Suzuki SX4 S-Cross review (15/01/2014)

It amuses me when I hear people gushing on about what an amazing achievement the Nissan Qashqai has been for the Japanese marque, supposedly having invented a whole new market segment for family cars.

Utter tosh, of course, as there is nothing ever completely new and innovative — technology aside — in the motoring sphere. Rather what we get are variations on ideas that have already been well plumbed.

Now that is not by way of dissing Nissan for having come up with a family car with SUV pretensions; in fairness to them they decided to ditch the conventional family saloon/hatchback route and chose to go down a little trodden path which, as it happened, the public was only gagging for. Of course nobody knew it at the time, but the Qashqai was the forerunner of the new ‘Crossover’ segment and, because of its extraordinary success, now has as many competitors as you could shake a stick at.

But Nissan were far from the first company to come up with the ‘car-as-SUV’ idea and, in fact, Suzuki has been plugging away at this genre for as long as I’ve been writing about cars. Ok, so some of them, the LJ and SJ were pretty grim, whichever way you looked at them, and later models such as the Jimny and the Ignis weren’t fantastic either.

But back in the day when Suzuki came up with the Vitara way back in 1988, there were signs then of what might be coming down the road nearly 20 years later. The Vitara — and its subsequent sibling the Grand Vitara — were hugely successful and gave a sign that the public were interested in buying cheap, practical two wheel drive cars built to look like 4x4s.

Unfortunately for Suzuki, the ‘green’ political movement which became so popularised across Europe and beyond was to be their undoing as widespread new emission regulations killed off their prime contender.

They did replace the Vitara with the SX4, a sort of half-baked co-operative venture with Fiat, but it never really caught on. Whether that was down to either company’s lack of belief in the product or public antipathy, we may never know. What we do know, though, is that the Qashqai was certainly not the original of the species that so many people make it out be.

In any event, it has taken Suzuki quite some time to climb out of the hole left by the obsolete Vitara and the unsupported SX4, but the company is convinced that it has finally done just that. The new SX4 S-Cross is the car the company’s hopes are pinned on and, I’d have to say that from what I’ve seen, they might not be too far wrong.

What the company has produced is a genuine Crossover contender which will appeal to the masses in the same way as the Qashqai or any of the 15 or so other contenders there now are in this segment. What it now needs is something of a marketing push to ensure that their contender does not get lost in the crowd.

The SX4 S-Cross is an attractive looking car and it has decent kit levels, even from standard specification. It is also well placed to please customers joining the ever-growing number of people reverting to petrol motivation rather than the latterly fashionable diesel option as it has a decent choice of 1.6 litre engines in either format.

Both the petrol and diesel engine variants produce exactly the same power output — 116 bhp — but the diesel has more torque and therefore does not have to be flogged too much, whereas if you want substantive progress from the petrol engine, you have to give it the lash.

On the road though the Suzuki was a real surprise, so well sorted was the handling. There are genuine 4x4 versions available, but the front wheel drive version was a perfectly acceptable companion. In fact, the ALLGRIP 4x4 system is largely a two wheel drive one which spreads power to the other two wheels according to how the on-board sensors determine they’re needed, so it is debatable whether a majority of drivers would actually appreciate what it offers.

In any event the regular 2x4 versions display plenty of grip, handle well and provide decent ride comfort as well, so I’d weigh the two up carefully before committing to the more expensive option.

With the car being priced to sell it is no surprise that some of the interior decor is at the lower end of the scale in terms of being either pleasing on the eye or to the touch, but having said that the interior of the S-Cross is not at all bad and comfort levels are pretty good.

Where the car really scores though is with its practicality. It is roomy to a fault and the boot is huge; of course, depending on the seat alignment, cargo space can be maximised.

This is a car that Suzuki dealers have been waiting and hoping would arrive on their forecourts for a very long time and now it is here, they will not have any difficulty in selling them to the public on the basis of value for money, what (I confidently predict) will turn out to be excellent reliability and a level of practicality even its most vaunted rivals struggle to provide.

The Cost: From 19,995.

The Engine: A choice of two 1.6 engine — one petrol and one diesel — both with similar outputs.

The Specification: Kit levels are decent enough and in fairness to Suzuki the asking costs are far from ridiculous.

The Overall Verdict: Suzuki

dealers have been waiting a while for a car they can sell shed-loads of. It has arrived.

Star Rating: 3/5