Category: Small 4x4s 
Price Range: £13,600 to £18,975
Looks neat and contemporary, good off-road ability, handles quite well, good value for a 4x4.
Restless ride, lacklustre performance, coarse engines and transmissions, feels dated to drive.
Not the advance we'd hoped for after experiencing the competent Swift. We await the diesel version with interest: meanwhile, a Kia Sportage is a much better bet.
There's no EuroNCAP test result as yet, but with front and side airbags, plus curtain bags for front and outer rear occupants, the Grand Vitara should protect well in an accident. The ladder frame is designed to divert forces away from the cabin in a frontal crash and the front bumper absorbs energy in such a way as to minimise injury to an errant pedestrian's legs.
This is an SUV designed to absorb impact forces to the benefit of people inside and out, not bounce off while subjecting its occupants to damaging decelerations, as used to be the chassis-built SUV way.
Security is helped by deadlocks and free-wheeling lock cylinder, plus the obligatory immobiliser. There's no ESP system as such, but with permanent four-wheel drive, the Grand Vitara can manage without one.
ABS and electronic brake-force distribution are standard, of course, but - increasingly unusually - the rear brakes are drums.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Suzuki Grand Vitara
wrote on 16 10 2008