Recently, the concept of a crossover has more and more loses its original meaning. If powerful vehicles of increased cross -country ability were previously called this word, now any car that can park on the sidewalk can become a crossover. Even a front -wheel drive low -wheelbrack can be called a crossover, if its road clearance is slightly higher than the height of the border stone.
The situation around this class of cars resembles a tantrum with the word «supermarket». In the early and centers of the 90s, they tried to name any commodity stall with this fashionable word, proudly designating a small retail point as a “mini-supermarket”. “Mini-Supermarket” is almost the same as a small crossover-the concept of completely non-reflecting the true meaning of the phenomenon. Marketers strive to make money on trend — people want to have an SUV, «so we will call an SUV everything we can».
Against the backdrop of the above Suzuki Grand Vitara, it looks like a harsh detached conservative, whose motto should make the phrase “to be, not seem”. A full -wheel drive SUV without any trend frills or fashionable decorative innovations. This car looks almost as traditional as the Japanese arch, sushi or kimono. Yes, of course, since 1997, when this model first appeared on the market, Grand Vitara has changed, but these changes went outside the stream of capricious automobile fashion — Suzuki designers had their own thoughts on how beautiful functional machines should look like.
Perhaps it was thanks to this conservatism that Grand Vitara did not lose the harsh masculinity inherent in the full -fledged SUVs of the old school. Look at his calm rectangular outlines — nothing superfluous, the form is subordinated to the function. The appearance of the weapon is created about the same: if some bend is not justified, then it should not be here.
Pay attention to the fact that the reserve of this crossover is in a plastic casing mounted on the fifth door. As far as I remember, this is not a single manufacturer in this way, for the most part they attach a spare wheel under the bottom. It seems to be like a spare wheel cover on the rear door is ugly, gives an excessive load on the door hinges, and indeed, this is not in the trend … And you try to replace the heavy descending wheel of the SUV, pulling out a dirty spurt of the machine of the machine for replacement?
To do this, you will have to throw everything that closes access to the trunk floor (read — completely free it), get to a specially key located on the bottom of the luggage compartment, unscrew, most likely, the sour, and then scratch the fallen to the ground in some way Under the machine heavy «pancake» spare. But what if you got in a puddle or on the road liquid autumn dirt? Pulling the spare tire from under the car, you will have to fierce the entire plane of the spare wheel on the slope, and only then put it in place. Presumably, you want to put the same chumazoe down the wheel in the trunk among things, t. To. to fix it again under the bottom, to where the reserve was stood, you just have no strength left.
I hope that now it is clear why the Japanese from Suzuki stubbornly continue to put a casing with a full -sized spare wheel on the fifth door? Better to go through the door hinges over time (if they pass at all), it is not as difficult to adjust them as to make the ritual of scratching the daredevil from under the bottom.
Another conservative, but pleasant decision of the developers was that Suzuki Grand Vitara, like many years ago, remains a frame SUV. Yes, the body is no longer attached to the frame through the system of studs and rubber pillows — it is hard to be welded to the frame. But be that as it may, the “body is integrated into the frame” in relation to the SUV is much more reliable and tougher than just carrying the body.
In general, the appearance of the new “Grand Vitara” should be designated as a calm and even modest. Together with the quality of the gaps, optics and paintwork, such restrained forms give the impression of cold indifferent power. To understand what I mean, remember the expression on Fyodor Emelianenko’s face at those moments when he rises to the ring.
The interior of Grand Vitara, however, like almost the entire Suzuki line, is also very restrained. It is curious that of all the Japanese presented in our market, only this brand retained the features of the traditional Japanese design school. Other Japanese focus on the tastes of the European consumer, while Suzuki design a salon without elaborate lines and some extra excretions. On the Grand Vitara panel, everything is just about the case.
Three laconic metal cups of devices clearly and clearly reflect all the necessary information — speed, revolutions, fuel supply, coolant temperature and gasoline consumption. The central console is also extremely simple and functional, like devices in the tank-large control keys for a multimedia system, large rotary climate control controllers and a monumental circuit breaker of the intericonsal differential lock.
It is immediately clear that the machine was created for consumers of a certain type — for straightforward, logically thinking people focused on a clear achievement of the goals and objectives. In psychology (socionics), this type of people is designated as «businessman». It doesn’t matter what gender and what a person with this type of psyche does, in this case, the word “businessman” refers to the features of thinking, this is a kind of professional jargon. Such people solve cases by the method of cutting off excess, when the function is more important than the colorful shell.
Having pressed the gas pedal, I once again convinced the correctness of my assumptions that the developers focused their attention precisely on the functionality. If this car «did not rode», I would say that Grand Vitara is a disgusting car. But in conjunction with the dynamics and clarity of the steering wheel that I felt, Grand Vitara fascinated me as it could chase the weapon.
This is an amazing car, without exaggeration. In urban mode, it is 2, 4-liter, 170-horsepower engine gives this outwardly a bulky machine the dynamics of a quick passenger car. However, it is important to understand here that acceleration (in our case, 11 seconds to hundreds) directly depends on the power -mass ratio. And the weight of Grand Vitara was not so large — about one and a half tons. Together with all -wheel drive, this car rides much more interesting than I expected at first.
The BMW X5 can boast of approximately the same dynamic characteristics in the average configuration, but the German is harder, which is subjective to me, as for the pilot, it makes it less attractive.
The most interesting thing behind the wheel of Suzuki Grand Vitara begins when you move from an even asphalt coating to a broken gravel road. The first thing that surprises and pleases is the speed you can not slow down. We turn on the locking of the inter -axle differential and stomp the gas to the gas!
VRRR! Dashing the turns in light skidding on slippery ground, the Grand Vitara as crazy rushed to where I directed it with the steering wheel. Bumps, potholes, cracked asphalt — she does not care on what road you want to fly, the main thing is to reap and steer and steer. No breakdowns, rocking or dangerous rolls. It is on such a road that you understand why the Japanese made the suspension of this car atypically stiff for the SUV. On the asphalt, this rigidity is expressed in the meticulous details of reading the profile of the roadway — almost every seam and even shagrin of asphalt are felt — you literally feel the road with wheels. But on a suburban troach, such a suspension allows you to bring down as if you are managing a rally car.
Funny pokatushki with a breeze on the broken ribbons of a suburban gravel led me to some completely unfamiliar industrial wilds, as if I was on the film set of the film «Stalker». Suddenly, the track broke off — a dirty field was opened in front of me, painted with small ravines, overgrown with a rare shrub and dense low grass. Occasionally, some obscure pieces of concrete reinforcement and cast -iron rails stuck out between the bushes. The feeling like an explosion of a kiloton bomb across this field was scattered by a whole steamed plant. Out of curiosity, I decided to see, I could get a document, but when I came to my senses, I realized that I had forgotten where I came from.
Okay, somehow I have to leave here-I click on the gas, the wheels begin to slip. Wet grass, sticking to dense dirt, covered the wheels with a slippery pillow — you go like soap. It doesn’t matter — we brake, switch the togglerer located on the panel to the reduced gears and slowly, focusing on the sun, we get out of these “stalker” debrais. It is a pity that Grand Vitara does not have a functions of forced inter -axle locking — only a fragmentary blocking works works. But, by and large, albeit with difficulty, on ordinary road rubber, the Grand Vitar can get out of where the pedestrian will break his leg.
Having left back on a two -column gravel road, we stop, transfer the automatic transmission lever to the Parking position and turn off the “lowering”. Stopping when switching this regime is required, at a speed of up to 90 kilometers per hour, you can include only interdosseous locking. Gas to the floor again and flew! Damn «Grand Vitar», how many dope is in it and how accurate the steering wheel! It is such a light off -road of a broken primer that is the element of Suzuki Grand Vitara, in contrast to such an expensive smooth asphalt will seem boring.
Well, the trip was much more exciting than I expected at first. I have not experienced so much drive and pleasure from driving for a long time, and it is completely surprising that these emotions gave me such an outwardly calm and balanced five -door crossover. Indeed, the appearance is deceiving, before I have never focused on these SUVs, but now I celebrate them in the stream with an envious look. Honestly, I did not experience such emotions towards large cars.
Often after tests, even if we are talking about luxurious premium cars, I do not feel the desire to have a tested machine. Exceptions are extremely rare-so, the last time this year, after the test drive, I wanted to transfer to a small nimble Opel Astra GTS, and now, completely unexpected for myself, I sunk on this hefty five-door steering Grand Vitara. It would seem that so different cars — a frame SUV and a small hatchback, but they have one common feature that hurts the right string in my soul — this is a magnificent suspension and the perfect balance between power, mass and accuracy of the steering wheel. All together this is called «drive» — the pleasure of the process of driving itself. True, the GTC element is even asphalt, while Suzuki Grand Vitara is the king of crossed terrain.
And the last — the cost of the tested car is 1 199,000 rubles. Given that for this money you get a purebred Japanese SUV, compare Suzuki Grand Vitara and nothing with. Mazda CX-5? No, I don’t think — at close cost, this sophisticated esthet with a capricious innovative engine, so sensitive to fuel quality, looks like a flimsy bespectacled manner next to the harsh marine infantryman. In comparison, the CX-5 is not an SUV, it’s just a big car. Chinese frame jeeps lack power and while they are inferior from the Japanese in terms of assembly quality is also not competitors. Maybe Koreans? Also not — I tried the crossovers of Hyundai and Ssangyong, there is simply no point.
Although everything is subjective — perhaps, you have your own radically opposite judgments about this. But in any case, if in the near future you plan to buy a crossover, be sure to ride on Grand Vitara, I understood this car at the wheel of this machine how a real crossover should go.