Suzuki SX4 Review: "Hell of a Deal"

[Ming]

Source: http://evo.blogsome.com/2007/01/08/suzuki-sx4/

Evo Auto Blog
1.8.2007

Immediately prior to our picking up the Suzuki SX4, we spent a week in the excellent-in-every-way Audi A3 S Line. Both cars are small, all-wheel drive 5-door hatches, and in a way, these cars are kind of in the same class (as far as size and drivetrain, at least). Yeah, we know it’s not fair to compare a near $40K car to a $15K car - especially before we even hop into the $15K machine - but we can’t help the fact that we hopped into the Suzuki expecting to be disappointed.

So imagine our genuine and honest surprise when we discovered that the Suzuki SX4 is a pretty damn good car. We mean, this car is on a whole ‘nother level when compared to Suzuki’s other offerings - like the rebadged Daewoos in the company’s line-up (we’re looking at you, Reno and Forenza).

The past Suzukis we’ve driven, while pleasant cars, felt kind of cheap and flimsy. Of course, that’s because they were cheap; we weren’t expecting them to have the vault-like feel of a Mercedes. But this new SX4… it actually feels like a solid and respectable car. Furthermore, and we mean this in the best way possible, it feels normal.

For a company known more for its sport bikes than its cars, having a solid “normal” car is a big deal. The SX4 shows that Suzuki is a real car company that builds real cars. Excuse us for a minute… we still can’t get over just what an improvement this car is over past models.

Okay… on to the subject at hand: the Suzuki SX4. Suzuki is positioning its latest five door hatch in a curious place. The SX4 is a B-segment-sized vehicle ala the Fit and Yaris, but the SX4 looks more like a wanna-be SUV than a city car, is packing more 30-40 horsepower than the Honda/Toyota and has standard all-wheel drive. Part of the appeal of cars like the Fit is the miserly fuel consumption, and one can’t get around the fact that 40 extra horses and 2 extra drive wheels require more fuel.

Still, it’s not like the SX4 gets bad fuel mileage - we averaged 25 mpg in mixed driving. Having a full 143 horses and 136 lb.-ft. of torque mated to a pretty good AWD system makes the SX4 feel a hell of a lot livelier than any other B-segment we’ve driven. This lively feeling could also be due to the fact that our SX4 is equipped with a 5-speed manual, but we’ll go and guess that the extra power is the bigger factor here.

More: http://evo.blogsome.com/2007/01/08/suzuki-sx4/

[DanCBJMS1988]

Interesting review. However, I haven't seen a lot of SX4s in RI and in Ottawa. Something must be wrong with Suzuki.