Is It Finally Time That We Wised Up To Buying Suzukis?

Last year, us Brits bought 310,865 Fords, 259,444 Vauxhalls and 135,583 BMWs. We even bought 54,699 Land Rovers and I’m pretty sure there aren’t over 50,000 of us venturing off into muddy fields these days. But Suzuki, a manufacturer that’s been building cars for almost seven decades, sold a comparably small 33,088 vehicles on Blighty last year, which it believes isn’t enough.

For starters, and unlike Land Rover, it offers a car for almost all occasions, selling A and B segment hatchbacks, larger crossovers and even proper 4x4s. But for some reason it appears that most British buyers aren’t even considering a Suzuki when buying new cars. So why is this?

To prove that it’s not because of below-par cars in its range, Suzuki sent us to Yorkshire where we’d sample its new crossover, the SX4 S-Cross for a hard day of driving on tarmac and rally-spec muddy tracks.

Our SX4 S-Cross came with Suzuki’s punchy 118bhp 1.6-litre diesel engine and was kitted out in all the bells and whistles of the brand’s top spec SZ5 trim. Whilst not possessing the most ambitious exterior design, the new car’s looks at least aren’t as controversial as the class leader’s, the Nissan Juke.

The S-Cross sits smartly on its 17-inch alloys and there’s a raft of goodies in the cabin, automatic climate control and soft leather seats included. The dashboard is also refreshingly simple.

On tarmac, the new car drives well too, shunning expectations of a waffly ride. The electric steering is responsive and the car offers impressive levels of grip too. Although a 13 second 0-62mph time won’t excite petrolheads, the engine’s 236lb ft of torque means there’s decent shove from 1750rpm.

Now faced with the muddy tracks of a purpose-built four-wheel drive assault course, the S-Cross impresses further, sprinting over crests and digging its way through corners thanks to its Allgrip four-wheel drive system. It’s also here that the accuracy of the electric steering becomes most useful, because despite providing little in the way of feel, it at least enables precise inputs on the rough.

Suzuki tells us one of the reasons for the S-Cross’ impressive handling characteristics is its body’s rigidity. Working hard to maximise strength of the chassis, Suzuki used lots of high-tensile steel in the chassis, which also has the knock-on effect of helping to reduce road noise and vibration penetrating into the cabin.

Play time over, the punchy diesel proved incredibly frugal, which isn’t bad for a car that’s as happy in the mud as it is on tarmac; not to mention the fact that it costs a reasonable £21,549. As an all rounder then, the S-Cross is silently brilliant. Despite this, however, Suzuki expects to sell just 6000 of these cars in the UK this year.

While the S-Cross is a serious contender to the Nissan Juke and even one of our favourite Haldex-equipped cars, the Skoda Yeti, British buyers just don’t look to Suzuki when car shopping. To really push the point home, Suzuki revealed that a staggering 80 per cent of its buyers were new to the brand last year. People just hadn’t considered Suzuki before then.

There’s good news though, because the Japanese car maker has announced that it’ll be building a production version of the futuristic looking iV-4 concept - unveiled last year - which replaces the outgoing and somewhat dated Grand Vitara. That car will mix sharp, sleek lines with cutting-edge tech and the same four-wheel drive system. There’ll also be a shake up elsewhere in the Suzuki range, with the Alto and Splash being replaced by an all-new hatch called the Celerio.

With a new raft of impressive cars, the question remains: will us Brits start buying Suzukis? While it’ll take time for many of us to wise up to the brand, cars like the S-Cross prove that buyers should be confident in its cars. And for that reason, it’s only a matter of time until we see more of them on our roads.