Suzuki Vitara 2019 review: Turbo

The MY19 model re-organisation of the Suzuki Vitara range means that the Turbo is the middle, at $29,990, but quite a step up from the base model with its naturally aspirated 1.6-litre engine. It's also significantly cheaper than the Allgrip I reviewed recently.

Standard are 17-inch wheels, Alcantara and fake-leather trim, six-speaker stereo, auto wipers and headlights, climate control, adaptive cruise, heated and folding rear vision mirrors, LED headlights, keyless entry and start, hill-descent control, (ill-fitting) sunglasses holder, sat nav and a space-saver spare.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto make a very welcome appearance on the 7.0-inch touchscreen, which is soldiering on after a few years in Suzuki dashboards.

The Vitara wears its SUV heritage proudly, with a blocky, 8-bit aesthetic I'm quite partial to it, but not everybody I've spoken to is. That's okay, the clamshell bonnet is one of those cool design things that most people don't care about until you point it out.

The 2019 update left the styling mostly alone, with just a mild bumper-and-grille change and solid red rear-light clusters that took some getting used to, yet added a bit more '80s arcade-game cred.

The Vitara wears its SUV heritage proudly, with a blocky 8-bit aesthetic.

The cabin is entirely conventional and, again, in 2019, has had little done to it. Suzuki says the the dash is less hard and that's fine, if not especially important. The diamond shapes in the Alcantara-trimmed seats are classy, though. It's an honest cabin that doesn't try to do anything fancy.

The Vitara's cabin is very spacious, especially given its modest external footprint. It's amazing how much space you can liberate when you've got a high roof and you can lift the rear seats for a more natural seating position.

Front seat passengers have plenty of headroom and without the Allgrip's sunroof, it's quite lofty. You also have two cupholders and a space for your phone under the climate-control switches. There's also a new sliding armrest, which doubles as a cover for a storage bin.

Front seat passengers have plenty of headroom.

The back seat is fairly sparse. Bereft of cupholders and an armrest, you'll be holding your own coffees back there. And keeping your inboard elbows to yourself. Rear leg and knee room are excellent for a car this size, with plenty of space for me at 180cm and even for our resident tattooed totem pole, Richard Berry, who stands another 11cm taller.

The back seat is fairly sparse, but rear leg and knee room are excellent.

Each door has a bottle holder for a total of four. 

The boot is one of those split-level arrangements, with a false floor under which you can hide valuables or, given the lifestyle vibe, wet towels/muddy boots/sandy boogie boards. You don't know how useful that is until you use it, let me tell you.

Cargo space starts at a very useful 375 litres (beaten only by the Honda HR-V and the Nissan Qashqai) and is way above the tiny hatchback boot of the CX-3's. Fold the rear seats and space increases to 1120 litres. 

As with the Allgrip, the Turbo ships from Hungary with the 1.4-litre turbo four-cylinder Boosterjet engine, a vast improvement on the 1.6-litre in the base model. You have way more power here, with 103kW and a comparatively muscular 220Nm.

The turbo four-cylinder engine makes 103kW/220Nm.

The front wheels get their twist via a six-speed automatic, which is shared with whole range.

The official combined-cycle figure for the Vitara Turbo is 5.9L/100km, which is within a tenth of the much less powerful base model. Unencumbered with even a simple stop-start system to reduce fuel usage, we've consistently found the turbo engine will deliver a fuel figure in the low-eights, with the two-wheel-drive Turbo returning 8.1L/100km.

The Vitara Turbo has six airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls.

As part of the 2019 update, the turbo-engined cars added to the spec sheet forward AEB, lane-departure warning, adaptive cruise, blind-spot monitoring, weaving alert and reverse cross traffic alert.

You also get three top-tether anchor points and two ISOFIX points.

The Vitara scored five ANCAP stars in July 2016.

Suzuki offers a three-year/100,000km warranty, but that's just the start. If you continue to service it at Suzuki every six months/10,000km, the warranty will go for as long as five years/100,000km. 

Suzuki's servicing regime works out at about $472 per year - most services are $175, with a couple of services at $359 and $399.

If you've stepped out of the base model and into the Turbo, as I did, it's like night and day. While the base version has a good equipment level, it's badly let down by the underpowered 1.6-litre engine. The turbo 1.4 is so much better. Smooth and torquey, it makes much lighter work of the 1100kg-plus car and gives the automatic transmission a lot more to work with.

While it's a lot better than the 1.6, it loses almost nothing to the more expensive Allgrip. As it's front-wheel drive its off-road capability is rather curtailed, but the bonus is you can save a lot of money and some headroom if you don't need part-time all-wheel drive.

The Turbo drives as well as the rest of them and rides as well, too. It handles very securely on a decent set of tyres. The ride on this car is one of the most surprising things about it, with a smooth, easygoing gait. Cars as light as the Vitara can get a little bit bouncy and out of control, particularly on broken urban surfaces, but not this one.

The turbo model is so much better than the base Vitara.

While the body can roll around a bit in harder cornering, it's never chuck-inducing and, if you're a driver who likes a bit of fun, the Vitara delivers, with light steering and a reasonably eager chassis. It's all bit unexpected, even if you've driven one before.

You do sit ridiculously high in the driver's seat, something my wife mentioned. Normally she sits a little higher than me but complained the seat must be stuck. Nope, that's just how it is. You sit really high and, for some, that's uncomfortable.