Hey GV88
I gave up on 4x4 mags as of what you stated a long time ago. I can't stand reviewers writing about one vehicle when they receive advertising revenue from another to write badly about it. I'd rather go to forums such as this to get everyones point of view from various climates to see how GV's rate.
I remember when the Land Rover Discovery first came out. On paper it looked great, on & off-road it was great but there were mechanical problems with that early series. They're still out there on (and off) the road driving about reliable as ever. Even when the first Mini came out, people dismissed them for a number of years. It may not be the perfect car body & mechanical wise, but you can't tell me that not one person who owned one hated it. My grandfather had a Mini panel van. It's mechanics were just okay, the body work could have been better built, but heck it was a fun car even with it's quirkiness. I actually borrowed my grandfathers Mini (I was 8 at the time) & took it out for a good drive. I loved it. Thank god I didn't crash it! I got into trouble afterwards & my punishment was that I had to clean & wax the Mini for 2 months & surrender my pocket money to my grandfather for using up the fuel I used (I had to pay for the fuel used & to refill the tank up). He got rid of that Mini 2 years later & I was angry about it cos I liked it. Once I finally got my licence, I drove & helped maintain friends Mini's but every time I see an old Mini it gives me a smile.
When a girl I was seeing back in late '93 bought a Vitara soft-top, she took me out for a ride. The feeling I had from the Mini all those years ago came back. The Vitara was a quirky vehicle. There was only it & the Suzuki Sierra out there on the market as cheap 4x4's. To me the Vitara was like a Mini on steroids. The best part about it was it was reliable & a great small 4x4 package. Then I bought a '94 Vitara Hard-top & it started from there. My current GV reminds me of a mature Vitara but still provides the fun of my first one.
Driving from A to B should be fun as that what the GV provides. It's not a boring vehicle. If I want a boring vehicle there's plenty out there to fill that role. It's just a pity that the reviewer just couldn't see past her nose of what the GV represents. Without the original Vitara, we wouldn't see a vehicle like it ever in its segment. We would only see wannabes.
After owning 2 Vitara's & 2 Grand Vitara's you tend to know the vehicles tendencies.
The tailgate..... Well i'm sure we've all said out bits about it & where the tyre sits but I'm going to pass on a story. It's a sad story but it could have gotten worse.
Back in late '06 my '97 Vitara got rear ended by a Toyota landcruiser that had a heavy duty bullbar at the front. The woman driver at the time was on her mobile phone chatting away as we had the heaviest downpour of rain in years in one day. My father was driving at the time as he had just picked up mum from work. I made an assessment of the damage to my insurance company & told them that it should be written off. They did their own assessment & decided to repair it. It took 3 months to repair due to parts needing to be imported from Japan. Besides what you can see from this image, the chassis was also bent which the insurance company assesor failed to spot (don't ask me how). By the time I got the Vitara back it didn't handle well besides the shonky repair that was done. I took it back to the insurance company & all they did was shrug their shoulders & said it was roadworthy even though I had a certificate from a mechanic who said it wasn't. In the end I sold the Vitara. Not as a whole car, but as for parts. Damned if I'll let an unroadworthy car on our roads! Mind you in the end I got more money selling it for parts than a whole car! The downside to it was that mum suffered from very bad concussion at the time & was in hospital. My father suffered the worst though. Even though his body was riddled with arthritis, I took him to hospital a few days later. He was in there for nearly 8 months & died there due to an infection that wouldn't heal he received from the crash & fractues in several of his bones that weren't found on initial scans. He contracted Golden Staph while he was there. Mind you I still have issues with our health system here but thats another story.
1997 Suzuki SV420G Type3 Vitara JLX 3dr Auto 4x4 2.0iL rear damage
Had the spare wheel not been located where it is as on all Vitara's both of my parents would have been killed instantly dead that day. Had that stupid woman in the Landcruiser not been gasbagging on the mobile the accident would never had happened & my father would still be here today.
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