The Suzuki Motor Corp., founded in 1920 in Japan, is a worldwide automobile and motorcycle manufacturer. In the 1990s Suzuki manufactured the Geo Metro for General Motors and more recently the Chevrolet Tracker, which was a clone of the earlier Suzuki Vitara. Suzuki did not earn a great reputation for quality or longevity with these two vehicles.

The new 2006/2007 Grand Vitara is a giant step forward for this company. With this vehicle Suzuki has taken aim at the Honda CR-V and the Toyota RAV-4 as its competition in this price range.

This small SUV is powered by a 2.7 liter, 24-valve, double overhead camshaft, V-6, 185 hp engine. The standard transmission is a five-speed manual, the Grand Vitara XSport tested had the excellent five-speed automatic.

Suzuki Vitara

The Grand Vitara is not short of modern technology. its interesting structures combines the conventional truck ladder frame with a unibody structure solidly welded to it. Another smart combination is the full-time all-wheel-drive system for icy and snowy roads with a full blown four-wheel drive with transfer case and locking differential with high and low speeds for serious off-road scrambling. All of these combined with ABS braking, electronic stability, traction control and tire-monitoring systems make for a pretty sophisticated machine.

This is a good-looking, tightly designed vehicle with a nice interior. One odd feature is the keyless engine starting system. As long as you have the key inside the car, in your pocket perhaps, the engine will start with a twist of the start control. Just don’t forget the key!

On the highway the Grand Vitara rides quite well, but with obtrusive road noise over some surfaces. This tester noticed an odd vibration noise coming from the motor or the transmission. Although this vehicle was not taken off road, many testers for other publications note the competence with which it accomplishes off-road tasks.

The warranty is 36 months or 36,000 miles, and for the powertrain is a generous seven years or 100,000 miles. Fuel consumption, although better than a full-size SUV, is marginal for this size of SUV at 19 city/ 24 highway, varying a little bit for manual transmission and two- and four-wheel drives.

The two-wheel-drive base price is $19,379 the four-wheel-drive is $20,899, XSport two-wheel-drive costs $21,499, the four-wheel-drive is $22,899, Luxury two-wheel-drive costs $23,399 and the four-wheel-drive is $24,799.

Other technical tricks in this vehicle include a zero maintenance, self-adjusting timing chain, liquid-filled engine mounts and a fully independent suspension system.

Suzuki has certainly stressed safety in its design with front seat mounted side airbags, overhead front and rear air curtain airbags and two-stage front airbags for the driver and passenger.

The standard stereo system is an AM/FM/CD/MP3 XM ready system with four speakers. The XSport and Luxury models come with a six-disc in- dash CD changer and seven speakers including a subwoofer. This stereo system is not this vehicle's strong point.

The rear bench seats fold down either in 60/40 mode or altogether to provide a pretty good sized cargo area. The rear door, which carries the spare tire, opens sideways. This door rattles a little being closed.

Fog lamps and rear privacy glass are included in the XSport and Luxury models. The Luxury model gets 17-inch aluminum wheels, wood grain, leather seating and heated front seats. The power tilt and slide moonroof is standard on the Luxury model but not available on other models.

This is an attractive package for the price. It has a powerful V-6 engine. It has the off-road abilities of full four-wheel-drive with locking differentials and high and low speed, and an all-wheel-drive system for slippery roads. It has rear door access to a large cargo area, all the safety devices available and lots of control systems on the brakes and drive line to keep you out of trouble. It has a large selection of accessories available.

The advantage of Honda and Toyota is their reputation for quality and longevity. Now the Grand Vitara offers a real challenge to their dominance The readers of msn.autos.com rate this SUV at 9.4 out of 10. This compares with 9.3 for the Honda CR-V and 9.6 for the Toyota RAV-4. Consumers like it.

Motoring since 1952, Austin Lynas has owned 55 cars and at one time raced mini-sedans in England. An aerospace engineer, he was instrumental in developing the anti-skid systems used in British military aircraft that preceded today’s ABS systems. Lynas can be reached by e-mail at austin@sandiegometro.com.