For a car which arrived on the market as relatively recently as 2005, the Suzuki Grand Vitara already feels quite old, but there has been a certain amount of titivating for the 2011 model year.This includes a freshen-up of the exterior, though even before this the Grand Vitara always struck me as looking younger than it felt. This diesel version also has a Euro 5 compliant engine supplied by Renault - Fiat provides the diesel motor in the SX4, but that won't fit into this car.The Renault unit suits the Grand Vitara very well. It doesn't provide startling straightline performance, but it's already working hard from as low as 1000rpm, which makes the car more relaxing to drive than might otherwise be the case. It also provides by far the best economy and lowest CO2 emissions in the range at 41.5mpg and 179g/km. No petrol-fuelled Grand Vitara, even a smaller and lighter three-door one, comes anywhere near it.Another change for 2011 is related both to the car's weight and to its CO2 emissions: there is no spare wheel. There could have been a spare wheel, but then Suzuki would have had to delete the air-conditioning to bring the weight and CO2 back down again. The company did some market research into this, and when given the choice between the two its customers said, almost as with one voice, "Forget the spare wheel - we'll have the air-conditioning."Well, aircon is more useful on a daily basis than a spare wheel, certainly, but I wonder how many people will regret the choice when they suffer a puncture they can't do anything about. This would be a particularly messy and complicated problem to solve if you happened to be taking advantage of the Grand Vitara's off-road potential at the time (there's talk of a more off-roady model, with a spare wheel, being introduced at some point, though there's no sign of it so far), but even if you don't go in for that sort of thing it would also be a non-trivial situation if the puncture happened miles from home on a deserted road on a stormy night. I don't think air-conditioning would be much of a consolation then.I mentioned that the Grand Vitara feels quite old, and there are a couple of reasons for this. The steering wheel isn't adjustable for reach, to start with (an omission you might have thought would have died out at about the same time the horse fell out of use as a method of transport, though Japanese manufacturers do seem to have a blind spot about it) and the gearchange is both spongey and - if you make a faster shift than the gearbox was expecting, which is easy to do - crunchy.The ride isn't quite up to modern standards either, though I must say it's not too bad for a car of the Grand Vitara's weight and shape. As far as it's possible to say this across a two-year gap, it seems better than that of the (considerably cheaper) 2.4-litre petrol version I drove back in 2009.Passenger room is okay, though taller folk in the rear may be inconvenienced by some tough mouldings in the roof (I'm not sure what they are, and didn't feel empowered to tear the roof lining away to find out). Luggage space is better at a useful 398 litres with the rear seats in place, helped by the fact that the boot floor is surprisingly low for a car with a rear axle. Engine 1870cc Power 127bhp Transmission 5-speed manual Fuel/CO2 41.5mpg / 179g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 13.2 seconds Top speed 106mph Price £23,265 Details correct at publication date
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