Early signs point to the new Suzuki Vitara being a safe and fairly reliable family car
Carbuyer Rating
3.8 out of 5
Owners Rating
4.0 out of 5
Reliability & safety Rating
3.5 out of 5
The Vitara offers plenty of safety equipment as standard and Suzuki is well known for making fairly tough off-roaders.
Suzuki Vitara reliability
The Vitara feels built to last inside, despite the cheap-feeling plastics used in places. And Suzuki has a very good reputation for building SUVs that are both rugged and long-lasting.
The Suzuki Vitara was rated average for reliability in our 2022Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, and finished a respectable 52nd out of the top 75 cars currently on sale in the UK. Suzuki owners were happy with running costs, acceleration, handling and value, but the brand came 21st out of 29 manufacturersin our Driver Power manufacturer poll – a drop from 14th place in 2021.
Safety
The Vitara was crash-tested by the safety experts at Euro NCAP, coming away with a perfect five-star score. It was individually rated at 89% for adult occupant protection, 85% for child occupant protection and 76% for pedestrian protection. Safety assistance was scored at 75%. Key Vitara rivals such as the Nissan Juke, Peugeot 2008 and Renault Captur also all scored five stars.
Most of the Vitara's safety equipment comes as standard on all trim levels – and there's plenty of it. The list includes automatic braking if the car detects a potential collision ahead, cruise control, hill hold (to prevent the car rolling back on hills), seven airbags, ISOFIX child-seat mounting points and electronic stability control (to help prevent skids).
Radar brake support and four-wheel-drive hill-descent control are only available on the top-of-the range SZ5 trim.
