Suzuki SX4 Put To The Test

Posted By ê¿ê on August 27th, 2008

My little Suzuki SX4 just turned 3 months old. Although I had a few minor problems with it at first, those have pretty much disappeared.

It had an annoying rattle in the dashboard for about 10 days that has gone away — whatever was loose must have shaken out. The gas mileage issue has improved as the engine broke in. I get 32 mpg on the highway, but only about 28 mpg in my work commute. That’s still better than I was getting with the Caravan, so I’m satisfied with those numbers.

Yesterday, the little car that would had a pretty hard test to pass.

I had to drive to Raleigh, NC which is a solid 5 hour drive one way from my house. I planned to make the round trip in one day, which meant 10 hours + on the road. Not something to look forward to even when weather conditions are great, but yesterday saw really bad storms complete with tornadoes, hail, wind and rain.

It wasn’t too bad until I was on the way home. That was when I hit the worst of the weather. There was a lot of standing water on the highway and traffic was heavy and drivers erratic, so I had to be on my toes every second.

No matter that the water lying on the road reached out with malevolent fingers to try to grab my tires, no matter that the angry winds buffeted the little car relentlessly, no matter that the storm hurled buckets of rain onto the windshield, the little car kept going like a trouper. It agilely avoided the mammoth trucks that swerved into our path and stopped on a dime despite the inches of water lying on the roadway — a condition that would have had many other cars skidding into the ditch! My little blue car came through the storm with flying colors and brought me safely home.

I still have some issues with it – it’s not the perfect car, but it’s a pretty good car even with it’s flaws. I would definitely recommend it to someone looking for a sporty, quick, economical ride.

Why did I have to go yesterday? Well, Tigger is entered in shows in Raleigh this coming weekend, but neither Ken nor I could go, so his breeder graciously offered to show him for us. I just had to get him there. Oh, and to sweeten the deal, a new Whippet darling came home with me, so watch out for Ms. Nikki in the coming months. She’ll make her debut in the show ring about November.

Of course I had to take Tigger AND his Zero Halliburton so the little car was packed to the gills! These prima donna dogs sure take a lot of baggage!