As editor, I had just about closed the doors on anymore launches happening this side of the next edition when Gonville put out a media notification.
Yes, there really is a Gonville – it’s in Whanganui and it’s the home of Suzuki in New Zealand.
So you can probably work out what the press release relates to: yes, the Suzuki Swift is about ready to hit the headlines again, due as it is for a 2020 tickle up.
But there was another release that came through on the Swift’s tailgate; this one regarding the – hmm – interesting, Suzuki Ignis.
Well, that’s not fair. The Ignis has won awards in its past incarnations and there have been a few of those and some of the incarnations have been pretty radical.
The current shape – seen here – stems from the 2017 shape which saw the Ignis score its accolades as Car of the Year in Britain, the World Car Awards urban car category, Scotland’s best compact model and an interior award design from New Zealand.
So, what do you do to an award-winning car to make it better? Well, you make cosmetic changes because fashion is a fickle mistress, especially when she is moulding in metal.
Suzuki has peaked and tweaked the front and rear ends of what has been called ‘the adorable little crossover.’ Thus the 2020 Ignis has a new face with two U-shaped ports making up a very toothy-looking grille to identify the current model.
Ignis retains the Mark Wahlberg muscle lines of the wheel arches and adds black mouldings to make them even more pronounced and to emphasise the distinctive shape of the car by highlighting the sills with the same mouldings.
Roof rails have been added and the back end has seen a scalloping treatment at the bumper, adding to the more subtle touches Suzuki’s design teams have added to make the little crossover more chunky than charming – much along the same lines as the full-fledged 4WD Jimny.
What is most impressive about the 2020 Ignis is how much stuff Suzuki has managed to put into it – at least in the two, top end (GLX and Ltd CVT) models and still have space for five adults. This truly is Tardis-like dimensionality where it’s bigger on the inside…
The seats are a study in flexibility in the Ltd at least, with high positions to justify the SUV moniker.
Even this is only part of the interior package which is stylishly designed and astonishingly well equipped with sat nav, reversing camera Apple Carplay and Android Auto accessed via four-quadrant, seven-inch touchscreen or steering wheel mounted switches, which also deliver cruise and speed limiter control.
All ‘Ignieces’ are powered by Suzuki’s 1.2 litre, 66kW, 120Nm Dualjet engine. This is an improved version of the K series single injector engine.
Dualjet engines have greater compression and a second injector for every cylinder. This engine has been proven to deliver fuel consumption figures on New Zealand roads of 4.34 litres/100 km (65.06 miles per gallon).
Ignis has three models in the 2020 range, the entry level GLX in manual or automatic CVT priced at $19,990 and $22,990 respectively and the top spec LTD with CVT at $24,490. This makes the Ignis arguably, New Zealand’s lowest priced super compact SUV.
The facelift Ignis has a comprehensive five-year warranty and five-year roadside assist package and is included in Suzuki’s No Deposit Finance scheme.
