Since its introduction about a year ago, Suzuki's latest compact sport-ute has been doing solid business in its V-6, 4-door Grand Vitara rendition. Well now the Canadian arm of the Japanese firm is getting ready to market 4-cylinder, 4-door hardtop and 2-door convertible versions of the regular Vitara line.
And for the more traditional buyer, Suzuki Canada has also put together a new variation on the Esteem compact station wagon, one powered by a 1.8-litre, 4-cylinder engine.
All models of the Vitara will be built at the CAMI plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, whereas the Grand Vitaras all come from Japan.
The 4-door model comes with only one engine, the new 2-litre, 16-valve inline-4 that produces 127 horsepower at 6000 rpm and 134 pound-feet of torque at 3000 rpm, and every model is a 4x4.The 2-door convertible can also be equipped with that engine, but its base powerplant is the also-new 1.6-litre, 16-valve inline-4 that generates 97 horses at 5200 rpm and 103 pound-feet of torque at 4000 rpm.
For now, the 4-door Vitara comes only as a JX trim, with an MSRP of $19,995 for the base trim. This includes a 5-speed manual transmission, a tach, variable-speed wipers, reclining front seats, a centre console, power seating, a rear heat duct, tilt steering wheel, a rear defroster and more.To include the 4-speed automatic transmission in the 4-door JX, the sticker price jumps to $21,495.