Suzuki Ignis

Tell me about it

If there’s one thing Suzuki is good at, it’s building small cars. In fact, it barely makes anything other than small cars.

Enter the Ignis: the tiniest of all of Suzuki’s range of pint-sized cars, and probably the cutest too. Don’t be fooled by those miniature dimensions, though – it’s a car with quite a few tricks up its sleeve.

As the rough-and-tumble looks and high ground clearance might suggest, this isn’t your average city car. Suzuki has also given it optional four-wheel-drive, making this perhaps the smallest 4×4 currently on sale.

Exterior

Finally, someone has built a city car that looks interesting again. Whether you’re a fan of the Ignis’s tall, skinny proportions is a matter of taste, but you can’t fault the execution.

With its wheels-at-each-corner stance, chunky wheel arches and angry little face, it’s hard not to feel – if nothing else – a little amused when you stand in front of an Ignis.

There are some nice details too: the three fake vents on the rear pillar are an homage to the tiny Suzuki Whizzkid of the 1970s, and its clamshell bonnet is a design feature ripped straight from larger 4x4s.

Equally fun are its paint colours. There’s no 50 shades of grey going on here – only joyfully daft options like ‘Speedy Blue’, ‘Tough Khaki’ and ‘Flame Orange’. If you’re particularly mean-spirited, of course, you can still choose black or white.

Interior

The fun doesn’t stop on the outside, either. While the Ignis’s interior isn’t exactly luxurious, at least it’s not boring.

There’s attractive, chunky toggles to adjust the climate control, and a touch screen holder that looks like it’s been carved out of the dashboard with a chisel.

You can even pay your dealer to fit some brightly-coloured bits to the centre console that match the outside of your car – though to be honest, we wouldn’t bother.

In terms of space, cars of this size are never huge inside, but the Ignis holds its own against similarly teeny rivals. There’s only four seats, but helpfully the rear ones slide back and forth – letting you choose between more boot space, and more rear leg room.

Technology and equipment

You can tell when a car is more on the basic side when the brochure proudly boasts that it has a heater as standard… But seriously, the Ignis isn’t badly specified even in its cheapest version.

There’s only two trim levels these days: ‘SZ-T’ and ‘SZ-5’ (don’t ask us where 1 to 4 went). The former is more than most people will need, bundling in a touch screen with CarPlay and Android Auto functionality, air conditioning, rear view camera, and some rather fetching alloy wheels.

SZ-5 models get sat nav, keyless entry, cruise control, a leather steering wheel, and rear electric windows. This is also the spec you’ll need to opt for if you want four-wheel-drive – but more on that in a minute.

Relatively generous though the standard spec is, though, the Ignis is down on equipment compared to newer rivals. A Hyundai i10 gives you parking sensors, wireless phone charging, heated front seats and steering wheel for the same cash.

Safety and security

The Ignis hasn’t been crash tested since 2016, but at the time EuroNCAP handed it a full five star safety rating – provided you’d ticked the box for ‘Dual Camera Brake Support’, which thankfully is now fitted as standard.

It wouldn’t be fair to compare this now ‘Expired’ rating against cars tested more recently, but back in 2016 it did manage beat the Fiat 500, Fiat Panda and Mazda 2 – not bad going.

At eight years old now, the Ignis is trying its best to keep its head above modern safety regulations – and is just about managing. There’s the usual lane keep assist, front city brake support, tyre pressure monitoring and so on, but no cross traffic alerts, no blind spot monitors or adaptive cruise control.

Security is relatively minimal too: there’s an immobiliser, but no alarm, and no fancy apps to track your car if it’s stolen.

Engines and performance

Suzuki keeps things simple here: there’s a 1.2-litre petrol with 82bhp, and that’s it. It’s naturally-aspirated – meaning you don’t get a turbocharger for any extra oomph – and so it all feels quite old school when you’re driving around.

Around town, there’s more than enough power to propel the teeny Ignis along without any dramas. It’s only motorway journeys where you might crave a little more power, but even in these circumstances it’s not half bad. There’s the option of a five speed manual or a rather droney CVT automatic – though amusingly, the latter is slightly quicker off the mark.

Then we come to the Ignis’s real party piece: an optional four-wheel-drive system, called ‘AllGrip’ in Suzuki-speak. This model is predominantly front-wheel-drive, only sending power to the back wheels when the car senses it’s losing its grip on whatever surface is underneath you.

In terms of ability, it’s not quite up there with a Jimny or a Subaru Crosstrek when the going gets really tough, but it’s more than capable of getting you across a muddy field – and we’ve tried it. Because it’s such a small, lightweight car too, it’s less likely to get itself stuck in the first place.

If you’re not planning on doing any off-roading though, bear in mind that the regular front-wheel-drive version is cheaper to buy and more fuel efficient.

Ride and handling

Weighing in at less than a tonne, it’s not surprising that the Ignis is a rather nimble thing to drive. It corners keenly, even on its hilariously skinny tyres, and body roll is kept reasonably well in check.

For a car of such diminutive proportions, it’s also far from uncomfortable. Things get a bit fidgety over certain road surfaces, but it’s hardly unbearable.

Larger, similarly priced rivals like the Dacia Sandero are a touch less strenuous on longer journeys though, so bear that in mind if you regularly travel further afield.

Should I buy a Suzuki Ignis?

Absolutely. The Ignis is a bit of a rarity: a small, cheap car that doesn’t make you feel completely miserable. It might be getting on a bit, but the design still looks fresh, and it’s got enough tricks up its sleeve to stave off more modern rivals.

You’re not getting a small car with ‘big car feel’ here, but that’s okay. The Ignis now has so few true city car-sized rivals that this may be a bit of a blessing. That said, do keep an eye on what else you can get for similar cash – including the Ignis’s bigger brother, the Suzuki Swift.