In nowadays everyone is talking about creating several vehicles from a common platform, also with as many shared parts as possible, but how many off-road crossovers do you know which had a directly-related sedan variation? That’s what attracted the attentions to Suzuki’s release for the first time, seven years ago. This line was originally intended to be offered only in Europe, but ended arriving in many other markets and now receiving a new generation, which made its debut at the latest Geneva Motor Show.
Originally named as an abbreviation for “Sports X-over 4 all seasons”, these cars replaced Aerio/Liana at their same two variations. The biggest leap, however, came from the fact that the new car brought a much better design, not only for being better-looking but specially for having much more personality. As it’s often commented, the Eastern vehicles had a difficult time with said sector on the early 2000s because they needed to escape from the excessive neutrality of the previous decade but hadn’t managed to find a strong (and well-accepted) style language to follow. Actually, SX4’s lines still show some of the “disconnected” visual concepts of the contemporary phases of Hyundai Elantra or Honda Aria, but with the “extra” of the hatchback coming as a small SUV, making very good use of the project’s big height and imponent, verticalized elements. But the true success came because Suzuki paired this good-looking exterior with a comfortable cabin and a very nice off-road package, which included all-wheel-drive and diesel engines for the hatch, while the sedan received sporty accessories. This car ended travelling to all continents, whether in one version or both, sometimes rebadged under Changan-Suzuki or Maruti for India, not to mention becoming Fiat Sedici in Europe.
After receiving some minor updates through these years, Suzuki decided it was time not for complete changes but for complete evolutions. Just like Dacia did with the Logan family, it wouldn’t make sense to leave a well-accepted path to make big investments on revolutionary concepts which could easily be rejected by the public. That’s why the overall impression given by these pictures is of an improved SX4. Like in most generation changes, the automaker’s intention of making a much better car resulted on considerable dimension increases: the car became 6.5 inches longer (getting to 169.3) and has a 4-inch bigger wheelbase (going to 102.4). It’s also possible to notice the car’s new styling became more conventional, but it also became much more elegant. The front-drive unibody platform brings a bigger five-seats cabin with better materials, a bigger trunk (15.2 cubic feet) and much better safety; Suzuki claims it’s able to receive a five-star rating on European NCAP crash tests. The powertrain has two 16-valve 1.6L engines, one using gasoline and the other burning diesel to achieve the very same power of 115 hp, but with the very different torques of 115 and 236 lb-ft. The standard respective transmissions are five-speed and six-speed manuals, but both can come with the optional seven-speed CVT automatic gearbox and AllGrip all-wheel-drive, with four driving modes.
