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In the rush for ever-increasing features, prestige, and electric powertrains, you might have forgotten that the Suzuki Vitara exists, but that would be doing Suzuki’s small SUV a disservice. It was one of the first cars to popularise the genre, arriving all the way back in 1988, and it has plugged away ever since across four generations, offering dependability and practicality for a modest price.
The current model arrived in 2015 and while there are more stylish and sophisticated SUVs available, the Vitara still has confident styling, a simple and easy to live with cabin, and it drives well too - helped by being far lighter than most SUVs of equivalent size.
It remains affordable too both new and used. New Vitaras start at just over £20,000, undercutting rivals like the Nissan Juke and costing several thousand less than others like the Renault Captur and Peugeot 2008. Only the Dacia Duster gets you more SUV for less money.
Suzuki has a reputation for building no-nonsense cars for an affordable price, and the Suzuki Vitara is a great example of that. It’s not the flashiest small SUV on the market, but it’s practical, well-equipped, and good to drive.
That’s perhaps not surprising as Suzuki was among the first to market with a small, car-like SUV, when the original Vitara debuted in 1988. Since then the model has been through four generations, with today’s car originally launched in 2015. Back then it offered 1.6-litre petrol and diesel engines and a 1.4-litre turbocharged ‘Boosterjet’ petrol, but today you’ll instead find a 1.4-litre Boosterjet mild hybrid and a 1.5-litre, non-turbocharged full hybrid petrol, with front-wheel drive and ‘Allgrip’ all-wheel drive options.
The Vitara is good to drive, helped by being quite light and nimble by SUV standards. Not only is it compact, actually a touch shorter than a Nissan Juke, but with the lightest variants coming in at little more than 1200kg, it’s barely heavier than a VW Polo. That’s not at the expense of equipment either, with all the safety and comfort toys you’d expect, from traffic sign recognition and lane departure warnings, to LED headlights, adaptive cruise control, and an infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto functionality.
A facelift in 2019 freshened up the Vitara’s interior and exterior styling too, and while it’s a little boxier than some rivals, that may well appeal to customers wanting a vehicle with looks to match its ability. The Vitara won’t take you miles into the wilderness, but with available all-wheel drive - a feature increasingly absent from cars in this class - it’s got more countryside and poor-weather appeal than most.
The small crossover and SUV segment is one of the most competitive around, and the Vitara can count everything from the Nissan Juke to premium models such as the Audi Q2 as potential rivals, depending on your budget and requirements, particularly when shopping for a used car. The Vitara isn’t the quickest, most efficient, or even the best to drive, but it’s honest, down-to-earth, and should be dependable too, so it’s well worth a look.
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The 1.4-litre Boosterjet was the pick of the range initially, offering surprisingly strong performance with good real-world economy, so if you’re shopping for an earlier car from the current generation, these are worth seeking out. The 1.0-litre turbocharged Boosterjet in the interim is also a favourite of ours, since it’s quiet, and peppy for its diminutive size.
That model has since disappeared from the range, so we’d once again opt for the 1.4 Boosterjet in mild hybrid form among later models - it’s a fair bit quicker than the 1.5 full hybrid, and barely loses anything in terms of economy.
Suzuki has offered several trim levels since 2015 but from the current, three-tier range, the mid-level SZ-T is the best pick, offering several items of equipment not available on the entry-level Go, but lacking very little to the top SZ5. The only notable exception is that Allgrip all-wheel drive is only available in SZ5 trim. Among older models, we’d recommend the well-equipped SZ-4.
If you’re buying a used Suzuki Vitara it’s helpful to have a rough idea of what you’re getting. Suzuki has rejigged its trim levels a few times since the latest Vitara debuted in 2015, but most nearly-new examples on the market will be in one of three trim lines, either Go, SZ-T, or SZ5.
The good news is there’s no such thing as a poorly-equipped Vitara, and even the basic Go has plenty of comfort and convenience features, though it’s worth noting that only the top-end SZ5 in the current range makes Allgrip all-wheel drive available, so you can expect to pay a premium for these models.
The Suzuki Vitara’s dimensions are:
The Suzuki Vitara’s boot size is:
Both the current mild hybrid and full hybrid variants of the Vitara count as alternative fuel vehicles under the UK’s VED or ‘road tax’ system, so once each model’s first-year CO2-based tax has been paid, both are subject to the same £170 yearly rate. 1.0-litre Boosterjet models will pay £10 more each year. For cars registered prior to April 1, 2017, they will be subject to the old CO2-based system, so you’ll currently pay £150 a year for manual versions of the 1.6 petrol and 1.4 Boosterjet and £180 for the automatics, and as little as £20 for the diesel, thanks to its CO2 being calculated using the old NEDC system.
The Vitara’s generally low costs carry over to its insurance group ratings. Current models vary between groups 21-22 in the 1-50 group system, so insurance costs shouldn’t be too high - though for comparison, a Nissan Juke may cost less, sitting in groups 12-15.
Read our full Suzuki Vitara review