It made sense to test drive the Suzuki SX4 a week after the Skoda Yeti, and though they are not blood brothers, they have, as two of the latest crop of crossover SUVs, much in common.
Exchanging one so soon for the other enabled me to establish, though the Yeti is no slouch, that the SX4, being a Suzuki, is quick from the off and, being a Suzuki, I shouldn’t have been surprised by the acceleration, but I was, pleasantly so.
I had driven the Yeti in a Noah-like deluge, but the weather couldn’t have been less inclement collecting the SX4 from James Tomkins Garage in Gorey which, fortunately for someone who likes to put a car through its paces fairly lively, is a stone’s throw from the by-pass.
The SX4 took off in such expeditious haste I hadn’t felt as excited in a 2012 model since I pressed the pedal to the floor in the Peugeot 508, but of that, anon.
The SX4 is a serious contender for the most accomplished crossover between an SUV and a hatch, though the difference between the two, when the going gets rough, is much deeper than semantics.
You can learn a thing or two about a car’s torque on the Gorey by-pass on a busy Saturday afternoon: the four cylinder, direct injection 2.0 DDiS engine has a maximum torque of 320 Nm/1500 rpm, so allied to an acceleration of 0 to 100 (km/h) between nine and eleven seconds, the SX4 is a svelte over taker.
Svelte as in elegant, because the SX4 is not slender, though from the outside its shares with the Yeti the deception that it might be less than capacious for the long legged challenged among us, once you are pinioned behind the wheel. Au contraire, it’s very comfortable.
The SX4 has the ability to metamorphose into a much bigger car once you decide to populate it with a hive of nieces and nephews: the luggage capacity is a modest 270 litres (or 625 with the seat back further) although I didn’t care too much for the centre headrest at the rear which can obscure a car hundred yards behind but which can be easily removed.
The SX4 first came with a petrol variant only, but the addition to the family of a two litre diesel had added a significant grunt to its 4X4 pretensions: it was never intended to be in the same league as a Freelander or its cousin, the Vitara.
As long as a Ford Focus, the SX4 has in common with the Yeti, beside side protection mouldings and a non nonsense facia, a switchable three setting four wheel drive operation that, under the skin, operates like the Haldex clutch system.
This is how it works: depart from a level tarmac surface onto a farm trek, switch into four wheel drive mode, and power is spread evenly from the front wheels to the rear, and the SX4’s grip is as good as an X Trail’s.
The 4X4 was designed to have a crossover appeal: it can get down and dirty in the country, but it won’t look out of place on the school run. A word of caution: unless I’m mistaken, the excellent 4X4 system is not available with the petrol version.
The 4X4, naturally, has a rigid build with a high driving position, deep front quarter-light windows to maximise your view, rake and adjustable steering, and every dial and switch where it ought to be, including the all wheel drive switch adjacent to the handbrake.
Some advise to get heavy with the throttle but I can’t see the necessity. The Sx4 is zippy with a light touch, has confident body control and has all the road assurance of more expensive rivals.