Suzuki S-Cross review: Digital detox
Suzuki’s S-Cross offers value-for-money motoring with a digital detox on the side
HERE we are at the tail end of 2023, and Nokia phones are still a thing. Goodness knows why, but maybe some people want their mobile phone to be as simple to use and functional as possible. If the same applies to cars, the Suzuki S-Cross has a ready audience.
It’s a compact, five-seat crossover (think Toyota C-HR, but ever so slightly smaller) with a price tag of S$163,888 including Certificate Of Entitlement. That sounds like a lot by any measure, but it isn’t hideously expensive by today’s standards, especially since you get plenty of car for the money.
The S-Cross feels roomier and more airy inside than many rivals, and at 440 litres, its boot is big for the segment. The car itself is loaded with equipment and comes with vital modcons, but it presents its many features in a comfortingly familiar, old-school way. In fact, the Suzuki feels like a deliberate rejection of the digitalisation sweeping through the car industry.
That means you’re greeted by buttons and knobs when you climb aboard – I counted 12 on the climate control panel alone. If needles frighten you, you’ll find the instrument cluster positively terrifying because it has four physical gauges. You do get a small colour screen for the trip computer, but it’s otherwise all gloriously analogue. There’s even a parking brake lever to yank and release.
Okay, you still have to figure out a nine-inch touchscreen entertainment system, but it’s compatible with both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, so unless you’ve recently completed a lengthy prison sentence or just emerged from a decade-long coma, you should have little trouble figuring out how to make it work.
That being so, if I were more successful, more filial or both, I could see myself buying an S-Cross for my ancient parents to drive. The S-Cross is like a book where other new cars feel like a Kindle.
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That’s not to say it’s crude. In fact, the Suzuki has semi-autonomous driving features, such as adaptive cruise control and lane-keep assist, which lets it gently steer itself to stay in lane. It can watch out for cars in your blind spot, and has a 360-degree camera to make parking easier. I wouldn’t call such assistance systems new-fangled in this day and age, but just half-a-decade ago they were still the stuff of premium cars.
The good news for anyone who prefers to do 100 per cent of the driving themselves is that the S-Cross is a surprisingly peppy car. Suzuki does say it has a “Boosterjet” engine (which sounds like something you can strap to your back and launch yourself into the sky with), but what’s under the bonnet doesn’t exactly sound like fireworks: a 1.4-litre turbo with just 129 horsepower.
Yet, the S-Cross does plenty with its meagre allotment of power. Forget the 0-to-100 kmh time of 12.7 seconds; whatever the stopwatch says, in the real world the Suzuki is a fizzy car, scrambling into action gamely whenever you prod the accelerator pedal like you mean it. That’s likely thanks to a mild hybrid setup, meaning the S-Cross has a motor that can’t propel the car on its own but can assist the engine with little bursts of torque.
The S-Cross is also light on its feet, with the sort of natural agility that makes it fun to dive into corners simply for the heck of it. If Suzuki knows how to do one thing, it’s build small, zippy cars, and it really shows here.
What Suzuki doesn’t do well is posh interiors, and that shows in the S-Cross cabin, too. The plastics are hard and shiny, though they do look like they would survive a nuclear blast. Come to think of it, the same could be said of many a Nokia.
At its core, though, the S-Cross is plainly an economy car with a focus on value for money rather than plushness. It is obviously built down to a cost, but the appealing way it drives lets you know that Suzuki’s engineers didn’t phone it in with this one.
Suzuki S-Cross 1.4L Boosterjet Hybrid Engine 1,373 cc, 16-valve, turbocharged in-line four Power 129 hp at 5,500 rpm Torque 235 Nm from 2,000 to 3,000 rpm Gearbox Six-speed automatic 0-100 kmh 12.7 seconds Top speed 195 kmh Fuel efficiency 5.7 L/100 km Agent Champion Motors Price S$163,888 with COE Available Now
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