1997 Suzuki Esteem GL review from North America

Leaky radiator hoses resulting in a messy driveway and poor performance of the interior heating and cooling systems.

Suzuki uses a muffler-within-a-muffler on the Esteem. The outer layer of muffler has rusted out, but there is an inner layer which is still solid. The muffler is still fully functional because of these two lines of rust defense.

Windshield washer fluid doesn't squirt properly. The hose that connects the reservoir to the nozzle keeps coming off. It is a bad situation when you are driving on a slushy spring day and you cannot clean your windshield. That said, I haven't bothered to get a mechanic to fix it.

This is a fuel efficient and practical little wagon. It's fun to drive with the manual transmission and actually has pretty good pick up and handling.

I get about 600km out of a full 45 litre tank.

I live in Nova Scotia, Canada. The winters here can be very cold and snowy. Our Suzuki starts right up, even on the coldest mornings and bombs through the snow without any difficulty. We do put winter tires on. The edge the Esteem has is that, unlike many small cars, its tires nice are wide and have plenty of surface area to stick to the road.

The Esteem is very nimble on dry roads as well.

The wagon is surprisingly roomy. It has ample room for me, my wife, our baby daughter and our dog. We could probably fit another car seat in the back, but there wouldn't be much room left for groceries.

The interior is quite comfortable for trips around the city. We haven't taken any trips longer than two or three hours, so I can't really say how comfortable it would be on a long road trip.

The fit and finish are almost perfect. There are no annoying squeaks and the body panels all line up like they should do. The only complaint I have about the finish is that the driver's window leaks when there is heavy rain.