Cheep 'N' Very Cheereful (Suzuki Vitara in general)

Member Name: glenny

Product:	Suzuki Vitara in general
Date:	28/10/01 (2082 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very reliable, Very cheep to own, Tidy to drive

Disadvantages: Boot space, Thrashy engine past 70mph

We run an early 1990 H-reg Suzuki Vitara JLX SE Est and in the 14 months we have had the car it has never failed us once. We paid £3000 for the car with 75,000 miles registered at our local Suzuki dealer and it came fully valeted, with 2 new front tyres (the back were also new, but put on by the last owner) 1 years MOT the car also came with 1 years Suzuki warranty and 1 year Suzuki breakdown cover! Which I am glad to report we have never used once! And all for £3000! Fantastic!.

As far as day-to-day living with the car goes it has been super. Plenty of room for 4 people which is all it'll carry due to only 2 seats in the back, the boot could be bigger, but if we need more space the two rear seats both slide and recline individually! And can be folded up against the front two. The interior itself may be a bit brittle looking but has certianly proved very durable and hard wearing. Any marks on the upholstery come right out and the fabric itself has no tears or parts that are wearing thin.

Heading away from the road the car has proved a cracker! Mud, water, Ice, Snow, Wet Grass, Ruts in fields the car handles all with remarkable ease and has yet to get us stuck!. On-road performance is reasonable too, with tidy handling for it's age and very good grip to the road and we have found 30 plus mpg easy to achieve too, not bad for an 11 year old car with over 100,000 miles on the clock!. At higher speeds the engine does become thrashy and quite corse, and top-end speed isn't much over 80mph but stick to 65-70mph ish and the car is comfortable enough to cover a fair amount of distance.

On a daily basis this car handles a commute to work of 70 miles mainly on A Roads and has done so since we bought it and servicing & fuel costs aside has never cost us a penny!. The servicing costs are reasonable too, at a main Suzuki dealer £90 will get you a minor service and £160 will pay for a major, but with service intervals of only 6000 miles, do
budget for this. However if you went to a small local independent garage these costs would probably fall. We have had the work carried out by the dealer because of the warranty and the quality of service they provide.

For it's age the car still looks very tidy in our opinion, with very little rust and shiny petrol blue metallic paint. Our car was also fitted with the electric pack when new so it has electric mirrors, windows, alloy wheels and central locking all of which still work smoothly and have never failed once.

I would say from our experience that these are great cars, and we would most certainly buy another, trouble is we don't want rid of the one we have got! So cannot see us changing it for a long time!. Suppose that's good really.....

********** UPDATES **********

Since I wrote the report I have met the previous owner of the car, said he had known the car from new as it had always been in there family. To sum up what he told me about the car, he said for as long as he could remember the car had never proved a jot of bother and had served them all very well.

When I asked why they let the car go, he told me it was purely because of space. They needed more room, and so they bought a Land Rover Discovery instead and weren't all too impressed with it. He said it was nice to see the car looking so good and was pleased to hear it was still running great. So the count of satisfied customers with this car has now risen to 2, and the car is still going strong.

*****

Also since I last altered my review my dad has changed his mondeo estate Auto for an R-reg Vitara 2.0V6 Auto. And I think it's Great! The engine is ever so smooth as is the gearbox, far exceeding the mondeo, and let me tell you, IT SHIFTS!. It may only be a 2.0 engine but it goes and emits a deep creamy roar as it lurches for the horizon!, and that's in eco mode not Power mode!.

The suspension is also way di
fferent from our H Reg vitara, much smoother and better controlled. They are still unsure of it, mainly because of the lack of luxuries (the mondeo wasn't short of a few as it was a GihaX) but it has all electrics and air-con and abs which isn't too bad. Another shining Suzuki. :)

*****

The Suzuki has been enjoying all this trying weather lately, unlike me!, I say enjoying because it makes everything seem effortless Snow, Frost & Damp mean nothing to this car, it just keeps going strong. Winds are slightly different however, requiring a firmer grasp of the wheel every now and then and a slightly slower drive, but it's more than worth it for all the cars shining qualities.

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