The Suzuki Vitara is a 2-door convertible / 3-door panel van / 3 and 5-door Sport utility vehicle / SUV from Suzuki, built from 1988, in the age of turbocharging and the first electronic engine management. Under the bonnet: Petrol engine.
The background
The Suzuki Vitara is a series of SUVs produced by Suzuki in five generations since 1988. The second and third generation were known as the Suzuki Grand Vitara, while the fourth generation eschewed the "Grand" prefix. In Japan and a number of other markets, all generations have used the name Suzuki Escudo (Japanese: スズキ・エスクード, Hepburn: Suzuki Esukūdo) until 2024. The choice of the name "Vitara" was inspired by the Latin word vita, as in the English word vitality. "Escudo", the name primarily used in the Japanese market, refers to the "escudo", the monetary unit of Portugal before adoption of the Euro. The original series was designed to fill the slot above the Suzuki Jimny. The first generation was known as Suzuki Sidekick in the United States.
The North American version was produced as a joint venture between Suzuki and General Motors known as CAMI. It was also sold as the Santana 300 and 350 in Spain and in the Japanese market, and in select markets was rebadged as the Mazda Proceed Levante as well. The second generation was launched in 1998 under the "Grand Vitara" badge in most markets. It was accompanied by a still larger SUV known as the Suzuki XL-7 (known as Grand Escudo in Japan). The third generation was launched in 2005. The fourth generation, released in 2015, reverted to the original name "Vitara" in most markets, but shifted from an off-road SUV towards a more road-oriented crossover style. It shares the platform and many components with the slightly larger SX4 S-Cross. The model introduced in 2022 for the Indian market only reuses the "Grand Vitara" nameplate.
The engineering
Power comes from Petrol engine; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It weighs 2/3-door: 950-1140 kg. It shifts through a 5-speed Manual transmission / manual / 3-speed Turbo-Hydramatic 180 / TH180 Automatic transmission / automatic (1988–1990 1.6 L only) / 4-speed List of Aisin transmissions#Automati. The wheelbase is 2/3-door: 2200 mm / 5-door: 2480 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
Its family tree is legible: assembly was at Iwata, Shizuoka. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Lexus LS, the BMW 5 Series, the Subaru Legacy — show what else the money bought that year. Its Suzuki stablemates include the Suzuki XL-7 and the Suzuki Landy.
What it costs now
There is no federal ownership record for the Suzuki Vitara — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.