Suzuki Grand Vitara - Grand Vitara 1.9ddis buying advice - dpf concerns

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Sun 14 Aug 2011 22:24
Suzuki Grand Vitara - Grand Vitara 1.9ddis buying advice - dpf concerns - mcjimny

Hi, i've just joined and looking for some help:

We are looking at replacing our Focus St170 with a Grand Vitara 1.9ddis. The focus has done 58k and essentially been reliable although its still suffered with the usual issues for this model. We still love the car and i'm a die hard Ford fan but economically its no longer making sense with its general niggles and big bills looming such as the dmf and clutch. It doesn't really fit our lifestyle either now the kids are growing up - we regularly go to country shows and walk/cycle/camp - usually using our second car, my Jimny especially to tow a trailer with the bikes in as its just more suitable for rough fields and car parks but we're at our absolute maximum with 4 of us in it.

We're both sold on the GV having owned 2 Suzukis already and looking at one locally but the only concern i have is that the internet is rife with tales of DPF issues with the renault engine. The car will be used primarily by my wife for commuting 10 miles each way to work on a mixture of village and 40 -60mph bypasses and the expected fuel saving against the focus we will also be doing 1hour long journeys at weekends on mixed roads again but with opportunity to run at higher revs, also during the week/every 200miles or so we could run at higher revs without going too far out of our way. On paper the figures stack up with an expected improvement on fuel economy against our focus of upto 120+miles extra to a tank at least. Having found the right car for our budget, age, colour mileage etc the only thing holding me back is the DPF issue and think maybe "better the devil you know" If anybody has some real feedback it would be appreciated as internet searches aren't especially constructive.

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Sun 14 Aug 2011 23:45
Suzuki Grand Vitara - Grand Vitara 1.9ddis buying advice - dpf concerns - Avant

Welcome to the forum. Is it worth doing some sums as to whether a diesel is worth it? The economy is of course a big plus, but the lower your budget (and thus the older the car) generally the less sense a diesel makes because of the liabilty of expensive failures (DPF being among them).

I'm not an expert on Suzukis but in general Japanese petrol engines have an excellent reputation for reliabilty; diesels less so. The Japanese came quite late to diesels and many of the makers borrow engines as you have found.

Edited by Avant on 15/08/2011 at 02:21

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Mon 15 Aug 2011 00:12
Suzuki Grand Vitara - Grand Vitara 1.9ddis buying advice - dpf concerns - bathtub tom

>>The focus has done 58k and essentially been reliable although its still suffered with the usual issues for this model. We still love the car and i'm a die hard Ford fan but economically its no longer making sense with its general niggles and big bills looming such as the dmf and clutch.

Please give us more details, so no-one here buys it!

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Mon 15 Aug 2011 00:40
Suzuki Grand Vitara - Grand Vitara 1.9ddis buying advice - dpf concerns - mcjimny

>>The focus has done 58k and essentially been reliable although its still suffered with the usual issues for this model. We still love the car and i'm a die hard Ford fan but economically its no longer making sense with its general niggles and big bills looming such as the dmf and clutch.

Please give us more details, so no-one here buys it!

All the usual issues - imrc problem bringing on the eml for weeks at a time but not affecting the running then typical ST170 niggles creaky drivers seat, leaking thermostat housing, rattly heatsheilds, blinking instruments, soft lacquer on the wheels making them look terrible(ford fault not specific to the ST170) egr pulsing at cruising speed, Theres a site devoted to some guys ownership of one and the list is like a tick list for faults on most of them! This doesn't however detract from it being a fantastic car otherwise. Things i can see on the horizon are known weaknesses on them primarily dmf failure(expected sometime around 70k, maybe less with some hammer!) the cheapest local price is from £750, imrc is approx £200,fuel pumps are prone to failure too. Its costing a lot to run generally with the cost of fuel but its just the cost of repairs against the value of the car are unrealistic in my opinion. It lunches tyres like a lot of quick cars but it wears the inside edge front and back - its had 2 full sets after the stock conti's and a pair this year for the mot. I've looked after it well and kept it tidy and its below average mileage, it is still a fantastic car, the small things we can live with but in honesty we are using them as an excuse to change, a change does make sense though.

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Mon 15 Aug 2011 00:21
Suzuki Grand Vitara - Grand Vitara 1.9ddis buying advice - dpf concerns - mcjimny

I've done some sums as a direct comparison between the 2 cars. If the GV isn't suitable we won't be changing anytime soon as theres nothing else that we both like within our budget -£9500ish - and theres not an abundance of petrol GV's and they are regarded as being underpowered for the car. We have our hearts set on a GV as we off road the Jimny and its mildly modded for it, the GV will be pulled out to play occasionally on the easy stuff. In terms of the economics of it all the tax is negligable as its £15 less on a GV, insurance will be slightly less. Then on fuel alone, we are currently getting approx. 27mpg/roughly 340miles to a tank. Much less if i'm driving it, i shocked myself when i worked it out that at about 190miles to a full tank i'm seeing 15mpg!!!!!! In the GV the tank is bigger at 14.5gallon against 12.4 for the focus and it should do a realistic 35-40mpg according to owner reviews and give well clear of 550miles range(reviews say theoretical 600) so we should be able to do our entire months motoring on a full tank with a few top ups on days out. Diesel is 5p/litre more than petrol round here and i worked out a rough figure of £3.59extra difference on top of the equivalent petrol fill to achieve another 80-100miles range

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