Suzuki Ignis long-term review

• The car Suzuki Ignis 1.2 Dualjet SHVS Allgrip SZ5
• Run by Kris Culmer, sub-editor
• Why it’s here The Ignis offers something a bit different in the city car class – SUV looks, loads of rear seat space and the option of four-wheel drive
• Needs to Be frugal despite having four driven wheels, enjoyable to drive, reliable and able to show at least some off-road ability

Price £14,249 Price as tested £14,899 Options Fervent red paint with black roof (£650) Official combined MPG 60.1mpg Test economy 48.0mpg CO2 106g/km Mileage to date 15,743 Insurance group 18 0-62mph 11.2sec Top speed 106mph

9 February 2018 – introducing the award-winning Suzuki Ignis

The Suzuki Ignis won a trophy at last month’s What Car? Awards, our inaugural True MPG Award, and very well deserved it was, too.

That’s because the Ignis 1.2 SHVS 2WD (slightly different from my car, which has four, rather than front, wheel drive) recorded the best average fuel economy of any car to date in our real-world fuel economy test.

That figure was a scarcely believable 59.6mpg. I have been averaging 51.1mpg, which is again very good, especially given that my model is a 4x4 and 90% of my driving is on the motorway.

That’s in part due to the fact that my car weighs a mere 920kg, but I apportion more praise to Suzuki’s impressive mild hybrid system (badged as SHVS), which can reclaim energy from braking and then stick 36lb ft of torque into the engine to help acceleration when it's getting up to speed.

And it’s no one-off: last summer, I drove an SHVS-equipped Suzuki Swift, recording nearly as impressive an economy figures.

So, it seems to me that mild hybrid systems are a way forward for fuel economy, and Suzuki deserves praise for implementing it at this end of the market.

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