Suzuki Grand Vitara XL7 2004 test drive - 2006 SUV
Suzuki Grand Vitara XL-7-step forward
What is the known company Suzuki? Most will probably call motorcycles and ... SUVs. It somehow happened that from the entire range of cars produced by the company, and today there are about ten models in it, SUVs are best known. Although there is a logical explanation for this: each of them was a thing in himself. On the one hand, Suzuki SUVs have always met the most modern requirements for security, ergonomics, economy, on the other hand, both the legendary Samurai, and the first -generation Vitara was a symbiosis of unique qualities. Their followers - Jimny and Grand Vitara from this point of view are no less interesting. With an appearance completely corresponding to the concept of parquet, they are the real crooks capable of kneading dirt day. And the new model of the company is Suzuki Grand Vitara XL -7 of the same breed ...Actually, if not all marketing tricks, XL-7 would be considered simply an elongated version of the usual Grand Vitara. It was from him that the novelty borrowed almost everything - the frame, interior, pendants and transmission. The only thing the new model differs from the ancestor is the number of seats - the number 7 in the name of the car means just the number of passengers who can be located in the car. The third, additional series of seats, the installation of which became possible only thanks to the lengthening of the wheeled base, is in the same place as in most seven -seater SUVs - in the luggage compartment. True, again, in comparison with other models called seven-seater, Grand Vitara XL-7 provides additional riders with a very high level of comfort. Firstly, their services are full-fledged, by order, leather chairs, and not their miserable semblance, made in the form of folding benches. Secondly, the chairs have individual adjustments for the corner of the back of the back, which also helps to increase comfort, three-point seat belts and even individual deflectors of the air conditioning system.
The driver can turn on the special operating mode of the air conditioner, which will create a climate for the rear riders, and they can regulate the temperature and direction of flows themselves. Everything else regarding the interior XL-7, to the same extent, is also applicable to Grand Vitara. The salon is finished with quite high -quality, pleasant materials with materials, nothing rattles and does not fasten. However, that this is me, Suzuki Grand Vitara XL -7, is a purebred Japanese, and even in the country of the rising sun they always knew how to collect cars. The instrument panel is also typical of Japanese: nice, convenient, but without special frills in terms of design. It’s still far from expensive European cars, but this is no longer Koreans with their faceless bio.
The landing is a little vertical, which is good in terms of visibility, but a little inconvenient for active maneuvering. The fact is that the front seats with branded symbols embroidered on them, although they look like sports buckets, actually have nothing to do with them. It is convenient to sit, but the lateral support is almost zero, which, coupled with the aforementioned vertical landing, create problems - on the snake, the driver is more likely to drive, rather than actively working. The rest of the passengers is just a sin to complain. There are plenty of space behind, and it is more convenient to get in a high car, because Part of the additional centimeters added to the total length fell on the area of \u200b\u200bthe rear seats. If you look more closely, you can notice that the rear doors in the XL -7 is slightly longer than in the usual Grand Vitara - it turned out such a kind of stretch.
The second rustling of the starter, and silence reigns in the car’s salon: the engine does not give itself out either noise or vibrations. On acceleration, and at speed, you also cannot call him a soloist. Depending on the size of the speedometer readings, the tires or side mirrors alive alive. The new 2.7-liter gasoline engine, created on the basis of a well-proven 2.5-liter six, which has long been offered for Grand Vitara, develops a capacity of 173 hp. Not the largest indicator, but even despite the relatively small operating volume, in its class it is almost the most powerful engine. This is noticeable in dynamics: acceleration from a place to a hundred at the XL-7 takes 10.5 seconds. It is very good, especially when you consider that most SUVs of this design, even with a much larger engine volume, this exercise is done for at least two to three seconds slower. We had a version with an automaton on the test, but even there were no complaints about it regarding the dynamics. A four -speed automatic transmission works very clearly, without jerking and inhibitory, which contributes to a very aggressive driving style. The machine reacts adequately and predictably to any provocation - a sense of stability and one hundred percent control over the car does not disappear.
However, the severity of the steering does not allow you to especially polyghty - on the snake it has to be rotated with interception, which is not very convenient, given the high landing of the driver. Tires with a universal pattern are also contributing to the predictable behavior of the car. Their coupling properties on the asphalt, especially wet, are not very high, and the car begins to slide very early. This behavior is very typical for frame SUVs. The high center of gravity and the presence of a dependent rear suspension initially deprive such drivers of driven habits, so thanks to these tires, designers instill safe manners. If you greatly exceed the speed in the bend, then everything will occur according to the following scenario: strongly rolling, the car begins to slip out of turn, as it falls, gradually returning to the original trajectory. If the gas is not released, then insufficient controllability gradually begins to turn into excess rotation, and even with an automatic engine of the engine is enough to let the car a fan. True, the test took place on wet asphalt, so it can be assumed that on the dry coating of the reaction of the car there will be cuts and the clutch properties of the tires higher. But in any case, even after rain tests, we can say that with controllability in the XL-7 everything is in perfect order.
Having made several trial circles along Borovaya and making sure that there are no unwanted guests, I transfer the gearbox lever to position 2 and press the gas pedal to the floor. The car instantly, without a delay characteristic of machine guns, shoots forward, already by the end of a hundred -meter straight line, having adjacent the speedometer to the mark 100. I abruptly throw the gas, I besiege the brakes a little and immediately take the car into the turn - tilting to the front left wheel, XL -7 almost Without slipping, it enters the desired trajectory. Again acceleration, and the next turn the car passes in a different mode - the discharge of gas, throwing the steering wheel to the right, and then again the pedal to the floor. Having slipped out of the turn with front wheels, already in the middle of the turn, the car gained a clutch with the road, and another show began - a controlled skid. And when the car was almost sideways, and the speed at that moment, according to the speedometer, was about 60 km/h somewhere, the rear wheel suddenly flies in a decent hole. If we simply went to the XL-7, then he would not notice it, but in this case the blow turned out to be almost lateral. The car shuddered, huddled a little with the rear bridge - the first thought that came to my mind was about the cost of the car. These figures - $ 17.300 plus delivery and customs clearance - cool the head better than any arguments.
We stop, look around - know problems! Just in case, I bend in three deaths and inspect the rear bridge. M-yes, judging by the thickness of the metal from which the rear suspension levers are made, this car will need a couple of dozens of such riders in order to really damage something here. If at the moment we were traveling on the SUV, then after such a blow, something would probably have dreamed of something very bad. And here - no problem. This is the advantage of heavy frame SUVs. Outside, and simply in difficult conditions, they can’t compare with conventional parquet models. The comparative test, held by one of the most popular European automobile publications, is especially indicative. Two SUVs, frame and SUV, were tested on the same highway, as it were to speak more precisely, with a very off -road slope. The diagonal hanging of the wheels and overcoming mud baths to the waist is only the smallest that had to be overcome by tested cars.
The result was very impressive. A total of a total of several tens of thousands of kilometers went along this highway, and the SUV ... The second car at the base of the structure was supporting, albeit reinforced, body and independent wheels, drove about seven hundred kilometers and ... scattered. The body simply could not withstand such a mockery of himself: welded seams diverged, fatigue destruction of metal in power elements appeared. All this I lead to the fact that if at least some part of the average annual run of your car falls on the off -road, and almost half of the roads of our republic, especially peripheral, is suitable for such a term, then the frame SUV is exactly what you need.
Of course, everything will not be so significant in life. The SUV will not scatter from the environmental environment, and you will be extremely rare to use the possibility of all -wheel drive transmission. But given the state of our roads, the purchase of a frame SUV with a dependent rear suspension is more than justified: such cars are much cheaper in operation, mainly due to the features of the design. A hard bridge, due to a minimum number of details in its design, practically does not require care. You do not have to spend money after each fifty thousand run on the full overdoor of the suspension, including the replacement of worn ball supports, silent blocks, etc. As for the level of comfort, this car, of course, in this indicator lags behind limousines and cars, but the increase in the base was not in vain. Those 320 mm on which the base increased in a very positive way affected the smoothness of the course. On the highway XL-7 is simply swimming, gently swaying on the road waves. The goat characteristic of SUVs is completely absent here, and the higher the speed, the smoother the XL-7 move becomes.
Oddly enough, but this SUV turned out to be well adapted for movement at high speeds: the car does not scour, the steering wheel is clearly obeyed. Even the machine reacts very adequately. If you have a well, then it instantly switches for a reduced gear, thus providing the dynamics sufficient for overtaking. With an intensive slowdown, the need for which you sometimes feel very sharply, everything is in order here, since disc brakes on all wheels effectively stop the car at any speed. True, ABS here is not the most sophisticated, but at least it does not give a high -frequency fraction during braking, and in a turn it can serve as a good help to an inexperienced driver. But if you drive very quickly, then we will strongly recommend you immediately after buying a car to replace the tires. If you prefer asphalt, then on highways, if off -road - then more toothy. For only in them it seems, the whole problem. If the tires are not so hot, then the braking distance, especially in the presence of ABS, becomes even longer. When braking at the mixture, when sand under the right wheels, and under the left are clean asphalt, ABS is no longer able to provide a stable trajectory, and the braking on the floor ends with a small displacement of the car towards the clean coating. Otherwise, as mentioned above, the car is reliable and predictable in its behavior, so the driver XL-7, regardless of whether this man or woman, should not arise problems in life.
The appearance of a model such as Suzuki Grand Vitara XL-7 marked the beginning of a new period in the activities of the automaker. The corporation has long been lacking a serious car of the corresponding sizes, and the XL-7 came up with this role as well as possible. And it is very successful that the engineers did not experiment and invent a bicycle. The evolutionary structure of the XL-7 made it possible to avoid many undesirable at this stage, and indeed, constructive defects. After all, how carefully worked out the design of the novelty, almost always, as experience shows, childhood diseases are manifested during operation - constructive defects and flaws that can nullify all the efforts of engineers and testers. In this car, as you know, nothing of this can simply be: all the defects that could appear if they were here at all are eliminated on the Grand Vitara model. So, by purchasing Suzuki Grand Vitara XL-7, you get, if you want, a product of evolution.
(+) A spacious salon, a powerful and painful engine, high smoothness, high -quality interior.
(-) Low clutch properties of tires with a universal pattern, small trunk, satisfactory work of ABS.
P.S. Interestingly, if someday in the Suzuki gamut an SUV appears, which exceeds the size of XL-7 in size, then how will it be called-XXL?
Text: Pavel Kozlovsky
