Suzuki Vitara running costs and reliability

• Vitara running costs don’t stand out
• Hybrid model not particularly efficient
• Boosterjet lives up to official figures

The Vitara should prove relatively inexpensive to run, but rivals beat it in a number of ways. During our long-term test of a four-wheel drive 1.4 Boosterjet, we achieved around 40mpg, which isn’t too bad for a car thus equipped – two-wheel drive models promise to be significantly more efficient.

The most efficient model in the range is the new hybrid, which has become your only option if you need an automatic gearbox. However, it returns an official figure of 53mpg, which is barely a whisker above the 52.7mpg claimed by the manual 1.4-litre Boosterjet.

Compared with the Toyota Yaris Cross, which can approach 60mpg with its hybrid system, the hybrid Vitara is disappointingly thirsty. And there’s no plug-in hybrid variant with mega-low mpg and CO2 figures like you’ll get with the Renault Captur, making the Vitara a poor choice for company car users.

Servicing and warranty

Suzuki offers a three-year, 60,000 mile warranty on the Vitara, which is stingy compared to the five, seven or even 10 years offered by some rivals.

Servicing isn’t too pricey, though, and Suzuki offers fixed-price servicing plans on models up to six years old. Service intervals are every year or 12,500 miles, whichever comes first, and Suzuki can offer its owners discounted AA roadside assistance membership should the worst happen.

Many Suzuki garages are smaller, family-run businesses, too, which you can build more of a relationship with than a faceless main dealer.

Reliability

• Vitara’s record is strong
• New hybrid system unproven so far
• Suzuki responds quickly to problems

The Boosterjet engine has been seen elsewhere – in both the S-Cross and Swift for example – and so far has proved perfectly capable of suffering no problems. We can expect the Vitara to continue that trend, and indeed it did during our long-term test. The hybrid system is less well-known, but uses a combustion engine from elsewhere in Suzuki’s range, so we’ll wait to see if there are any reported issues with the electrical system.

And as Suzuki has previously proved, with UK market Celerio models, it’s incredibly quick at reacting to any problems and places its aftersales care of customers as paramount. This reactive speed is a benefit of being such a small company.

The car is built for use by families and the interior, while not awash with ‘quality’ soft-touch plastics is constructed from solid-feeling materials – and while some of the switchgear may not be particularly inspiring in design, it’s proven to work and continue doing so for a long time without fault.

There’s no need to fear the four-wheel drive Allgrip cars either, since the firm is regarded as something of a four-wheel drive specialist.