2010 Suzuki SX4: Weekend Warrior
Jun 15 2010 by Jennifer Newman
I’m a big fan of the utility of hatchbacks. Last year, I traded in my 2000 Nissan Xterra SUV for a 2009 Nissan Versa hatchback and haven’t regretted the downsizing. I recently spent some time in the 2010 Suzuki SX4 Sportback.
It’s a small hatchback, and I wasn’t sure it could handle all of my weekend errands, especially the trip to the local warehouse club.
My first task for the weekend was to drop off an Ikea chair and ottoman at a friend’s house. The 60/40-split backseat was easy to fold down, and I was surprised when the cargo area easily swallowed the chair. I even managed to fit the ottoman back there, too.
After I dropped off the chair, I noticed what I thought to be a rip in the seatback’s upholstery. It wasn’t a rip, but a cut in the fabric for the seat’s latching mechanism. There’s got to be a way that Suzuki can make this less of an afterthought.
With its peppy inline-four-cylinder engine and six-speed manual transmission, the SX4 Sportback was fun to drive and took some of the drudgery out of the errands.
I did have some visibility issues in the SX4 while I was out and about. Its A-pillars were so large that I would lose sight of pedestrians behind them. More than once I had to deliberately move from side-to-side to look around this sizable blind spot.
My son’s forward-facing convertible car seat fit easily into the SX4. The two sets of Latch anchors sit out in the open and make it easy to install the car seat. My older son in his booster seat didn’t have any problems buckling up by himself.
After driving over to a big-box store to pick up three items and coming out with a lot more stuff – I’m never sure how that happens – I had several bags to stash in the cargo area. The SX4 has additional storage under the cargo area’s floor. It was sizable and held all of my purchases. I guess I could have bought more.
The real test was at Costco. We had a relatively small shopping list – no jumbo packs of toilet paper or paper towels or 40-pound bags of dog food – so I figured the SX4’s cargo area would be able to handle everything we picked up. It nearly did. My son and I managed to pack everything into the back (and snapped a photo), but we couldn’t get the liftgate to close. We were foiled by a gigantic box of waffles. After relocating the offending box to the backseat, we headed home.
Although it’s on the small side, the SX4 Sportback has a surprising amount of cargo space – both with the rear seats up and down. Just watch out for the big box of waffles.
