This soft-roader is a fairly substantial overhaul of the Grand Vitara generation that arrived in late 2005. Both three and five-door bodystyles continue, but the 1.6 and 2.0-litre four-cylinder engines are replaced with a 2.4-litre four-cylinder. Meanwhile, a 3.2-litre V6 supersedes the old 2.7-litre version.
Uprating to a 2.4-litre engine is a good move as most of the Grand Vitara’s rivals hover around this engine capacity. With variable valve timing and inlet manifold length for better torque spread and smooth revving performance, the double-cam 16-valve four-cylinder produces 122kW at 6000rpm and 225Nm at 4000rpm (up substantially from the 2.0’s 103kW and 184Nm).
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The Grand Vitara benefits from long travel suspension that does a reasonable job of rounding off all but the most violent of hits. Some corrugations that have passenger cars jumping and jerking were invisible under the Suzuki’s tall-sidewall 17-inch rubber.
The downside was a tendency for bodyroll and sloppy steering in tight and testing corners. Unsurprisingly, the new electronic stability control system is tuned to help the driver out early and often.
This car shines off-road. The suspension compliance and steering slack become allies. And the pukka dual-range 4WD system never missed a beat on our sandy, lumpy test track. There was the occasional graunch on the underside that needs to be minimised as there isn’t much underbody protection.
Compared with the old model, the interior look is similar ... yet a bit different. The trip computer’s display moves from the centre stack to the instrument panel with more features, including average fuel use. A large and clear speedo takes pride of place.
The centre stack is also revised, but is not a big improvement. The main problem is reading the audio and climate control digital readouts while wearing sunglasses. The circular readout for the climate-control settings is also a bit small, although design-wise it works nicely with all the other rounded controls.
Storage for passengers is good. There are door pockets all around, two seat-back pockets and dual cupholders front and rear.
The Grand Vitara remains the compact soft-roader of choice if you really want to go off-road. However, its package of worthwhile upgrades means it now works better on-road.
However, the likes of Volkswagen’s Tiguan and the Subaru Forester remain more refined passenger cars than off-roaders, and are therefore more suited to the daily grind of the urban jungle.
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