of my 5yr old car. I installed a Bose spare tyre subwoofer from a Mazda 6, but didn’t ran the wires from the battery. A crossover is needed to squeeze out the max, so plan to get a passive FMOD one.

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Congrats on your purchase and thanks for the review. Does this have any similarity with the new S Cross? I know it's a raised hatchback kind of a thing but has more options?

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No similarity at all, but I’m sure they share certain underpinnings, visual cues are common amongst the SX4 and the Baleno as well, also they share the same engine, meaning front subframe has to be the same or similar to save costs, 

I doubt there will be any cult following for any of these vehicles, as they aren’t Toyotas

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Sweet ride! I like the styling as well, it’s one of those few new vehicles without excessive lines and curves. Simple and elegant. However a small spoiler would look nice, something similar to what you get in Vezel.

Also it seems well worth the price. 

I went through the Suzuki UK website, I couldn’t find a 4WD with Automatic transmission  option for the SZT grade.

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Yes I too noticed that, I got it down through a dealer via a reputed car sale, 

I guess It is not offered mainstream, 

mentioned in the auto trader article as well, most of the cars bought down 2wd,

To see I noticed it’s a rare option, only 1 or 2 cars in YouTube reviews have Auto trans with 4wd, not Plenty for sale in uk as well

 

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Edited by tiv
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9 hours ago, Magnum said:

Sweet ride! I like the styling as well, it’s one of those few new vehicles without excessive lines and curves. Simple and elegant. However a small spoiler would look nice, something similar to what you get in Vezel.

Also it seems well worth the price. 

I went through the Suzuki UK website, I couldn’t find a 4WD with Automatic transmission  option for the SZT grade.


Well I asked the fellow who placed the order, he sent the possible combinations For engine transmission and drivetrain, 

he said it is only offered in the SZT and SZ5, and the tuning is also different between the 4 models, hence the 4 columns 

well according to him the 1.0 szt or sz5 with 4wd and auto transmission is a pricey combo equal or high in price to the 1.4 hence not popular and not offered mainstream, 

our importers get 1.0 fully loaded ones on request it seems, there’s one in the famous classified site now, and a SZ5 as well.

for UK and Europe, we are stuck with the 1000cc due to the tax pattern, but there are some appealing options otherwise, will share for anyone who wants for future reference 

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FYI https://www.globalsuzuki.com/automobile/lineup/vitara/index.html

Edited by tiv
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3 hours ago, tiv said:


Well I asked the fellow who placed the order, he sent the possible combinations For engine transmission and drivetrain, 

he said it is only offered in the SZT and SZ5, and the tuning is also different between the 4 models, hence the 4 columns 

well according to him the 1.0 szt or sz5 with 4wd and auto transmission is a pricey combo equal or high in price to the 1.4 hence not popular and not offered mainstream, 

our importers get 1.0 fully loaded ones on request it seems, there’s one in the famous classified site now, and a SZ5 as well.

for UK and Europe, we are stuck with the 1000cc due to the tax pattern, but there are some appealing options otherwise, will share for anyone who wants for future reference 

60A02201-2330-43C2-83D7-18416F572BCE.thumb.jpeg.31640668826e5a2b3c967e65e6da1409.jpeg21BF3AC0-BCD1-4DF5-A9F6-26BE937BBC2E.thumb.jpeg.5d416ec42b3084e98cb3e5c6e82df740.jpeg
 

FYI https://www.globalsuzuki.com/automobile/lineup/vitara/index.html

So most of the ones in SL are FWD? How much more is the 4WD with an auto box?

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1 hour ago, Magnum said:

So most of the ones in SL are FWD? How much more is the 4WD with an auto box?

I'm not sure in gbp, but locally the price was the same as the 2wd, its horrendous on fuel btw

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7 hours ago, tiv said:

I'm not sure in gbp, but locally the price was the same as the 2wd, its horrendous on fuel btw

Well the 4WD Vitara weighs 75kg more than the 2WD version(full option). For some vehicles like the RAV4 the weight difference is around 150kg, while for the Hiace it’s 100kg. 

The fuel economy would be expected by how the 4WD system works as well

You have said you get a fuel economy of around 10km/l. How much could we expect from the 2WD version?

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On 10/5/2019 at 5:59 AM, Magnum said:

Well the 4WD Vitara weighs 75kg more than the 2WD version(full option). For some vehicles like the RAV4 the weight difference is around 150kg, while for the Hiace it’s 100kg. 

The fuel economy would be expected by how the 4WD system works as well

You have said you get a fuel economy of around 10km/l. How much could we expect from the 2WD version?

Absolutely and categorically NO !

The RAV4, X-Trail and Harrier weight difference between the AWD and FF variants is within the 40-60kg range. NOT as high as you say it is. The most significatn contributor to that weight is actually grade and AWD specific accessories.  So whilst people say the AWD variant is more fuel hungry than the 2WD variants of these vehicles...it really is not so....In Japan a friend of mine had a 2WD RAV4 of the same thing I had....on long road trips we both ran out of petrol around the same time and we both pumped about the same amount of fuel each stop. I remember we crossover kids were hanging out and the AWD guys' vehicles were doing only about .5 - 1 kmpl less than what the 2WD kids were getting. Mind you this was a good 8 or so years ago when engine efficiency was not as good as it is now a days.

but yes...the the Hiace AWD and FR variants have about 110kg in weight difference. I thought vans would be lesser because it already has a full rear diff and prop shaft and needed only transfer case, center diff and front axels....

 

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On 10/6/2019 at 1:29 PM, iRage said:

Absolutely and categorically NO !

The RAV4, X-Trail and Harrier weight difference between the AWD and FF variants is within the 40-60kg range. NOT as high as you say it is. The most significatn contributor to that weight is actually grade and AWD specific accessories.  So whilst people say the AWD variant is more fuel hungry than the 2WD variants of these vehicles...it really is not so....In Japan a friend of mine had a 2WD RAV4 of the same thing I had....on long road trips we both ran out of petrol around the same time and we both pumped about the same amount of fuel each stop. I remember we crossover kids were hanging out and the AWD guys' vehicles were doing only about .5 - 1 kmpl less than what the 2WD kids were getting. Mind you this was a good 8 or so years ago when engine efficiency was not as good as it is now a days.

but yes...the the Hiace AWD and FR variants have about 110kg in weight difference. I thought vans would be lesser because it already has a full rear diff and prop shaft and needed only transfer case, center diff and front axels....

 

yeah my bad! I just checked it on car directory weight difference in a Rav4 is around 40-60kg. I assume the weight difference on a Hiace is bigger due to the difference in the AWD system. 

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23 minutes ago, Magnum said:

yeah my bad! I just checked it on car directory weight difference in a Rav4 is around 40-60kg. I assume the weight difference on a Hiace is bigger due to the difference in the AWD system. 

Yeah...but still shocking...because the prop shaft and the rear diff hump and axle housing is already there....so the addition would be the front axles and transfer case........so interesting...I wonder if the AWD and 2WD variants have different diffs requiring a different housing in the back...and even a stiffer prop shaft....hmmm

 

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