1.4 Boosterjet S Allgrip Auto 5dr SUV

A decent car ruined by chronically oversensitive radar brake system

This would be a decent car if it wasn't for the radar brake system and associated adaptive cruise control.

The radar brake system is chronically over-sensitive (Suzuki have confirmed it is working as designed.) It has made dozens of errors of judgement in the four months we've owned it. It goes off for parked cars, bridges, cars not pulling out in front of you, and anything else which takes its fancy. It can be disabled, but only until you turn the car on again, at which point it is automatically enabled again. It has also shut down completely on one occasion, for no apparent reason, taking the cruise control which I was using, with it.

The adaptive cruise control is unpredictable. Sometimes it slows too early for another vehicle, sometimes too late, and at least once, it didn't bother at all (coming up behind a rather large lorry.) It ends up requiring more driver monitoring than regular (and completely predictable) cruise control. There's no ability to disable the adaptive part of the cruise control.

There's also been one instance when using adaptive cruise control with a clear straight road in front, a car passed slowly in the right hand lane (and stayed there), and the radar brake support activated presumably because it thought we were about to hit something, while the adaptive cruise just kept on going. Crazy, but according to Suzuki, "this can happen."

A safety feature isn't a safety feature if it makes mistakes, and even worse if it distracts you by activating when it should not. A dashcam has conveniently recorded most of these incidents.

This car should also be avoided if you have a non-Apple smartphone: support for anything else is sadly lacking. Surprise: Suzuki issues iPhones to all their reps !

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