Suzuki, Japan’s budget car champion, is also pretty versatile in the art of four-wheel drive

Cars Reviewed: Suzuki ALLGRIP 4×4 Models

Suzuki is a Japanese manufacturer long renowned for its range of good value models that often have this added knack of standing out from the crowd.

Then there’s Suzuki’s extensive experience with four-wheel-drive and off-roading, another key differentiator from other makes.

Put the two together and you arrive at contenders like the Jimny, the small, hardy, cult hero 4×4 challenger that in one form or another has been on the market for an incredible 55 years now (but regrettably, no longer in the UK).

Today, Suzuki offers a range of variations on the lightweight four-wheel-drive theme to suit both on and off-road applications. These are then bundled together under the ALLGRIP brand name. Recently, Suzuki hosted a media event in South Wales to mark more than half a century of ALLGRIP in action.

The gathering also acted as a taster for the upcoming Suzuki eVitara, a new age electric SUV that’s to be available this autumn with both front and four-wheel drive, with prices kicking off at £29,999.

For those interested in history, the Suzuki 4×4 story dates all the way back to 1967 when the Hope Motor Company, a small, obscure Japanese manufacturer, created the ‘HopeStar ON360.’

This tiny, rugged 360cc contender had an excellent ability to run on rough roads, like “a small Jeep.“ When Hope ran out of resources to continue full-scale production, Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corporation purchased the manufacturing rights and, in 1970, produced its own follow-up. This was to be the original Jimny LJ10.

Fast forward to the late eighties and Suzuki was again on the mark when it launched the original Vitara. Sold first in Japan as the Escudo, this was a genuine trailblazer since it married rugged 4×4 off-roader style (and ability) with modern-day convenience, comfort, style and kit. It became a huge hit.

Toyota later came up with its own take, the RAV4. Many others have since followed, thus sending the fashionable soft-roader sector into the stratosphere. But reader, it was Suzuki that got there first….

And it was great to see in Cardiff that Suzuki GB had managed to find and restore a late, pristine first-generation Vitara for its heritage fleet. Not so many of those around anymore, alas.

Kudos also for rescuing the tiny blue LJ80 Jimny used by motorcycle legend and double 500 cc World Champion Barry Sheene as a circuit pit runabout vehicle in the late ‘70s. Another piece of history.

Not all of Suzuki’s 4×4 efforts have quite worked out, mind. Some might remember the X90, the oddball two-seat, two-door SUV from the mid-90s. Or the Kizashi, a highly rated, but little bought, BMW 3-Series chaser. With switchable 2WD/4WD, the Kizashi looked good and was excellent to drive. But Suzuki GB recalls selling all of 351 of them. Still, today, what a buy.

The Vitara, in the meantime, has been a deserved success, evolving through different generations and spawning the more upscale Grand Vitara along the way.

The Ignis has been another Suzuki small car gem: a fun and quirky compact crossover, with a well-proven ALLGRIP ‘auto’ system inherited from the Swift.

Today, AllGRIP ‘Auto’ or ‘Select’ are either standard or an option on the Swift, Vitara and S-Cross crossover, while the Across is a sophisticated plug-in hybrid SUV that features e-Four electronic 4×4 and Toyota underpinnings.

Journos had a drive out to Monster Mountain near Cardiff, where the differing Suzuki models present naturally ‘monstered’ the mountain trail course without breaking sweat.

I know firsthand that the late-lamented Jimny can be a real warrior off-road: simple, lightweight, with switchable 4×4, low-range transfer, good ground clearance and torque, it can flex, keep going and more than hold its own against bigger, heavier contenders.

Suzuki also now does a very appealing five-door Jimny Nomade for Japan and some lucky export markets, but again, sadly, Europe doesn’t make that list.

In the big picture, meantime, Suzuki is well positioned these days. Despite its low profile versus the big guns, a recent survey named Suzuki as the third most profitable car maker, behind Ferrari and Porsche, in terms of overall operating profit margin for 2024. … Yes, read that sentence back and be amazed.

When all’s said and done, ALLGRIP might not feature front and centre of Suzuki’s ambitions to lift global sales from 3.2 million units to 4 million units by 2030, but it certainly has its place. And in the company’s buccaneering 4×4 history, no question.

Peter Nunn

Motoring writer

As a motoring journalist, he’s been writing about cars for a long time, starting in London in fact around the time the Sex Pistols first began limbering up….

Thereafter his journalistic remit has covered both new and classic cars, some historic motorsport reporting plus a long spell in Tokyo, covering the Japanese car industry for a range of global media outlets. Peter is a car writer and tester in the UK. Gooner, Alfisti and former Tokyo resident. If it has wheels, then he is interested.