How reliable is the Suzuki Vitara?
Suzuki is one of the quickest-growing brands in South Africa, with a wide model range that finds strong acceptance among value-conscious buyers. They generally have a strong reputation for reliability, whether a car is built in India or sourced from elsewhere, so we investigated the Vitara to see whether this reputation is justified.
Unlike the majority of Suzuki’s local offerings, the Vitara is sourced from Hungary, and is meant to be the range-topping model in the range. The recently-released Vitara Brezza is a completely different vehicle, being derived from the smaller Ciaz platform (instead of the SX4’s), even though it bears a strong family resemblance to the “big” Vitara.
Also remember that the Vitara shares nothing except part of its name with the (now-discontinued) Grand Vitara, which was another vehicle entirely. But, even though these three most-recent “Vitara”-branded vehicles are wildly divergent in concept and execution, they all benefit from Suzuki’s reputation for reliability, and consequently have high customer retention rates.
Related: The top 5 Suzuki Vitara articles on AutoTrader.
Cut-down Vitara range
We’ll focus on the current Vitara here, which has now been rationalised to 3 derivatives: the 1.6 GLX Allgrip (AWD, 5-speed manual gearbox), and two 1.4T GLX variants (FWD, with either a 6-speed manual or 6-speed automatic). Keen observers will notice that the lower-trim Vitaras have been discontinued – this is partly due to supply problems, but mostly to give the much-cheaper Brezza room to shine without internal competition.
Unfortunately, there are no organisations (such as J.D Power or Consumer Reports in the USA) to keep tabs on vehicle quality or reliability, and, seeing as Suzuki isn’t available in the USA, we can’t even draw data from such overseas surveys. However, some publications in the UK have on-going customer satisfaction surveys, where owners can submit their own evaluations of their cars.
Related: Get all the details about the Suzuki Vitara 1.4T GLX manual in this extended-term review.
Survey results
Carbuyer.co.uk is one such publication, and their survey is called the “Driver Power owner satisfaction survey”. In their 2021 edition, Vitara drivers generally had good things to say about their cars, earning it a mid-pack finish at 47th out of the top-75 cars currently available in the UK. Suzuki as a brand also performed well in this survey, with a 14th overall position – out-scoring the likes of Hyundai, Volkswagen, and Nissan in the process.
Most of the complaints levelled at the Vitara hinged around infotainment system/ user interface difficulties, anyway, which indicates that there are no (real) hidden issues waiting to bring a Vitara to a standstill. Local and international experience bears this out, with Suzuki owners usually waxing lyrical about their cars’ quality, dependability and low running costs, so this UK-sourced verdict likely reflects local owners’ experiences as well.
