Wednesday, December 24, 2008

2009 SUZUKI GRAND VITARA

2009 Suzuki Grand Vitara | Reviews | Pictures | Videos | Specs | Test Drive | Off Road


2009 Suzuki Grand Vitara

2009 Suzuki Grand Vitara


Even prior to this year’s large gas-price-spike hit, buyers had proposed journey a normal SUV shred in preference of some-more select as good as fuel-efficient crossovers. Automakers have noticed, as good as it’s apropos increasingly formidable to find a compress SUV that’s still essentially an SUV. The 2009 Suzuki Grand Vitara we not prolonged ago had in for a exam turn is a single of a couple of means compress offerings left for a U.S. market.


The final time a Grand Vitara graced a garage — a 2008 4WD indication — we were agreeably astounded by a style, quality, as good as altogether value. No FWD or AWD girly ‘ute, it was a genuine SUV deal, finish with an tangible send box as good as entirely eccentric suspension. While we dug a frozen styling as good as off-road chops, we were reduction than tender with a weak, emasculate engine, bad audio, as good as worried seats.


It seems someone during Suzuki was listening. The Grand Vitara has been freshened for 2009, with a greatest disproportion being underneath a hood. Gone is a overburdened 184-hp 2.7L V-6 engine. In a place is a customary 2.5L 4 producing 166 hp as good as 162 lb-ft of unresolved ornament as good as an discretionary 3.2L V-6 producing 230 hp as good as 213 lb-ft of torque.



As it usually so happened, we was formulation a main main highway outing to Northern California for my mother’s annual Yuletide celebration — a undiluted event to find out what a brand brand brand new Grand Vitara is similar to to live with for a couple of days. My outing would include of often main main highway pushing with a couple of twisty roads as good as a tiny luggage thrown in for good measure. Oh, as good as in a march of 48 hours, I’d be spending tighten to sixteen hours during a at a back of of a wheel.


The two-row, 5 newcomer 2009 Grand Vitara with usually 1700 miles upon a time was propitious with a top-shelf Luxury trim package, a four-cylinder engine, as good as a four-speed involuntary transmission. It was additionally 2WD, which meant we wouldn’t be contrast a off-road prowess. That’s usually fine, since many ‘utes in a Grand Vitara’s category outlay many of their time upon a cement anyway.


The initial thing we notice when we stand in to a Grand Vitara is a morality of a interior. All a controls have been inside of easy strech as good as easy to use, as good as there aren’t as good many of them — sufficient buttons as good as dials to get a pursuit finished as good as no more. The black dash, carpet, doors as good as seats have been set off by beautiful china accents. Unfortunately, they’re additionally equivalent by cheap-looking faux-marble trim around a rigging selector as good as upon a interior doorway handles. Marble functions in kitchens, not cars, as good as cheap, plastic, feign marble unequivocally doesn’t work. Still a trim is dim sufficient to disremember many of a time.







Given a volume of time I’d be spending during a at a back of of a wheel, we done certain to move along my iPod, as a tester came with an XM-ready stereo yet no use subscription. Unfortunately, it didn’t come with a iPod adapter either. Not usually that, yet a consummate poke of a car unsuccessful to expose any kind of auxiliary input, notwithstanding a participation of an “AUX” symbol upon a stereo as good as specific discuss of a capacity to bond auxiliary inclination in a owner’s manual. I’d have to solve for a in-dash six-CD changer as good as a reward eight-speaker stereo with subwoofer instead — not a distressing compromise. Unfortunately, a receptive to advice peculiarity wasn’t anything to write home about.


In all, a Grand Vitara’s interior valid adequate. The fit as good as finish have been good as good as there were no squeaks or rattles to report, even with a stereo cranked up. Suzuki assumingly additionally listened to a gripes about a 2008 model’s seats as good as came at a back of with a set of easily bolstered leather-wrapped captain’s chairs which have been gentle if a bit firm. The chair heater usually had a single setting, though, which proposed out rounded off as good hot, afterwards finished up frequency noticeable.


Many people buy SUVs for a autocratic perspective of a main main highway afforded by a vehicle’s tallness as good as honest seating position. Here, a Grand Vitara does not disappoint. Visibility is well-developed in all directions, even with a entirely lonesome gangling tire unresolved upon a back. There have been a tiny blind symbol issues, however. With a tiny experimenting, we was means to utterly remove a late-model Ford F-150 in my margin of vision.


Being an SUV, a Grand Vitara does tiny to locate bumps as good as imperfections in a roadal, yet it offers decent receptive to advice insulation. Despite a comparatively severe ride, a Grand Vitara essentially handles sincerely good for an SUV, yet extreme physique roll. In a mountainous country upon tip of Santa Barbara, upon Highway 154, a Suzuki proves tolerably fun to expostulate interjection to a organisation cessation as good as gummy tires. In a examination of a 2008 Grand Vitara, we found a responsiveness was “not bad,” as good as Suzuki seems to have overcompensated with this model. At turnpike speeds, a steering feels a bit as good touchy, as a smallest submit sends we flapping in to a subsequent lane, so we have to be really deliberate.


Although down eighteen hp from a V-6 tester, a vehicle’s four-cylinder engine essentially feels utterly peppy. Merging upon a turnpike as good as rock rock climbing mountainous country requires usually medium stifle input, as does flitting upon a freeway. Picking up my hermit as good as his luggage did tiny to delayed it down. What hampers a Grand Vitara some-more than a engine, though, is a old-school four-speed transmission. In many situations it’s not a problem, yet if we strike an slip upon a freeway, things get ugly. The delivery all a time hunts at a back of as good as onward in in between third as good as fourth gear, with third as good clever as good as fourth as good diseased to have a climb. Worse, a downshifts have been anything yet smooth. A gearbox with during slightest a single some-more spoke — contend similar to a a single in V-6 Grand Vitara — would assistance immensely.


Our alternative large censure about a 2008 Grand Vitara was a less-than-stellar fuel economy. The aged V-6 is rated during usually seventeen city/22 mpg highway, not good by 2008 standards. The brand brand brand new V-6 is EPA rated during eighteen city/24 mpg main main highway in a 2WD form as good as somewhat worse with 4WD, a tiny alleviation over a final tester. The brand brand brand new four-cylinder is rated by a EPA during nineteen city/25 mpg highway, as good as a rating appears accurate. Over a march of my trip, we lonesome 806.4 miles, outlayed $80.57 upon regular-grade gas, as good as got an normal of 23.92 mpg in 90% main main highway driving, achieving a personal many appropriate of 24.56 mpg. Given a prolonged distances in in between gas stations upon a 101, we typically filled up during around a entertain tank, so any tank got me an normal of rounded off 268 miles.



The Grand Vitara doesn’t have any promises about being a top-tier oppulance SUV. There is no Bluetooth here, nor is there a navigation system. Without discretionary adapters, a XM Satellite Radio as good as iPod interface do not work. HomeLink is accessible usually upon a many costly model, as good as we can dont consider about about adjusting a float tallness or suspension. The keyless entrance as good as ignition complement is a good feature, however. You have no thought how available a single of these systems is until you’re in a precipitate as good as can travel up, clear a doors, get in, as good as expostulate divided yet ever in contact with pass fob.


One square of record a Grand Vitara does have which isn’t utterly up to standard is a operation calculator. While sincerely accurate, it’s incredibly delayed to conflict to becoming different main main highway conditions. Equally unnerving during initial is a gas gauge, which starts to dump rounded off rught away after we fill up. It slows down drastically after about a two-thirds mark, yet it creates a sense you’re blazing gas similar to it’s starting out of style. Both take a tiny removing used to.


Before rock rock climbing in to a Grand Vitara, an additional staff part of had joked which it is “the clarification of unrefined.” After spending a week end during a at a back of of a wheel, we do not consider that’s fair. No, it’s not an Escalade, yet it doesn’t cost an arm as good as a leg, either. This is an SUV for purists who wish genuine 4WD as good as no frills. Ten years ago, it would’ve been nearby a tip of a SUV pack. By 2009 standards, though, it’s severe around a edges. It’s easy to live with upon a every day basis, yet if we do not need a off-road capability, a crossover would substantially yield a nicer float for a same price. On a alternative hand, since a extent of a improvements Suzuki has done in a single indication year, there’s goal which a Grand Vitara will fast locate up with a refined, high-tech brethren — as good as sojourn a loyal SUV choice in a process.

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