I'm not a fan of chiptuning. I'd leave it stock anyway.

I wonder when they'll release an auto version of the GV diesel?

Oh & see the post here on "Victorian bushfires" regarding my friend. Lol we got her a 1995 Suzuki Vitara Estate V6 SV620VH Type1 5dr Auto 4x4 2.0L V6 to get her started on re-building her life back.

 

-Japanese cars, diesel engines & automatics, are as rare, as an honest car salesman

-For some reason, the Japanese seem to think, that diesel drivers just want to get by with as little fuel as possible, and therefore don't prefer an automatic. This is common to all Japanese cars, not just Suzuki.

-Also some transmission manufacturers are struggling to build an auto 'box, that can take the reasonably high low-end torque of the modern diesel engines. I know many diesel-automatic cars, that have broken their transmissions either while towing, or after chiptuning the engine

-Perhaps some day, they bring out a diesel with auto. I would propably buy it, because I almost bought the more expensive KIA Sorento 2.5CRDi A to have the excellent 5-speed Jatco RE5R05A 'box. The Sorento diesel-auto is famous for having a perfect powerline for towing. The only thing, that kept me from buying the Sorento, was the price. If the Suzuki had cost $10k more, I would have bought the KIA. But I'm very glad, I did'nt Saved a lot of money, bought a much quieter, smoother riding suv (less truck-like), and I've had no problems at all with my GV, so far

-I read your post on the Victoria fires, and I think what you did, was awesome! Shows true friendship I hope, the fires are soon put out for good, and people can finally start rebuilding. I also think, that what you did at the car dealership, was morally the right thing, and I agree with you 100%. Not many people would have done the same.

-Lots of symphaty and best wishes, to all of you, down under!

 

No regrets in general, excellent price/peformance compromise for people wishing a true offroader and a family car all in one vehicle.

Pros:
- Well built, designed as a true offroader for people on budget
- Built-in rigid, truck like, ladder frame reinforcement (chassis)
- Nice design, much better looking then RAV4, X-Trail, CRV, etc...
- 4L, a must for offroad, heavy snow etc - really good to have.
- Good handling and steering
- Better value for money comparing to other SUVs

Cons (hoping to be improvements for next generation GV):
- 1.9L DDiS diesel engine could have been more refined (i.e. to be less noisy and with a bit more torque over wider range of revs.)
- Wish it has a 6 (and not just 5) gears for improved fuel economy on highways.
- Wish there is a optional 6-gear automatic for diesel engine
- Wish it comes with better OEM tyres then Bridgestone Dualer HT687
- Wish it has option of even higher ground clearance for serious offroaders.
- Wish it has 5 star NCAP rating like other new SUVs (Audi Q5, KIA Sorento, Landrover Freelander, etc...)

So far, I am really enyoing it. Hoping that one day new GV will address most of the above mentioned comments, in such case for sure they will keep me as a loyal customer...

 

Love my 07 Xsport 4x4

My only major complaint:

The cruise control sucks. I can't believe this hasn't been mentioned yet (or did I miss it?) If I hit any sort of incline worth calling a hill, the cruise control constantly downshifts and upshifts to the point where I turn it off.

I replaced the Geolanders at around 20k miles with a pair of Pirelli Scorp A/Ts, and it is an off road beast. Lost a little bit of fuel mileage(.2mpg drop according to the display) but totally worth it. I take my GV to places my buddies are scared to go with thier 2WD full size pickups.

 

I like the Cruise control. It's ultra precise.. I've compared with others, and measured with a GPS. It deviates only 0.1 to 0.3kph at 100kph. Pretty impressive. You're right about the downshifts, it can be a bit annoying, but, it doesnt happen much with me, only when I'm driving up and down steep hills on the freeway etc. It never does it on normal graded roads.

I agree with the beast.. Mine is same. Larger tires did change my economy significantly though. Did you reset you mileage meter ? Or did you just see a change.. It averages over the entire time since last reset, its not a rolling average.

 

There have been topics about the cruise control. Mine gradually loses speed, so it's too annoying to use because I have to reset it frequently.

Larger tires would increase the distance being travelled at any given "speed" of the drivetrain, but the trip computer has no way to know the tire diameter. So although the readout will show poorer mileage, you're actually probably getting the same mileage as with smaller tires. Less, perhaps, due to added weight and a more coarse tread pattern, but better because larger tires roll with less resistance.

 

No, economy does go down, mainly because of the changed gear ratio due to the larger diameter of the tires. My driven distance may have changed, but only a small percentage, while my economy changed about 20-30% down.

Even with the calculated real vs measured distance etc, the economy loss is at least 20% from the stock tires to the biggies. In city traffic, I rarely get more than 5-6 km PER litre... I used to get at least 8 or 9. On long trips on the highway or freeway with few stops, I can still get almost 8.5 km/l, I used to get 10 before.

Acceleration is also considerably slower, and my brakes are not strong enough to lock up the wheels on dry road. I can not activate the ABS... Wet road, slippery, gravel etc works fine, the ABS works normally.

 

Solved the problem of my $2900 ESP light on.

Sold the Grand Vitara. First and definitely the last Suzuki product!

Absolutely everything went wrong with this lemon. 100k km's.

 

Our lemon is still under warranty and we keep throwing it back to Suzuki Australia to fix. Add tha to some complaint letters we're hoping they realise that if they can't fix the problems the need to give us a new car that works. At the going rate, they've already paid for half a new car trying to fix this lemon!

 

I have had every Suzuki 4WD available in Canada since the SJ410 soft top long box, with the exception of the new XL-7 ( I never liked GM) I have never experienced any hereditory problems with any of these vehicles. Without question the GV is the best of the best. The only complaint, if you would call it a complaint, is gas consumption. I wish it was a lot easier on gas, or they would offer a diesel option. BTW, the one I had the most fun with was the Samurai.

 

I have had every Suzuki 4WD available in Canada since the SJ410 soft top long box, with the exception of the new XL-7 ( I never liked GM) I have never experienced any hereditory problems with any of these vehicles. Without question the GV is the best of the best. The only complaint, if you would call it a complaint, is gas consumption. I wish it was a lot easier on gas, or they would offer a diesel option. BTW, the one I had the most fun with was the Samurai!!!!
Bob

GV's do come in diesel, that's what I've been driving for the last two years. And the more recent model doesn't have the lemon issues that the original DDiS had. You're right, I drove my Vitara JLX with my local Suzuki 4WD club for years and they kept up with the Sierra's in most situations, and in much more comfort! I'm a tall guy, I don't fit in a Sierra! Great car, love it when it's working...

 

Jason, please don't misunderstand me. I live in Canada and the diesel option is not available. Also did you mis read my post? I said Samurai, the small 2 door 4WD Suzuki had years ago. It fell out of favour some years ago, along with the Ford Bronco, for roll-over reasons. Beats me thpugh, because you can roll almost anything , if you try. You mentioned Sierra, here that's a Chevrolet pick-up.
Thanks for responding.
Bob

PS: OK, just did some research and discovered that the Samurai is also the Sierra. Why do the have so many names everywhere?

 

Hi Bob,

I'd guess the Chevy Sierra was the reason they couldn't use that name over there. My bad, I'd heard of the Samurai variant but didn't realise that they'd dropped the "Sierra" tag altogether. A few years ago here they released the next generation Sierra/Samurai, calling it the Jimny. I've noticed recently that the newer models are coming out as "Jimny Sierra" and my dealership say that Suzuki are planning on dropping the Jimny name completely and going back to the Sierra... It has such a strong reputation. Here we had heaps of Sierra variants, 2-door, 4-door, ute(i think you'd call that a pick-up). My Suzuki 4WD club used to give out rollover stickers to anyone who rolled their car, apparently they'd get the stickers from a rollover club in Japan!

One thought I had, is the Diesel GV available south of your border? I reckon I'd fly down to pick one up and enjoy the drive home if it was!

East Coast, sorry to hear I'm not the only one with problems. Sounds like we both got "Friday cars", ones made on Friday afternoon just before it's time to go home... I've had a Vitara before and I love the marque. Even this lemon, I want it fixed or I want it replaced, but I don't want something else.

 

How can one regret buying an SUV that one could take offroad, have fun, and do this:

... and then get back on a highway and drive home in comfort? GV is a great compromise between real offroader and city crossover.

 

Because it was in for repairs more than it was on the road; let alone "off-road".

Wiring harness replacement, transmission replacement, front end complete rebuild, dome light coming on whenever that Suzuki never did fix, ESP system failure, 3 exhaust donut gaskets, an engine oil leak that was in for repair 4 times and was never fixed, a misfire or periodic poor engine performance that happened whenever highway driving and Suzuki could not diagnose or fix, wipers that completely failed twice.....

That's all I have the stomach for right now.

What a great machine. I bought it as a "beater" for my wife in the winter because it was cheap but turns out it was nothing but a headache and definitely not cheap.

Good riddance Suzuki. Never again.

 

Really sorry to hear all that, I completly understand why you don't want to even think about Suzuki again. However, I am convinced the you were just very, very unlucky with particular GV, as generaly, Suzuki is usualy above the avarage on the reliability survey lists, for example:
Reliability rankings for 33 car brands issued by 'Consumer Reports' show Asian models' strengths - Motoring, Life & Style - The Independent

Anyway, whatever brand you choose, there is no guarantee you will not get a lemon, but it is very unlikely that you will have such bad luck twice in the row... If yes, you should immediately play lottery.

 

Actually I also got a "Friday" car or maybe a "Monday" car after every body back to work drunk...

The dealer told me that I'm the first "lucky" person who got the rear wheel hub replaced on the new GV after 27000 miles...

Guess what, now the front driver side wheel is loose! It will be interesting to hear the dealer excuse now...

Suzuki has worst quality control if they let from time to time bad parts to slip out from their factory.

It is great car on paper but no more Suzuki for me...

 

I must have a Wednesday car then, because mine has just been great all the time. I'm sorry to hear that you guys have had all these problems. I still think the majority of people owning the GV's are running great. That's why we don't see much else in here but the people either having problems or modding like mad.. (like me hehe)

 

I feel the same way. Too bad some of you guys had bad experiences. I have had just about every model Suzuki 4WD since the SJ410 and have had just about zero complaints. That's not to say I never have a warranty issue, I have, but they have been rare and the dealer always looked after me in a timely manner.
BTW the "Jimmy" is another GM model over here. I'm jealous you guys still have the Samurai, I really liked mine, and it hasn't been sold here for eons. I did some checking and really like the new styling.

 

Indeed our ride is not the most comfortable, it might have some harsh and rattle but all that is left behind when i feel that rock solid stability at highways from the full time AWD and the tight suspension, that predictability and safety sense worth it for me.

Having a full time AWD with all his benefits with an acceptable fuel economy and a good driving dinamics is really a plus that cant find at this price ranges.

in addition a top notch chasis design, center differencial and strong underpining, plus an acceptable reliability, well i must say for me worth some minor harshes and rattles.

the rock solid and safety feeling at highways is priceless for me, no regrets, great car.

 

BTW the "Jimmy" is another GM model over here

Not the same it's the Jimny, I wish we could get it here.

 

Honestly speaking, I love my GV. Not saying I haven't had any problems with it BUT I could have had more (and more expensive) problems with other SUVs.

First of all, was the noisy belt tensioner just a few months after acquiring the car then the air-conditioning motor which got toasted but these were replaced under warranty.

Then I noticed that the "air-conditioning system failure" whenever I drove pass 140kms. Kept on sending it to the dealer but the technicians were BLOODY HOPELESS in troubleshooting the problem. This was later discovered as a failure in the engine cooling system, where there was a hairline crack in the radiator BUT only after the warranty period had passed!!!!! That too was diagnosed by my own mechanic friend.

Other (liveable) minor problems were the squeeky seats and the dashboard rattling.

Overall could have been much happier with a more powerful engine but none the less is very happy with the handling and offroad capability.

EVER thought of trading it in for the newer 2.4 powered SGV but then had decided against it due to the HOPELESS dealership. Have sworn to never buy any other cars from the same dealer...which is also the dealer for NISSAN.

My honest opinion of the SGV, fantastic platform, design and offroad capability BUT the technology & electronics are quite crude.

Ciao!

 

I have to agree that if my next new vehicle purchase is not a Suzuki, it wil be because of the bad dealership experience, not because the vehicles are not as high quality as I'd like.

 

Agreed, dealership experience has been the pits, I think even VW (HAHAHA) is better at that type of experience.

 

That's a pity. Our dealer is great, does everything he can to help and as smoothly as possible. The salesperson who sold us the lemo... um, Vitara, is now the service manager and feels personally responsible. He makes sure that the courtesy cars always have a full tank of fuel for us and things like that. It would be nice to have a working Vitara, though...

On another point, we were told when we bought the car that we could extend our 3 year warranty to 5 years at any time. Easy to do that when talking about rock solid reliability... Funny how they are VERY reluctant to extend the warranty when we know the car is a lemon!

 

Had ours 6 months now and has done everthing i expect of it. Was great in the heavy winter snowfalls and recently bought a boat and even though it's only the 2.0 auto it towed fine, it's only 1250 kg total weight it needs to tow mind.
Fuel consumption has improved no end with the milder weather, now getting close to 30 mpg, was around 23 mpg in the depths of winter.
Only gripes i've had has been the dealer, four attempts and 5 months to programme a new key/fob, had a new chrome grille trim due to pitting under the chromed plastic and a new rear window due to three elements burnt out.
Cruise control and a 2.0 auto doesn't mix, it's always kicking down gears and makes for an uncomfortable drive, very rare i use it now. Just wish they did a diesel auto but it's not, or wasn't an option here in the UK.
Was a bit of a power shock after the outgoing Mazda RX-8 but it sure makes up for it in practicality

 

This is an old thread but thought I'd add to it.

I have absolutely ZERO regrets buying my Vitara. Good ride on the highway, tires are noisy but soon to be replaced. It's solid and stable, feels a little squirrelly in wet weather (think that's the nasty tires currently on the vehicle mainly) but runs fine. Love the size of it too-compared to my Blazer it's a Tonka toy.

Got the H25 2.5 V6, it's not a dragster by any means but it's a solid engine. Plenty of pep (and I'm not a speed demon as I used to be), love how the cams come on about 3500rpm or so-just like the numerous Alfas I've previously owned. The 5 speed is butter smooth (no 2nd gear synchro "crunch like older Alfas) and it's got an "easy" clutch-important in constant DC Beltway traffic; and brakes are very good. Love the fact the turning circle on the vehicle is more like a go kart-I work in downtown DC sometimes and being able to turn around on a dime is a huge help. The small size helps too-parking is at a premium in Washington, DC. I can fit in smaller spaces.

Off road, it's a yellow colored mountain goat. Very competent and capable; I go into muddy job sites pretty regularly and I can go where the full sized trucks and equipment go with no problems. Gas mileage is good too-I drive a lot in my job. The Blazer I have costs around 20 bucks a day in fuel, the Vitara costs around 12 bucks for the same mileage.


The ONLY gripe I have with the Vitara are the front seats. Did a 5 hour drive for a work trip; after about 3 hours at the wheel lower back starts hurting. Might explore another set of front seats at some point. That's the only real complaint so far, got it back in July and have put 13k miles on it since then.

Love the Vitara, wish they were still selling in the US though. I'd like to pick up a Verona for my wife at some point.

 

Ummm - just saying the Verona is not built by Suzuki - take a look at the reviews before you commit.

 

Thanks for the heads up you're right. Doh! After chemo brain fog here.

 

Yes i do now arfter buying mine 2nd hand with 1.9t deisle reno f9q moter 3years later and 4 tubos and 2nd moter and electrical gremlin with boost control.

Even tho its got every thing on it snorkel ,arb delux bar with 10000 pound bushranger winch ,suspension lift ,bigest tiers that fit that just scrub, 2 52inch curved 28900 luminum bars, roof racks, ugraded profomance chip ,and deleated dpf and egr from the ecu and hollow dpf unit and egr blank and 180000on clock 2008 gv
Even though I regret it i still love it

 

How have you done so many turbo's?

 

.

 

Lol well the first 1 i was being impatient and gave it a boot full up a incline to over take some 1 and i was watching my stats on the screen and boost went from 15psi to 26psi and yeah boom gose turbo that was orignal turbo and 2nd nd 3rd was to much boost and oil starvasion on 1st moter and i was also having elec gremlin in the boost control regulater even arfter i bort 2 brand newys from renoult and 4th on the 2nd moter same gremlin with boost control so i bypased it and was running it only just on( 2nd hand moter and turbo compleat from ebay) blow from oil starvasion. ( report from turbo logic port kembla garret suplyer) so e bay refunded what i payed for 2nd moter was nice of them. And now im undecided bout pulling 2nd moter out and redoing orignal moter up oil pump and compleat flush of turbo lines and run oil tests befor i change moter.