20 Jul 05
Is it a hatchback? An MPV? A 4x4? All of the above? Meet Suzuki's new 'crossover' car, known within the company as New B, which mixes the attributes of all those car types into one quite novel package.
Information to date has suggested that the new car's name is Aerio, currently used on Japanese-market versions of the Liana saloon and hatchback, but although the New B will ultimately replace the Liana/Aerio, the models will run together for a time. The most likely name is now Suzuki SX4, and its role is to bridge the gap between the Swift supermini and the imminent new Grand Vitara 4x4.
Bigger than a supermini, smaller than a Focus, the SX4 (which is built on a Swift-derived platform) has a hint of Fiat Idea about its Giugiaro-penned styling. That's more than a coincidence, because Suzuki's plant in Hungary will also make Fiat-badged versions with a different nose treatment, name as yet unconfirmed. The link with Fiat is not an obligation from the former Fiat/GM partnership, even though Suzuki is itself 20 percent GM-owned. Suzuki controls its collaborative deals itself, on a project-by-project basis; another example is the Fiat 1.3 JTD diesel engine in the Swift, an engine which Suzuki will soon build itself under licence in India.
The SX4 comes with three engine choices: Suzuki's 1490cc and 1586cc units, delivering 99bhp and 107bhp in these applications, and Fiat's 1910cc JTD turbodiesel in 120bhp form (with a useful 207lb ft of torque). The latter two can be had with four-wheel drive, a system which uses an 'electronic control coupling device' (ECCD) to divert torque to the rear wheels as the front ones lose grip. It's an alternative to a viscous coupling and uses a wet multiplate clutch similar to the Haldex system used in, for example, an Audi TT.
