The Vitara Turbo looks stunning and is just as comfortable on the open road as it is zipping around the city. Here we find out from Tania Miller, why this Suzuki SUV is the right one for her and her family and the fun you can have personalising it.
Hi my name is Tania. I live and work in Central Auckland. I’m married with two adult children and I drive a Suzuki Vitara and have done for the nearly three years.
Before I was driving a rather elderly station wagon, which I’d had almost from new and it was getting close to twenty years. To get this new car, it was a real treat and I’ve enjoyed it even more so. By comparison, it’s real luxury.
Actually funnily enough my Mum has been a Suzuki driver for 8 or 10 years. She’s had a number of Swifts, I got my Vitara…she then got a Vitara, so it’s kind of become a bit of a family thing to be honest. I went back to the dealership she has been using. They were just amazing.
The Vitara is so much fun…I love it. It’s got a bucket of personality, it’s super super comfortable and I so enjoy driving it.
It’s a good size for Auckland. It’s not a tiny little robot car and it’s not a giant big SUV. I like the fact that it’s that in between size. It’s great for parking and for getting around the city. It's quite fast and nifty around town. It’s got GPS, great stereo, hands free phone and a load of space, so I can fit all sorts of stuff in it.
The Vitara looks cool too; it’s quite sporty looking compared to other similar cars. There’s lots of extras you can add, so you can really personalise it, which is a bit of fun and not hugely expensive. I had the Vitara bonnet edging put on and it looks pretty funky actually.
I just love it!
I chose the Vitara having test driven about 4 other brands of car in a similar size, capacity, all around a fairly similar price point. I still just kept coming back to the Vitara. It was value for money, had all the bells and whistles and let’s be honest…it looks good.
The Vitara Turbo is a really stylish looking car with beautiful finishing inside, fantastic sporty styling, and really beautiful suede seats. I mean if you have to choose and it comes down to smaller details, the Vitara took it away hands down.
It’s pretty reasonable on petrol and of course zipping around the city you don’t get as much bang for the buck as you do long distance. I would fill up only once every 8-10 days, so that’s pretty good going for just driving around the city.
Suzy is my favourite vehicle of the family. We’ve got three but she is my favourite.
It fits my lifestyle really well. There are times when there is just myself in the car, but then I’m 5 foot 8 and my husband is 6 foot and two of my kids are 6 foot 5 - all height in their legs. so I needed to know that if we went out as a family they would still be comfortable in the back. It just fitted us as a family.
In addition my husband and I just went away to the Corromandel for a week. We packed the kitchen sink, beach chairs, clothes, chilly bins, boogie boards, everything and we managed to get everything in and had a super comfortable trip. We went somewhere completely new that we hadn’t been before, Opeto Bay, which is up hill down dale, tar sealed roads, metal roads and the car handled it really really well. Came back looking like a dust monster, but apart from that it was all good and we did really well fuel economy wise..
Interestingly enough I didn’t start out to buy a new car. I went to buy a reasonably new second hand car but long story short at the dealership the Vitara caught my eye. I took it for a little test-drive and once I had done that, it was just crazy…I loved it.
When discussing it with the manager at Winger Greenlane, it just appeared that it was going to be a far better deal and value for money to get the new Vitara. Suzuki do a really amazing finance deal. I know it’s not a very sexy part of this but it made it really affordable and meant we could afford a brand new car and I could actually have the one I wanted. I was pretty stoked.
My husband named it Suzy. Suzy the Suzuki. It’s not very original I know…it’s because it starts with S.
Day to day, I live in the central city and I work on the North Shore and I’m backwards and forwards across the bridge a million times a week. On the weekend, zipping around the inner city or my husband and I both love the beach. We go up up to Matakana, snorkelling at Goat Island or boogie boarding at Piha. We go all over the place.
I would recommend someone contemplating a second hand car to consider a new car. Do your homework like I did. They are actually a lot more affordable than you think.
Go to a dealership, talk to them. We’ve got a great relationship, both mum and I with the manager at Greenlane Suzuki. He has helped my Mum with cars for at least the last ten years. He has looked after her the whole way through, which I was why I ended up going there to speak to him as well. Find someone that you are comfortable with and maybe take a recommendation as well.
Absolutely go for a test drive and go from there. Just consider the Vitara. I am a bit of a convert.