Get a grip with the Suzuki SZ5

After all, their off-road credentials are decidedly limited, so why bother forking for one? In truth, as we discovered recently when we tested over twenty 4x4s of various sizes, you can pay a lot of money for a supposedly very capable ‘off-roader’ only to find that it will struggle when the blacktop runs out. Therefore your Suzuki may not actually lose that much in off-road ability compared to a £40,000 behemoth. It’ll tackle slippery tracks and gentle trails with equal aplomb, so why pay to go large when there’s really no need.

That’s the logic at least. In reality there are all sorts of reasons for buying a big 4x4, some eminently practical, others more related to image and status concerns. If you’re not particularly hung up on what your social set will think about such a modestly sized car, the Suzuki SX4 SZ5 4x4 is worth a look, if only because it’s a fascinating little piece of kit. Suzuki has manufactured a long line of slight oddities, with 4x4 an option used on a number of their ordinary passenger car models, cars that conspired to puzzle British buyers. The SX4 looks a more natural candidate for an all-wheel drive system, with its raised body and aggressive styling. The ground clearance of the Suzuki SX4 SZ5 4x4 gives its drivers a little of that go-anywhere feeling but it’s really there to do little more than make tackling obstacles like speed humps, car park kerbs and grassy tracks stress free.

The i-AWD four-wheel drive system is modern and clever. It’s not permanently engaged, the Suzuki instead running in a fuel saving front-wheel drive mode most of the time. As soon as the system detects that a front wheel is relinquishing grip, it instantly diverts a percentage of torque to the rear wheels, giving the car the ability to haul itself out of some very sticky situations. The engineering is similar to the Haldex system used in something like an Audi TT, but Suzuki has gone one stage further and given the driver plenty of control over how this system is marshalled. Most of the time, the SX4 is best left in a default mode where it functions as a conventional front wheel drive hatch. If the going suddenly gets really slippery, a lock mode ensures that front and rear axles are locked together to provide ultimate traction.

A clutch system allows a small amount of slippage once under way and once you’ve reached 37mph, the system switches to its third mode, auto, which is the driver-selectable part-time 4WD mode. In practice the system works very well and, importantly, quickly. There’s are few things more unnerving than running out of traction on a steep climb, with precious momentum being squandered while the 4wd system tries to figure out what’s going on. The transition from front to four wheel drive in the SX4 SZ5 4x4 is both rapid and smooth.

Like all of the best four-wheel drive vehicles, the vulnerable bits on the underside have been tucked well out of the way, giving the all-wheel drive model a green lane capability that’s far beyond what you’d at first expect. The front suspension is a conventional MacPherson strut setup while the rear end features a compact torsion beam arrangement, in this case sculpted to make way for the prop shaft and rear differential.

The SX4 SZ5 4x4 engine line-up includes either a 1.6 VVT petrol or a 2.0-litre DDiS diesel.