1.4 Boosterjet SZ5 5dr

It's not perfect but I like it.

I've owned this car for nearly three years now and covered just over 15,000 miles and generally pleased with it. This is my first car that I have ever bought from new and as you would expect I carried out quite a lot of research to ensure there was no "buyer regret" and test drove a few different manufacturers SUV's before plumping for the Vitara.
My previous car was a Peugeot 307SW SE 1600 diesel which I had owned for over 10 years and covered about 90,000 miles without any major issues. So my main criteria with any replacement vehicle would be a glass sunroof, leather seats, climate control, comfortable to dive for both me and my wife (I'm very tall, she's quite short), reasonable performance/mpg, practical and reliable. I wasn't so bothered about a lot of the safety tech which comes with the SZ5 but if I wanted a sunroof and leather I had to have the whole package.
Something's I miss about my 307 are the automatic folding door mirrors when you press the remote door lock/unlock (great when looking out the kitchen window to see if I've remembered to lock the car), the 307 had a very versatile interior where I could easily remove all the back seats if I needed to move anything big and it had lots of cubby holes for maps, first aid kit etc. And of course it had excellent fuel economy. The thing I didn't like about the 307 was it was like driving a tank, very heavy and not very sporty. This is where the Vitara scores well, it's light, agile, sporty and not too big for driving around the Devon lanes where I live.
I like the appearance of the Vitara, it's got a distinctive confident look to it and yes I agree with the professional reviews in that some of the interior has got that cheap plastic look/feel plus not having the rear seats fold down flat is a bit annoying. The driver aids are okay but the adaptive cruise control is a bit fierce and I have to turn off the lane control due to the Devon roads. Also accessing some of the driver information is harder than it needs to be. The ride is quite good, it copes well with the potholes but the rear does hop around a bit when hitting the bumps and the seats are okay for comfort.
I am getting about 45mpg with a mixture of shopping and trips out to the country with no commuting journeys. It's been a reliable car with regards to the engine management/emissions/mechanically but the infotainment screen needed replacing under warranty (otherwise £1200). No issues with tyre, brakes or oil consumption.
Would I buy this car again? Probably, if I could find a good deal and would upgrade to the AWD and possibly the Kuro spec.

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