Category: Small 4x4s 
Price Range: £13,600 to £18,975
Genuine off-road capability, well-equipped.
Limited on-road ability, coarse 2.4, plasticky interior, fragile ride.
Refreshed, value-packed Suzuki still feels its age against more modern alternatives.
The big news for the revised range is the introduction of the new petrol 2.4. Instead of an all-new engine, the 2.4-litre is actually a development of the current 2.0-litre. Engineers claim the new engine is not only more powerful - generating 167bhp and 165bhp in the three-door - but smoother and more refined than the 2.0-litre on which it is based thanks to changes in the variable valve timing and inclusion of a new balancer shaft.
So what's it like? Better than the old 2.0-litre, but still a long way off the pace compared with some of the competition.
Our car had very few miles on the clock and felt very tight, but even that cannot account for the alarming harshness of the 2.4 at around 4,000rpm. Worse still, even driving the Grand Vitara at a modest pace means you'll have to work the new engine hard partly because of the 1.5-tonne kerbweight, but also because the maximum 166lb-ft torque peak is delivered at a lowly 3,800rpm.
The Grand Vitara hits 62mph in 11.2 seconds and tops out at 112mph - that's around one second off the less powerful 2.0-litre alternatives.
We have little doubt the Grand Vitara will be among the best in its class in the mud thanks to its low-ratio gearbox, stiff chassis and decent ground clearance but on the road it's a different story.
Steering feel is poor and compared with almost all its rivals, it is the least competent. There's little grip and if you combine that with the poor steering feel and alarming degrees of body roll it is not a car to hustle along a country road.
The gearchange is notchy: we could recommend the automatic, but since that only has four ratios we're worried it might turn out to be a busy combination.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Suzuki Grand Vitara
wrote on 16 10 2008