The moderators really need to open a new section for the 2015 GV.

 

That would be an Administration call.

 

Would you be kind, veteran, to do that for us ? Thanks !!!

 

By the way, it is a 2015 Vitara, not Grand Vitara which no more exists (at least in Europe)...

 

I've read the specs on the new Vitara & I'm not impressed. It just looks like they took the SX4 engine & chassis and placed a new body on top. It can't do what Vitaras/Grand Vitaras in the past can do. I like the new body and that's about it & that's why I'm keeping my one for a while.

In saying that, I did ask about stocks in Australia. The new ones will be here in a couple of months. They still have plenty of GV's in stock to get rid of. I asked the dealer the other day on the phone as I was ordering parts. They wouldn't give me a discount off the GV but said they could in accessories. It still didn't work out after I did the maths.

The Apple Carplay system is available to Australian 2015 new Vitaras. There is a version from Pioneer that's available.

I hope you enjoy your new ride wissme. Keep us up to date with the Carplay system. I would have thought that dealers in Europe would have sorted this out.

 

I just found this off a UK website that might be of interest to UK/European GV owners Complete Suzuki Grand Vitara 2005-2015 Apple Car Play Solution Retrofit Kit

 

I too would like to see a section for the 2015 Vitara, as I have one on order.

In reply to "Risky", the Vitara is in fact built on the SX4 S-Cross chassis, albeit with a 10cm chop in length. I would agree the new Vitara is/will not be as good off road as its predecessors, but I don't believe it is intnded to be - think Soft Roader rather than Off Roader. There is a tremendous market in Europe (at least) for this type of vehicle and Suzuki obviously don't want to miss out. Comparing the Vitara with my previous vehicles, RAV4, CRV, Qashqai (Rogue), Freetrack (SEAT), iX35 (Tucson) and my current Mokka (Encore) I think the Vitara offers better all round performance. I'm looking forward to it.

 

My 1997 3dr 2L was the best Vitara I've ever had. It was a pity that a girl driving a Landcruiser that had a bullbar on the front smashed up the back of it while she was on her mobile in very heavy rain. It bent the chassis.

I drove an AWD SX4 a while back. While I thought it was a great concept, I found the ride a bit wallowing & the engine lacking a bit of performance. Still I'll be interested to hear about the new Vitara. Where I live now there's a huge population of Jimny/Sierra's & Vitara/Grand Vitaras. Farmers up here prize the Sierra Utes & I've seen some weird mods to keep them going.

 

The Rogue sold in North America is not the same as Europe's Qashqai. The Qashqai will soon be sold in NA as a little smaller choice than the NA Rogue. Hopefully with a name other than Qashqai.

The previous generation Rav4 sold in North America was a few inches longer than the European Rav4, which gave enough length to squeeze a third seat option into the cargo area.

 

Thanks Risky for your Alpine link, but expensive (and "GV", not Vitara). The solution should be updating navigation software, easy but discussionss between Apple and Suzuki may last ? I sold my old GV 3dr 2L, I will always regret it. What a shame Suzuki abandoned this market after the RAV4 3dr was abandoned too in 2008. The GV 3dr 2004 (maybe less good with the following 3dr generation) was a killer ! The new 2015 Vitara Diesel Allgrip 1.7L is *very* economic, and a bit more urban.

 

The new 2015 Vitara Diesel Allgrip 1.7L is *very* economic, and a bit more urban.

Am I missing something here? The 2015 Vitara diesel is a 1.6 surely?

 

Risky said: "I've read the specs on the new Vitara & I'm not impressed... It can't do what Vitaras/Grand Vitaras in the past can do."

There's a very long thread on here about why the GV was axed: too heavy, too thirsty, too complicated, too old-school, non EU 6 emissions compliant, etc etc, topped off by the coup de grace: 'lack of sales'.

If GV were selling at Qashqai figures, we'd still have the car. In 2014 in the UK alone, Nissan sold 47,295 QashCows. 8000 a month in March, 2014, just in the UK.

Even in India, Maruti Suzuki were only selling 0.5 GV's per month in 2013.

SUV sales in EU are about 20% of the market and set to grow, hence the need to kill off our lovely dinosaur full-time 4x4's, and bring in a new generation of lightweight-SUV owners, for whom the most burning question is "Can I hook my iPhone into into it?"

Mud-pluggers, purchasers of roo-bars, roof-top tents, winches and other grimy accessories must look elsewhere for their littoral pleasures.

Apple Car-Pray, Android dashboards and other horrors will come. We Luddites must accept the change, because, whether we like it or not, the Grand Vitara is dead because nobody bought it.

Rest in pieces. Long live the new Vitara.

And yes, the forum needs a MkIV New Vitara board.

Moderator!!!

 

I tried looking on the old interwebs there & that's all it came up with. Ok if you have a GV. My suggestion is to hassle the dealer & if they can't do it, ask them for a discount or make it up with something else from the accessories catalogue. I have read elsewhere that they are still going to keep the GV in production along side the Vitara. Suzuki have been going through lean times since the GFC of 2008.

I've tried to get GV sales figures for Australia but it's hard to get a break down. Suzuki Australia said they sold just over 17,000 vehicles in 2014. They are hoping for 20,000 this year. We have a pretty tough market here. Ford Australia is ceasing local manufacture at the end of 2016. Toyota Australia & GM-Holden in late 2017. We already have 64 marques wanting a slice of the pie here. The local Ford, Holden & Toyota products are pretty good. They aren't the best in the world but they're made to our conditions. If someone said to me that you could either have a new GV or a Great Wall, the GV wins hands down. We'll be seeing an influx of Chinese manufacturers selling their vehicles shortly. The ones I have seen are utterly crap. Whoever buys a Chinese car needs to stop breeding! The safety setup in those cars are horrible & I can understand the EU tightening vehicle design rules to stop those rotboxes in.

How can Maruti Suzuki sell half a GV per month? Did they slice it in half & sold the other half in the next month lol. I haven't found the thread relating to the axed GV so I wouldn't mind reading it.

On the school runs, I have observed that the local housewives here try & outdo each other in the car stakes. Those who drive Landcruisers can't even drive them. I've seen a few drive into poles & concrete supports over the past few years. They treat them as a normal car but in driving any type of vehicle, you need to adapt your driving style. That's been the reason why you see compact SUV types on the roads. Most drivers can't understand what a transfer case does & why is there a 2nd gear selector for it. It's too hard to grasp for some & that's why most modern AWD, 4x4 etc have a selector switch. Personally I think car manufacturers are asking the wrong people what they want to see in the next line up of vehicles. I'm sure 3/4 don't even open their bonnet. The school run mob that drive SUV's, AWD's, 4x4's etc must have had it in their heads that they act like a normal sedan or station wagon. Anything that powers all 4 wheels is going to use more fuel but careful driving & change of style can reduce your fuel bill. My 2003 GM-Holden VY ute on paper says it does 11L/per100kms. I've worked it out on mine I can get 9.6L on average & that's not bad from a 3.8L Buick V6 that dates back to the early 60's. My GV I can get better than the official quote. If I can get on average between 6.8L-8L driving an auto version I'm doing well. Parents that do school runs only want to outdo each other by buying bigger vehicles without using it's capability.

Nissan, I used to be a Nissan man but the ones I owned were absolute crap & they still are. Where I live now there's a huge population of rusty Nissan Patrols & their current range of SUV's couldn't even tow a plastic bag. A friend of mine has an X-Trail & it has problems going down a dirt track. He's bogged it & damaged it as it doesn't have a good clearance. He's now upgrading his suspension. Even in standard form the GV can outdo even the big boys. Farmers out here swear by the Jimny/Sierras as they can do the job on muddy properties. My original '94 Vitara to me was like a Mini on steroids & that got me out of some situations. I remember going through waist height water in it & a woman in a Mazda 323 thought she could do the same thing. She got stuck so I towed her out.

I have been umming & erring regarding my stereo system in mine. It still works a treat but it's getting on a bit. Suzuki quoted nearly $2100 (not including installation) to replace & an aftermarket one with a Pioneer system (fitting included) $1500. With DAB it's an extra $200.


I've read only a few reviews on the new Vitara ao hopefully in the next couple of weeks there will be more info. The 1.7L diesel sounds interesting.

 

I've read only a few reviews on the new Vitara ao hopefully in the next couple of weeks there will be more info. The 1.7L diesel sounds interesting.

I've read all the reviews I can find, and they are all critical of the interior and the cheap hard plastics everywhere. Most reviewers are far kinder when it comes to looks and performance. There are criticisms of the noise level of the diesel engine (it's FIAT sourced), but coming from the rather agricultural diesel in my Mokka, I'm sure it will be fine. All make the point that this is a far less capable vehicle then its predecessors, off road, but a good bit better than its direct competitors - some/most of which just have the looks without an AWD option. Opinion seems to favour the diesel for long distance cruising, but petrol, low specification gets the "Value for Money" vote.

Personally I like diesels - I grew up with them and passed my UK driving test in a Series 2 Diesel Landrover a couple of weeks after my 17th Birthday. I must be reverting to type in my advancing years as I'm back again in diesels and with an AWD option. Should be getting mine within the next 4 weeks once delivery delays between the Hungarian factory and the UK are sorted out .

 

Car industry is pretty sad now. The focus is more about gadgetery than actual driving. The 13 GV was a good compromise between my desire of an offroad vehicle and my wife desire of an easy to drive with a few gadget car. Oh well.

 

The interior plastics in my time of owning Vitaras/Grand Vitaras have always been cheap & nasty. My previous GV had an annoying rattle in the centre console. After about a dozen attempts, 4 dealers & sctratched/broken interior trim to fix it, I ended up selling at after 14 months of ownership. Everything else on it was great except for that. My current one has developed a rattle somewhere in & around the passenger airbag in the dash. Any money it's a stupid plastic clip holding the airbag that's got heat affected over the years.

I'd love to get my hands on a Landy. I had an opportunity to buy an ex-Australian Army one years ago but I was afraid it'd get broken into all the time as it was street parked. I bought a Nissan Bluebird station wagon instead which thankfully was the last Nissan I ever bought.

I didn't know the diesel engines were sourced from Fiat for the new Vitaras. I would have thought they would have got them from Renault. Still, knowing Italian engines, it spells reliabilty...lol

 

Nice pics there Karl. It looks lower than the GV. They should have kept to the same formula they've had since 1988.

 

K44rii have you got your vitara yet.

 

Yes GVwow my Vitara has turned up, a combination of the new Vitara selling very well since it's launch and the spec/colour I ordered it took nearly 5 months but worth the wait

Still owning the GV as well I have found they are totally different vehicles both having their strong points that the other has not

Karl

 

Thank you Karl for sharing

 

Well they're still selling 3dr & 5dr GV's here. I've not heard anything about updates/replacements as Suzuki are pretty tight lipped.

It is a buyers market if you're after a new vehicle with so many marques about but I can see they are missing the mark on what the customer wants to buy.

Everyone wants gadget filled cars.

 

Like I said going into a dealership and having to buy either new it would be a hard decision to choose which one I would buy, here in the UK the GV has been discontinued which I think was a bad move by Suzuki GB and makes me want to hold onto my 2012 GV even more
Another bad move is that the new Vitara is only available with 4WD on the top spec SZ5 model........im not sure the leather/privacy glass/keyless entry is the model farmers will be looking for. The rest of Europe has a more basic version with
4WD and no doubt appeals to a wider market

Karl

 

Ok, my Suzuki vendor installed (by the usb key, free) Carplay on my Vitara 2015 (very cool diesel machine !!). Works perfectly, Apple GPS included.

 

Hi there, I"m contemplating buying a vitara in the UK but I can't find anything suggesting carplay is available. Where are you based?

 

Carplay was made available in the latest software update that brings the software version to 830. The update was received here (Romania) last week.

 

Thank you

I'll check with UK dealers if they are rolling that out.

 

Hello,

I have just brought a 2015 Vitara SZ5 and I think it's great. However i am confused re Airplay. Looking on the net it seems to indicate it should have Airplay but it doesn't work. As it's not a year old yet it hasn't been serviced so I thought it might need an update. I spoke to my local dealer and they said there is no update? So I was wondering if anyone knew the situation in the UK with Airplay compatibility.

Thanks

 

How does the Vitara receive such firmware updates to the infotainment system? Can we do it on our own by internet tethering with smartphone or the dealership has to do it and charge you?

 

Dear friends,
I just took delivery of my Vitara 2016 yesterday (Petrol AUT 1.4 engine). Apparently the two versions differ. I can definitely confirm that in my Vitara, Apple Carplay works perfectly right from the factory.

Regards
Merlin