Suzuki Vitara 1.6 SZ-T 5d Owner Review

I bought this car for Suzuki's legendary reliability, as they came 2nd overall in the latest JD Power survey. It pays to check these things out, as car manufacturers reputations have changed so dramatically in recent years, it hard to find one you can trust. German cars feel great, but cost a fortune to run, and reliability is questionable these days. all the French cars are scrap, and whatever you do, don't buy a Nissan, as they all have Renault mechanicals these days. Renault bought Nissan for their reputation, and now they're milking it for all they can get (somebody had to say it). Buy Honda, Suzuki, Hyundai & KIA (as KIA is a sister company of Hyundai) and you won't go far wrong. I looked at all of them first, but this Suzuki Vitara was my final choice, I bought the 1.6 petrol SZT manual and it is a great package. I still cannot believe the fuel economy, it currently averages 48 mpg, but I've seen 60mpg on a long run, forget the diesel, you won't need it, as there's bags of poke when you give it the beans. Infotainment on the SZT is great, i have 1000 songs on a USB, then use the speech recognition to find any song I want, it works great, Sat nav is also good. This was my first car with Stop/Start, and I thought I'd hate it, but I've grown to love it. Just roll up to the lights in neutral with the clutch released, then it shuts down, depress the clutch, and it will fire up faster than you can get it into 1st gear, easy peasy. The Steering, clutch & gearbox are all featherlight to use, those controls are lighter than a Honda!. Service intervals are every 12500. Just go and buy one, you won't regret it, it's the car you always promised yourself (happy birthday to me!). but you can't have mine, as I'm keeping it forever.