Any views on Suzuki Vitara please?

hethmar

Have been looking for a cheapish 4 x 4 for some time now - so OH can use it for dumping building rubbish (he is always doing one thing or another on the house and I hate him using our car for same) and for taking the dogs out as the car gets covered in mud and hairs.

Have seen a decent little T reg Vitara hard top with only 63k miles, one owner, full MOT, new cambelt and a lot of service history for £1k. Is this a good price and is this a good vehicle for our purpose please anyone?

verityboo

Unless he needs to go off-road i'd go for an old Volvo estate - 940 or 850 etc. The Vitara is okay but nothing special.

Is he a hairdressser, it doesn't have a particularly manly image!

hethmar

Hi, well its just to be an extra vehicle just for rubbish dumping and for taking our dogs to and from their walking areas, not for actually work and I shall be using it the most

emmell

Brother's got one as a 'third' car, it goes most places in the snow and mud and is always brought out when the other cars can't cope.
He has just done a 500 mile round trip on Motorways with a trailer on the back and he said it never mssed a beat. He's always saying he's going to sell it then can't bring himself round to it.
It's a softop Vitara J24U.....not very big inside though and a bit noisy.
ML.

colino

It has a choppy ride, surprisingly heavy on fuel and expensive in parts, it's about twice as expensive as it should be and still has the hairdresser reputation.
Tough call,,,,,,

delain

verityboo wrote: »

Unless he needs to go off-road i'd go for an old Volvo estate - 940 or 850 etc. The Vitara is okay but nothing special.

Is he a hairdressser, it doesn't have a particularly manly image!

My OH loves his vitara, its a canary yellow soft top :eek: and does get him the odd funny look since he is built like shrek :rotfl:

He uses it for all sorts including towing and its certainly a robust little thing.

You can get quite a lot off stuff in there if you fold down the back seats and its really economical, much more so than the Volvo estate we had before it..

poppasmurf_bewdley

My ex wife used to have one.

They are heavy on fuel. Check the window winders work properly - they're cable operated and should work smoothly and easily up and down. Check also for head gasket trouble. Take off the oil filler cap and check for white mayonnaise type gunge around it. Also check the water filler cap to make sure there is water in - low or no water is another sign of possible head gasket trouble.

Strider590

My parents had one many years ago (1991-1997), it was sold because it did only 24mpg.....

Justifiable if it was a large unpopular car (which are a real bargain), but it's a small 4x4, every idiot and their dog wants a small 4x4 because it snowed once a year or so ago and they think that a 4x4 is somehow (and by miracle) better than buying winter tyres.......