Grand Vitara's 2.5-liter V6 responds instantly to the throttle; just a small tip of pedal sends the little truck lunging forward. With 165 horsepower, the Grand Vitara offers more power than the Honda CR-V (146 horsepower) and Toyota RAV4 (148 horsepower). At the top of the power class is the Ford Escape and Mazda Tribute (200). While brick-like aerodynamics and a hefty curb weight take the edge off as speed increases, the Grand Vitara's V6 delivers snappy acceleration in city traffic. The V6 revs smoothly and builds power quickly. Peak torque of 162 pounds-feet arrives at 4000 rpm, peak horsepower is 165 hp at 6500 rpm. Yet the Grand Vitara JLX gets an EPA-rated 19/21 mpg City/Highway. This 24-valve V6 really is an overachiever. It also powers the Chevrolet Tracker, which is a little lighter. So it has to work a little harder in the Grand Vitara.
The five-speed manual gearbox shifts smoothly with a light and direct feel. The tall shift lever with its rubber accordion boot is one of the few reminders that you're driving a truck. The clutch pedal engages high in its travel, but the effort is light, so it works well in stop-and-go traffic.
The four-speed automatic transmission features a separate Sport mode. Frankly, we couldn't see a need for a Sport program in a tall truck whose strength was clearly not its cornering ability. Even in the Normal mode, full-throttle upshifts arrive at a nice and smooth 6000 rpm, comfortably short of the 6800-rpm redline. All that the Sport mode does is sharpen the upshifts and bring on the downshifts earlier, so what could be wrong with that? But floor the Grand Vitara at 55 in either mode, and the engine screams as the transmission kicks down from its overdrive fourth to its much-shorter third gear. The closer ratios of the five-speed manual make a big difference here.
The Grand Vitara's body-on-frame construction is made plenty strong to take serious off-road punishment. The extra-stiff structure also contributes to a quiet ride on the highway, with little rolling noise from the drivetrain or suspension. The manual transmission whines with increasing speed, but barely enough to make the driver speak up. We detected a light buzz in our leather-lined Limited, possibly from an air leak around the sunroof.
Yet while the Grand Vitara's highway ride is quiet, it is far from smooth. The stiff, truck-like suspension doesn't so much jar you as toss you. Even the Chevy Tracker swallows bumps better, although it is in most ways the Vitara's mechanical twin. So does the more car-like Honda CR-V. Vitara drivers will learn to avoid sharp, slow bumps entirely, to steer around potholes, and to be prepared for a jolt when turning into city gas stations from the street. We may have been torturing the Grand Vitara when we charged up a bumpy road littered with switchbacks. The tires certainly screamed about it, as the rear end tried to swing wide (a condition auto engineers call oversteer).
But if we could change one thing about the Grand Vitara, it would be its
steering gear. Off-roaders need some on-center play to absorb kickback from large bumps, but we think perhaps that in this case the Suzuki engineers overdid it a bit. The steering slack is noticeable on the road, where the Grand Vitara floats and wanders, demanding close attention just to keep it pointed straight. Crosswinds push the little Suzuki around considerably. Worse still, the power steering tends to bind near full lock. The steering doesn't want to let you out of a slow donut, or even a tight turn into a parking space. Again, both the Tracker and the CR-V offer sharper handling.
On a dirt road, however, the same Grand Vitara put a surprised smile on our face. The suspension handles washboard gravel in four-wheel drive a whole lot better than ripply pavement with only the rear wheels engaged. Good traction, good anti-lock braking action, and not too much understeer (less than in the Tracker) add up to a satisfying off-road experience. Seven and a half inches of ground clearance keep the Vitara's vitals safely out of the way.
The Grand Vitara's transfer case includes a low range for extremely heavy muck, something lacking in the full-time all-wheel drive systems from Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota and Subaru. The transfer case theoretically allows shifting into 4WD on the fly, although it didn't always connect on the first try. Once, we had to stop and put the transmission in neutral before we could engage the four-wheel mode.
We could feel the Grand Vitara's front corners dip when we used the brakes hard on a bumpy surface. Not surprisingly, the nose took a big dive during our 60-mph panic stop. The ABS seemed to work progressively harder as the Vitara's speed decreased. At 45 mph, the brakes increased their grabbing power; at 25 they felt stronger still, and then the tires made four sharp squeals before we stopped. Brake pedal feel was fine.
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