Upgrade for Grand Vitara
The Grand Vitara Premium four will succeed the V6, but where's a new Diesel?Suzuki Australia has around six months' supply of the Grand Vitara V6 remaining in stock. The flagship of the Grand Vitara range sells "probably sixty a month", according to the importer's General Manager, Tony Devers.
Devers informed the Carsales Network earlier this week that there's remaining V6 stock on back order, but there'll be no further production beyond current advance orders.
This doesn't leave a major hole in the local line-up however, not when the 2.4-litre Grand Vitara Premium can fill it. From next year, the four-cylinder GV will gain Hill Descent Control and xenon headlights -- two features standard in the V6 model, but not the four.
With just 700 to 800 of the V6 model sold in a typical year -- only about 5 per cent of the total Grand Vitara sales volume in Australia -- Devers believes the Grand Vitara flagship is unlikely to be sorely missed by the general public. He asked rhetorically what serious offroader wants their vehicle equipped with leather seats anyway? But for a smaller volume importer like Suzuki, a shortfall of 700 units will have some impact.
Suzuki has been building the V6 engine under licence to General Motors, but that licence has expired and Suzuki is now currently evaluating its engine supply partnerships.
When put to Devers that a more immediate priority for the Grand Vitara was a more refined diesel, the company's PR spokesman Andrew Ellis jumped in and replied: "And with an auto."
The current diesel powering the Grand Vitara is an aging Renault four-cylinder since succeeded by a more modern diesel powering the Nissan X-TRAIL and the Renault Koleos. These vehicles can be specified with self-shifting transmissions too, whereas the current diesel Grand Vitara is a manual-only job.
Mention the possibility of the Grand Vitara being powered by a Volkswagen TDi engine matched with a DSG transmission to the two local Suzuki execs and the eyes light up, but experience shows that licensing the DSG transmission from Volkswagen won't happen cheaply.
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