Despite record revenue and operating income in fiscal 2024-25, Suzuki Motor Corporation remains a cautious company.
The latest results, with the main numbers equivalent to 35.4 and 3.9 billion euro, prove the wisdom of its always-keep-costs-as-low-as-possible strategy. The decade-old yet still competitive Vitara is but one example.
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Long lived and all the better for it
Kaizen is all through this small SUV. There have been two facelifts, multiple engine changes and evolutions, new transmissions and, mercifully, an interior left mostly alone.
The Vitara retains strong appeal thanks to great economy (low weight plus mild and series hybrid powertrains), fair pricing and no nagging electronics. Sure, the ADAS stuff is all there but it keeps quiet. And who wants to be asked five minutes after setting off: ‘Time for a break?’. Or harangued constantly for daring to drive in sunglasses. I know people who are avoiding buying a new car due to this stuff.
Press a button on either the tailgate, either front door or the ancient looking yet somehow appealing remote and the car unlocks. There is no ‘welcome’ sound and/or lights show, the driver’s seat and steering wheel adjust manually, the door trim shifts slightly when you lower any window and there’s a manual parking brake. No key, mind; firing up and shutting off are also done via a button-press.
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By GlobalDataWhen will we see Suzuki EVs?
Everything, including the steering, is the opposite of heavy in the Vitara. Which is very Suzuki. And one of the main reasons why the company has waited so long before creating EVs. And you can set a PR machine on this issue, as Renault Group has done with its fabulous new ad, yet here again is an inconvenient truth, batteries bring much mass (sorry to state one fact: the A390 prototype weighs 2,121 kilos).
Plug-in Suzukis are coming but due to India being far and away the vehicles division’s number one market (almost as vital as the USA is to Subaru), electric cars have not been a priority. Increasingly they will be.
Maruti Suzuki (MSIL) is under constant attack from three main challengers. Recently Mahindra turned the tables on Hyundai and Tata by grabbing and holding on to second place in passenger car sales. Still the Indian-Japanese JV holds some 40 percent of the local market, down from more than half. Yet everything is changing in this now giant market.
Gone are the days of outdated Maruti models, and here in Europe we too will increasingly benefit from MSIL’s new-tech cars and SUVs. Even now, the Japanese market’s Fronx and Jimny Nomade (five-door) are sourced from India. The e Vitara, Suzuki’s first global EV, is coming our way too, as is the Urban Cruiser, a rebadged variant for Toyota Motor Europe.
Four models for the UK
Leveraging the well-known Vitara name could be a masterstroke for what is a small brand in the UK and the region we are part of. Suzuki may be a medium-sized OEM overall but it’s only a minor one in Britain. And yet such is the reputation for value, reliability and longevity that resales tend to be strong.
After a culling of certain models a while back, there are now only four models available here: Swift, S-Cross, Vitara and Across. The last of those costs almost fifty thousand pounds, a stunning amount for a Suzuki. All others start below thirty grand, or twenty in the Swift’s case.
Priced from GBP27,299, the cheapest Vitara is £750 less than the entry level S-Cross, with Motion and Ultra trim levels (as well as a production plant) in common. There is no higher model grade with the Hybrid, which means just one variant and pricing a little below the top-spec Mild Hybrid. See below for specifics of each.
AGS solely for the Hybrid
Facelift number two was announced last year, Suzuki GB terming this its 2025 range. That’s also when the Motion and Ultra names were applied to this model. Strictly speaking there is no Vitara automatic. However, the Hybrid has only two pedals, its ‘AGS’ gearbox being an automated manual.
Swapping cogs yourself is an increasingly rare thing in new cars. The shifting in this one is – that word again – light, and a delight. As Suzuki doesn’t always give you this many ratios, worthy of mention is that there are six (in every Vitara, manual or AGS). Unusually, reverse is at bottom right and you must raise a collar to select it.
What a pleasure and novelty choosing any gear is compared to so many awful auto-selectors. The day after this press tester went back, an XC90 arrived: its P-R-N-D is slow, vague and generally far inferior. As it has been for more than a decade. Why is such basic stuff so hard for some car makers?
The tweaks for 2025
Changes for the 2025 Vitara are fairly minor, though at the front it’s easy to notice the new headlights, differently shaped foglamps and DRL, plus what looks like a nudge-bar but isn’t. The last of these is a small but highly effective visual change, it being merely some dark plastic below the grille.
Other updates include specific alloy wheels for Motion and Ultra variants. Each are seventeen inches in diameter and for the top trim they have a chrome-look finish.
Almost a convertible
Gauges are analogue and all the better for being so, the eyeball-style vents remain a delight to use and the touchscreen is nicely sized at only nine inches in diameter. Plastics are all durable and certain things such as the steering wheel buttons have a satisfying feel to them, not being haptic.
Overhead, and the press tester was in Ultra specification, is a metre-long glass roof. This is in fact two panels and they slide to reveal a vast space (well, 56 cm is vast for a car that’s only 4.1 m long). It’s a terrible shame that the light-coloured and too-thin sunblind is ineffective – a proper black-out one is needed.
MHEV has more power than HEV
The 48V MHEV which I had temporary custody of has more power than the HEV. With the mild hybrid, a 95 kW (129 PS) and 235 Nm 1.4-litre engine is boosted by a 10 kW (14 PS) and 53 Nm motor. Drive can be to the front or both axles. The stated WLTP average is 53.2 mpg (FWD). The AWD press vehicle returned 52.1 from a mix of city and motorway journeys.
Choose the 140V Hybrid instead and you’ll get Suzuki’s K15C, a naturally aspirated 1.5, also with four cylinders. Outputs are 74 kW (101 PS) plus 24 kW (33 PS) and 60 Nm from the motor. Combined power for what is officially known as the ‘Full Hybrid’ is 85 kW (116 PS). The 0-62 mph time is 13.5 seconds, 4.0 more than the MHEV.
How is it to drive?
For a car that’s so old the Vitara isn’t at all bad to drive. Every mandated safety system is the opposite of intrusive, and sure, it rolls around if you push hard but why would you? Off-road, this has always been a highly capable 4×4 too, though less so as a 4×2.
The wheelbase may be on the short side yet the ride is good and the suspension has long travel. If only the steering had better feel. And yet nobody could dislike this vehicle due to its rather wonderful almost timeless appeal.
Conclusion
Would I buy one? Definitely. For what you pay, there is a terrific amount of value, and compared to almost any EV, oodles of character. I hope Suzuki keeps the updates coming every few years and that production continues for another decade.
There are three versions of the 1.4-litre Mild Hybrid Vitara, priced at GBP27,299 (Motion), GBP28,999 (Ultra) and GBP30,799 (Ultra Allgrip 4×4). The 1.5-litre Hybrid comes in Motion form only, costing GBP29,049. The Mild Hybrids have a six-speed manual gearbox with an automated manual called AGS reserved for the HEV.
