• Slightly smaller than S-Cross sibling
• Boot is rather small
• Adequate legroom front and rear

How much space is there?

The Vitara places more emphasis on passenger space than it does on carrying luggage, which will work well for some and less so for others.

Four six-foot adults will be fairly comfy inside, though the narrow cabin means seating three across the rear is a difficult task. And if you’re very tall, avoid models with the panoramic glass roof, as this eats into headroom. You get two Isofix points.

Boot space and storage

The Vitara’s boot measures just 375 litres on Boosterjet models – that’s just on the low end of adequate for a car of this size, being beaten by most small SUV rivals. It’s a nice square shape with a low loading lip, though, and the back seats fold in a 60:40 split to make loading longer items easy.

Hybrid models have an even smaller boot, essentially losing the useful underfloor storage area to accommodate the drivetrain battery. This means a capacity of just 289 litres, which is soundly beaten by many of our favourite superminis.

Storage in the cabin is average, with usefully sized door pockets giving space for a 1.5-litre bottle. There are a pair of cupholders in the centre console and a shelf ahead of the gearlever for placing a smartphone, usefully sited next to the USB connections.

Is it easy to park?

Square dimensions and surprisingly good all-round visibility mean the Vitara’s not too difficult to slot into a parking space. Rather unusually, the cheapest SZ-T comes with a reversing camera as standard. However, if you want parking sensors for even more reassurance you’ll need the top-spec SZ5 car.

Safety

• Vitara is loaded with safety equipment as standard
• Five-star Euro NCAP rating is outdated, though
• Four-wheel drive brings additional security on the road

The Suzuki Vitara scored five stars when tested by Euro NCAP. However, that was undertaken in 2015 – making it outdated by the standards of the organisation. We can’t say that the Vitara would score lower now, but just know that the crash tests cars are put through are significantly more challenging these days than they were in 2015.

The Vitara does come with a whole raft of standard safety equipment, though, much of which is optional or reserved for top-spec versions of its rival compact SUVs. Every model gets autonomous emergency braking, blind spot monitors, rear cross traffic alert, traffic sign recognition, adaptive cruise control and seven airbags including one for the driver’s knee.

That’s a good roster, and most of it works really well, with the exception of the adaptive cruise control on hybrid models which suffers with an underpowered engine. The technology works the engine quite hard to maintain speed.

Watch the Suzuki Vitara’s Euro NCAP crash test