Our Grand First Review!

Choosing this FIRST blog post has involved quite a bit – Me and Shef have been debating hard since yesterday for deciding on the FIRST automobile we would be reviewing here. We wanted the first post to be GRAND so we chose the ‘Grand Vitara’

We test drove the Grand Vitara at the local MUL dealership, with the sales staff of the local Maruti Franchisee not being very friendly, we had a tough time to convince them for a small test drive. Anyways, here’s what we have to share:

About the Vitara:

The Grand Vitara seems to be a solid choice among compact SUVs. The vehicle is an appropriate mix of off road capabilities and luxury. It’s rugged enough to include a low gear tackling of rugged trails and unimproved roads. The Vitara comes loaded with latest safety features, is the biggest, most powerful, most luxurious and most expensive vehicle in Suzuki’s line-up.

Grand Vitara competes with the Tata Safari, Ford Endeavour and Honda CR-V. In comparison to the competitors, the Vitara has a huge number of pluses, for example its lush cabin and fantastic engine, along with its decent off-road ability, capacity to host 7 passengers and mind blowing looks.

Under the hood of the Grand Vitara is a gutsy 2.0-liter Inline-four cylinder (I-4) engine with a double overhead camshaft (DOHC), which churns out 119.5 bhp @ 5,500 rpm and 170 Nm of torque @ 3,500 rpm. It may be linked to either a 5-speed manual transmission or 4-speed automatic transmission, depending upon the variant. Both the transmissions are responsive and shift smoothly..

Fuel and Economy

In the city and highways, Vitara is the king on the road. You just need to foot the accelerator a bit to make up that gap in traffic. This 1.7 tonne beast would respond as quickly as a Lancer Petrol. Vitara’s cruising ability is excellent this makes it an amazing highway car.

However, even more impressive acceleration is the torque. The Grand Vitara comfortably cruises on steep uphill roads in third gear where other SUVs would struggle. On off-road course, the gear stick never needed to be shifted into low. As claimed by MUL, the Vitara would give 16/22 kmpl (city/highway), we don’t believe this!

The Vitara’s ride and handling are really disappointing. The body-on-frame construction and non-independent rear suspension makes the bad impression. Potholes, ruts and speed-breakers are easily felt, and on an undulating surface, the Grand Vitara tends to pitch around, and feels nervous.

Interiors

Loads of leather and wood in the interiors. The seats are comfortable. The instrument panel is well laid out. The dash looks very attractive with wood. Ergonomics are amazing!. There is plenty of space too. The second row has legroom, but not as much as expected. There is a third row though. For a car of its price, people will expect a luxurious interior (like in the Accord, Mondeo and Camry). The Vitara definitely lives up to these expectations.

A quick Sneak Peak

Fuel Economy : 16/22 kmpl (city/highway)
Available Engines : 2.0L Inline-4, 119.5 bhp
Available Transmissions: 4-speed Automatic Transmission (AT) 5-speed Manual Transmission (MT)

We hope you found this review useful.

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Shef and Manks