Suzuki made just enough changes to the Grand Vitara for the 2013 model year for it to be worth our while reinvestigating a car we last tested twenty-one months ago. The most obvious difference is a revised front-end treatment involving a new bumper, grille and foglights, and while you may have a different opinion I must say I think the more modern look is a great improvement.
At the other end, the Grand Vitara has become more traditional. Two years ago Suzuki worked out that the 1.9-litre diesel-engined model, as tested here, could have CO2 emissions of 179g/km if it had either a spare wheel or air-conditioning, but not if it had both. Market research suggested that customers were more interested in air-conditioning, so the spare wheel on this and all other Grand Vitaras was replaced by that Godawfulest of motoring inventions, a tyre repair kit.
Well. Market research, huh? Customer response to this move, once it happened, was such that 2013 versions now have spare wheels again, as is right and proper. And it doesn't seem to have affected CO2 emissions too badly. In fact, they're actually down. Not down by much - only by 5g/km, to 174g/km - but that puts the car in a lower VED Band and means that annual tax payments from year two onwards are now £200, rather than £220 as before.
No other Grand Vitara comes close because they all have petrol engines - either a 1.6 which gives performance that might be described as leisurely or a 2.4 with drastically inferior fuel economy.
The diesel unit, which is available only with the five-door body style and the range-topping SZ5 trim level, is supplied by Renault, and it's very good. It produces enough power for the job it's being asked to do here (maximum output being 127bhp, and it doesn't use a lot of fuel in the process.
After around 330 miles of town and country running, the trip computer told me I had averaged 39.2mpg, but that may be an under-reading, since measurements suggested that the true figure was 40.9mpg, very close to the official 42.8mpg.
Either way, it's not bad going for such a resolutely unaerodynamic four-wheel drive vehicle. I'd hoped the economy would improve on a long motorway run, but actually it dropped, largely because of very high winds though possibly also because there's no long-legged sixth gear in the manual transmission. Still about 38mpg though.
My total mileage for this test was around 600, and although the Grand Vitara doesn't have a reputation as a great driver's car I never found myself wishing I'd had something else instead. Oh, the engine can be a bit noisy, and the gearchange is a strange mixture of rubbery and crunchy, but the handling is secure even when you're pushing on a bit and the ride quality makes that of other, more expensive SUVs seem ridiculous.
There's room for a tall driver and front passenger, and luggage space if very good for this type of machine at 398 litres with the rear seats in place. Larger back-seat passengers don't get a particularly good deal because their heads hit the hard mouldings made necessary by the sunroof, but nobody of average height or less should have a problem with this.
