Off-roading in the Suzuki Ignis

This isn’t just the new Suzuki Ignis. It isn’t just a new crossover 4x4. It’s also an SHVS – a Smart Hybrid Vehicle by Suzuki.

What that means is that this is a very mild hybrid indeed, with the ability to stop-start thanks to a small battery under the passenger seat. The power it makes? Just 1.7bhp but it can add 36lb ft of torque. It doesn’t always work, and needs to be in the right operating range and so forth, so sometimes you’ll stall off-road and sometimes you won’t. Which is different.

Above all that is a funky new vehicle with styling that nods at the Suzuki Baleno as well as the Whizzkid. It can be had with front-wheel drive but, since we’re going to tackle the Fosse Way in this little crossover, we figured we needed the Allgrip version with its four-wheel drive.

The Suzuki is small and light so actually it can slip down some lanes where wider vehicles would be scratching their bodywork to bits. But this isn’t say a Jimny off-road. Ground clearance and approach and departure angles and all those off-roady things sound fine but we soon find we’re pulling bits off the front bumper.

We’re nervous of the wading depth too at the ford we find so we content ourselves with splashing about in the shallows. However, at only 920kg this is a notably light vehicle so you can fossick around the Fosse and yet not leave very much evidence of your passing.

The 1.2-litre engine doesn’t have a turbocharger but it still manages to prod things along quite decently. Working with the sort of slick gearbox that Suzuki can always produce on its bikes or in its cars, it’s a decent package for its size. However, the four-wheel drive system may be useful but it also takes up space, restricting not only boot capacity but fuel tank capacity too.

The cabin is quite fun, with the upright driving position a car of this length demands, and it all works decently enough without in any way being amazing. It’s quite a bundle of contrast really, with a heavy but vague steering feel, a light handling feel yet a fidgety ride quality and a sense of off-road worthiness that might not actually materialize in the real world. Still, it can go off-road, and we got it down the Fosse Way through mud and water, and not all crossovers can manage that.

The new Ignis is a car of character, it’s different to that vast range of city cars and superminis, and that might just be enough to swing it for some buyers. It’s fun, adventurous, handsome we think, and at under £14,000 it’s really not expensive. Something for the weekend or for those who want a road less travelled.