Suzuki have announced to MotorMartin that they are very pleased that their Vitara has been voted the overall winner at the 2016 Honest John Awards held in London. Since its launch just 12 months ago in the UK, Vitara has proved to be very popular and was voted as the top choice by readers of honestjohn.co.uk. It was also voted as the Most Popular Crossover, again by the regular readers of the website which has more than 4,400 owner reviews posted and 2.27 million visitors to its new car reviews pages (measured between April 2015 and April 2016).
Suzuki introduced the 1.4-litre Boosterjet S model in January 2016 which provides a more sporting and dynamic character to the Vitara line up. It was this new model that further increased the high popularity of Vitara amongst their readers. Additionally, the informative and light hearted Vitara video made by honestjohn.co.uk last year is their most popular review to date, having been viewed over 250,000 times. Fantastic news for Suzuki and confirmation that they got it just right with the new Vitara.
Commenting on the awards, Daniel Harrison, editor of honestjohn.co.uk, shared with MotorMartin that: “Our readers tell us that they want cars that are practical, well built and honest when it comes to fuel consumption. Vitara offers all of that with a dash of style and sense of occasion. It’s no surprise that it’s been such a hit on the site. The addition of the state-of-the-art Boosterjet petrol engine earlier this year was the icing on the cake and another reason for us to recommend what is a great all-rounder. This has been the most popular car of the past 12 months with our users and, from the feedback we’ve had so far, it has every reason to be our Car of the Year.” And looking at the specifications on the Suzuki website For the Vitara, it’s easy to see why Suzuki are so proud of this sporty SUV.
Dale Wyatt, Sales and Marketing Director, Suzuki GB PLC, informed MotorMartin that: “This really is a fantastic achievement for us at Suzuki; our compact and lightweight SUV is proving to be really popular on the roads now with 10,000 sold since launch last year. It’s great news for us that so many of our customers have voted for it on honestjohn.co.uk.”
“Our research shows that over 65 per cent of prospective customers who test drive a Vitara will purchase one. This is certainly reflected in the great comments by Honest John users that they made the right decision.”
So then, the Vitara is available from £13,999 for the 1.6-litre SZ4 model with manual transmission, the SZ5 model is available with either a 1.6-litre petrol or 1.6 diesel engine and offers ALLGRIP four wheel drive as an option. The 1.4-litre turbo-charged S model offers ALLGRIP as standard equipment.
Suzuki have certainly put the effort into the Vitara as it is also rated one of Europe‘s safest cars according to independent crash testing results from Euro NCAP, and received the maximum 5-star rating. Vitara was also the first compact SUV to earn five stars in the more rigorous 2015 Euro NCAP testing programme which reinforces the exemplary level of safety of the model.
So it’s a massive MotorMartin well done to Suzuki and the newly refreshed Vitara and I’ll certainly be looking to try out the Vitara myself in the coming months. After all, those voters can’t all be wrong.
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