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2010 Suzuki Grand Vitara awarded Overlander Best Small Wagon

By Brett Davis |

Overlander magazine’s recent annual award ceremony has just given the Suzuki Grand Vitara DDiS turbo-diesel the award for the Best Small Wagon for the third consecutive year.

The Grand Vitara was noted for its great overall performance in both diesel and petrol forms. The magazine said that if there were two separate awards for a petrol and diesel small wagon, the Grand Vitara would have been awarded both.

The magazine was quoted as saying,

“The Grand Vitara DDiS is one of those vehicles that just does everything well. There’s no point in saying that the secret of the DDiS’s success is this or that; because it has so many ‘secrets’ that make it the great vehicle it is. This engine is willing and strong from very low engine speeds and makes light work of just about any driving situation. All the while the diesel is easy on fuel and well capable of fuel numbers in the 8 litres/100km range.”

The Suzuki Grand Vitara done well considering the abundance of capable rivals. These include the Toyota RAV4, Subaru Forester, Nissan X-Trail, Mitsubishi Outlander, Jeep Patriot and the Hyundai ix35, although some of these ‘off-roaders’ are less capable than others when the going gets dirty.

The Suzuki Grand Vitara DDiS price starts at $35,990 putting it at about average with the rival prices. The DDiS engine is a 1.9-litre turbo-diesel four cylinder model that outputs 95kW and 300Nm of torque.


 
  • Andrew of Newcastle

    Now all they need to do is fit the Renault 2.0 litre diesel engine, 4 wheel disc brakes, rubber floors instead of carpet, factory snorkel and simplify the front guard/headlight/grille line to allow the fitment of a real factory or aftermarket bullbar and they would appeal to the true 4WD enthusiast who wants a smaller vehicle as well as the pretend 4WD brigade.

    • Don

      It already has 4 wheel disc brakes(all ventilated), updated specs on their website.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000019885375 Taki Yamauchi

      Grand Vitara Extreme version sounds good…
      Suzuki got partnership with VW last year.
      So engine would be TDI2.0 103KW from Tiguan.
      And of course 6 speed automatic transmission too.

    • Bob

      Agree engine could be improved at low revs, like a light switch at 2000 revs (turbo lag?). Torque above 2k is awesome.

      As for the rest, ARB does a full deluxe winch bar, snorkel is available from Safari, & GV has had disc brakes all round since 2009. As for rubber floors, the carpets are held on by velcro, so very easy to change to rubber.

      Best of all it can be driven around the city & narrow bush tracks, like a smaller car, with none of the parking & manouvering problems of the large wagons.

  • http://www.nextbook.nl marijke

    Fantastic car, I made many miles with it in the high desert of the Andes in North Chile, very sturdy and comfortable (rented) car.