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Driving Impressions
Somewhat narrow and erect, the Suzuki Sidekick handled like it looks. There was body roll or lean in sharp cornering-more than on other four-door 4WDs we've tried, but not excessive or dangerous. A pleasant surprise was the lack of pitching on bumpy roads, despite the short wheelbase. We attribute this to some solid engineering in the front MacPherson strut/rear coil springs with stabilizer bar suspension.Comfort and convenience in the Suzuki Sidekick JLX was excellent. We found it a pleasure to drive and ride in day and night, and in all but severe off-road situations. One negative is the steering wheel position. Even with the tilt column feature, it was too flat, making it almost bus-like. We liked the fact that rear windows went all the way down, thanks to Suzuki Sidekick's upright stance; you can, however, lock the windows to prevent kids from lowering them. Many four-door four-wheelers have rear windows that only go part way down because of the incursion of the rear wheel well into the rear door area. What we didn't like was the meager power of the 1.6-liter 16-valve electronically fuel-injected four. It meant slow acceleration from a stop and for passing. We found we could compensate some with the five-speed manual transmission, but this might be a bigger negative with the four-speed automatic. We drove through our secret off-road course after some heavy rains. Shifting into 4WD high (the front hubs, called automatic free wheeling," lock automatically), the Sidekick churned through some deep muddy ruts with no problem. It negotiated our now-slippery narrow two-track very well, but we did have to kick the engine rpms up with a lot of shifting. We noticed the same for our hill climb, choosing 4WD low."
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