Suzuki Vitara 1.4 Boosterjet S ALLGRIP 5d Owner Review

My 1.4 Boosterjet is now up to 120,000 miles and over 6 years old. It's a bit of a mixed bag. It's clearly aging both in terms of the car feeling tired and it's starting to look dated compared to current market cars. It feels like one of those cars that starts to feel and look slightly dog eared in middle age but just keeps going and going indefinitely. Maintenance is cheap, but you don't need much because nothing much goes wrong. Mine gets serviced according to schedule and nothing other than consumables has been needed. Although the radar cruise control had about 5 software updates and still fails in heavy rain and the emergency braking pings off when driving past parked cars sometimes.

As far as the model generally goes - the other day someone asked me what I drove and a genuinely couldn't recall for a second - that's how completely dull and unremarkable it is. I feel churlish for not liking it more as it is a very dependable and reliable little companion that has very reasonable ownership cost, but even though it's the sporty "S" model it just never gets fun or interesting at all. Everything is very "adequate", but it never puts a smile on your face on the way to work. In fact it's the first car I've ever owned that I actively avoid driving. My best week's driving last year was when I rented a van for the week.

My major issue with it is comfort, or rather the lack of it. I can put up with firm suspension on a genuinely entertaining sports car or hot hatch, but this isn't one of those so it comes as a bit of a shock as it smacks and bangs around on anything other than a billiard table smooth road - it's really bad. Unfortunately when you press on you're not rewarded - the engine is unwilling and groany, the gearbox sticky and baulky and the handling obsessed with understeer and jittery bouncing - although they isn't much body roll due to the stupidly firm suspension. Which also Banjaxes any off-roading.... Also, The seats lack adjustment and aren't especially comfortable and I end up squirming around after about 20 minutes - again, something you expect in sports cars, not family SUVs. It lacks adjustment so it may be fine for you or it may be torture - and that's just how it is.