Suzuki Alto 1.0 SZ4 review
by David Finlay (21 September 2009)
Odd little car, the Suzuki Alto. It did not take me long to build up quite a list of objections to it, but in the course of a week it gave me very good service and I was rather sorry to see it go. Do bear that in mind during the torrent of abuse that follows, and remember that things get better as you go further down the screen.
First, the styling. A friend who saw the Alto for the first time when approaching it from in front said, "Oh! It looks like a computer mouse." It took me a few seconds to work out what she meant, but I think I see it now. My own objection is that the front and rear look like they are part of completely separate cars, and while I realise that there are limits to how much can be done in with a vehicle as small as this one, I do feel the Alto could be a bit more coherent. You might not like Suzuki's adventurously-designed (and somewhat larger) Swift, but it does at least give the impression that the same team was responsible for both ends.
There are also practicality issues at the rear. Luggage volume is not especially generous at 129 litres (or 367 litres with the rear seats folded down), but if you were going on a continental driving holiday you probably wouldn't take an Alto in any case. A more pressing matter is that the rear sill is very high and the tailgate very narrow, so you have to take careful aim before trying to put any shopping in there. And you might as well remove the parcel shelf before you start, partly because it opens up the target area and partly because in my experience it will probably fall off at some point anyway.
The rear is also notable for its outstanding lack of visibility. Most city cars these days are feeble in this respect, since their stylists appear to be committed to form at the expense of function, but the Alto is among the worst. It won't do. Why should this or any other car likely to spend a large proportion of its time being manoeuvred round car parks give the driver so little idea of what is immediately behind?
Then we come to the carpets, which seem to have been thrown in without any attempt to stick them down or make them follow the shape of the floorpan. When I used a vacuum on them I thought the machine was going to suck them out of the car altogether. I suspect I could have done a better job of fitting them myself - and anyone who has seen my attempts at DIY will understood the full horror of that claim.
Reader's Voice: And you still say you like the car? Myself: Well, yes. For reasons too complicated to explain here, I had to drive it around Argyll in the west of Scotland, visiting four locations of which the outer two were 25 miles apart. This may not seem like much of a test, but Argyll's coastline is longer than that of France, and the distance I actually had to drive was over 330 miles, including two shortcuts by ferry. And it was while all this was going on that I became very fond of the Alto.
A major plus point is the one-litre three-cylinder petrol engine. Under hard acceleration it makes quite a racket (though I do like the typical three-cylinder thrumming noise) and at idle it actually makes the car shake, but when you're cruising it fades almost completely into the background, to the point where I more than once found myself having driven for more than a mile in fourth gear, or even third, when I should have changed into top long ago.
Steep hills leave it gasping, but its maximum output of 67bhp is pretty good for a unit of this size, and on more level ground the performance is more than adequate. (That's assuming you've gone for a model with a manual gearbox. I haven't driven one with automatic transmission but the figures suggest that it kills the engine stone dead.)
It also helped that the Alto has plenty of amount of room for front-seat occupants. At six foot three I had no issues with space whatever, and although it's much harder for me to get in the back I did discover that this is an easier process than it is in the much larger Volkswagen Polo.
The test car was in range-topping SZ4 trim, making it the only Alto worth over £8000 at current rates. Equipment unique to the SZ4 includes a height-adjustable driver's seat, a 50/50 split folding rear seat, 14" alloys (lesser models have steel wheels as standard), front and rear curtain airbags, a revcounter (rather amateurishly plonked next to the driver's side air vent, but useful for reminding you that you should have changed up a gear by now), ESP and, for an extra £600, that automatic gearbox. The safety items make this the Alto of choice, though you can save more than £1000 by opting for the more spartan SZ2 instead.
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