2001 Suzuki Vitara JLX from North America - Comments

Well the power window on the driver side was the first thing to go. It would go down at a slant. To get the window back up you had to lift the window back in place.

Other problem was the paint. We have a lot of salt here on the roads in the winter, that may have been a factor. Anyways lots of little rusty dots showed up. Nothing terribly noticable unless you looked closely. Makes you wonder what the car will look like in a couple years tho.

Wind noise was a factor on the highway.

Good gas mileage. Handled really well in the snow. Gotta love shift on the fly 4 wheel drive. Excellent turning and low roll factor. Good little SUV for city driving. Doesn't make sense to have a big-ass Excursion to drive to work.

Doesn't make sense having a big-ass Excursion at all! The little Suzuki 4x4's a great, economical, and reliable little trucks. They're affordable to purchase, to fuel, and to maintain! It's somewhat costly to take care of the rust once it appears, but it's not too hard to prevent, or to maintain if you get it repainted. A Suzuki can last as long as you want it to!

I have a 2001 Suzuki Vitara overall it has been a decent little SUV.

Some of its flaws are as follows:

Ride (it will shake the teeth out of your head)

fuel economy (not the greatest, but I have seen worse)

belts have been replaced at least 4 times (current miles 67,000) due to the cheaper metal that they use to make the pulleys with make the belts squeal (like a cat on fire) when you put a few miles on then

automatic locks (the drivers lock no longer works)

But it is true you do get what you pay for.

I couldn't agree more. Why buy a $30000 big-ass SUV that gets 12 MPG and will have tons of problems in the future. These Vitaras are bullet proof. No, they are not Bentleys or Mercedes, but how expensive is it to fix a lock, a window or little stuff like that. Specially on a vehicle that had a low initial cost. So suck it up, don't complain and get your car fixed. Large American SUV's are only large, shiny pieces of junk that are only driven by people with personality issues.