Kentish S Cross

Thought I would put a post here to kick it off (not really bored with the tennis my wife is watching). We are located in Royal Tunbridge Wells and, having now had the car for nearly 6 months, it has performed well generally. She feels the suspension is a bit hard (after her Pug 207 which was quite soft, the car it replaced after it was rear ended), and it is a little noisy with road noise especially on some surfaces (like the concrete section of the M25!) and coarse tarmac. My main complaint, accepting the limited performance of a 1.0 engine with auto gearbox, is the reaction time of the gearbox to change down when required (I have taken to manually changing down with the paddles quite a lot) and the throttle pedal feels quite stiff, particularly on long journeys.

The car is a 2017 SX4 S Cross SZ-T 1.0 Boosterjet Auto in sparkly metallic red, at least it is sparkly in the sunlight but just red on a dull day.

Since acquiring it I have fitted moulded mud flaps, black 'carbon' pattern vinyl sill scuff protectors, rubber 'liners' with red trim to the pockets, cubby's and cup holders etc, black carpets with red trim over rubber mats, an oddments tray to the centre cubby box, hardwired in dashcam and a proper 17" spare wheel. Looks brighter and better inside now.

I've always thought the 1.0 litre boosterjet performed pretty well in the S Cross and Vitara, certainly better than I initially expected and torquier than the 1.6 normally aspirated engine it replaced. Mind you I've only ever driven them around town and have no long term or motorway driving experience of them. An auto box will always take the edge off performance and they never change gear exactly when you want them to. DSG type boxes are just as bad, you can't beat a manual box for the driving experience.
That concrete section of motorway with the joints that 'thump through the car on the south side of the M25 (junctions 8/9ish) is pretty noisy in my Vitara but I'm not sure it's significantly worse than my previous Astra G estate was.

TWSaab wrote:
Since acquiring it I have fitted moulded mud flaps, black 'carbon' pattern vinyl sill scuff protectors, rubber 'liners' with red trim to the pockets, cubby's and cup holders etc, black carpets with red trim over rubber mats, an oddments tray to the centre cubby box, hardwired in dashcam and a proper 17" spare wheel.   Looks brighter and better inside now.  

I thought you said it was the wife's car

Are you running on comfort or eco tyre pressures and are you on the original Contis?

The original Continentals are very noisy as you would expect from an eco tyre and personally I find the eco tyre pressures too hard, I have also dropped to 16" alloys on my 1.6 SZ5 S-Cross and the 215/60R16 that again in my opinion improves the ride no end, even in Yokohama all terrain pattern they are quieter than the Continentals

I had a 1.0 auto allgrip as a rental car early in 2020 and did 3000miles around Iceland and loved the 1.0/auto/allgrip combination, there are no motorways or fast dual carriageways in Iceland but it coped well with the climbs and twisted and I never felt the auto box was lacking

Karl

Yes, the car is in the wife's name but you can guess who paid for it. I got interested and she likes it as long as she is not paying! :lol

The car is on its original Continentals with comfort setting. They are getting lowish (at 13k!) so will look for something else when replacement is due.

The car is fine around town, its just at motorway speeds when you hit a hill it does not change down quickly enough, hence helping it with the paddles now. I also find the lower reaches of the throttle pedal quite stiff so it takes a bit of pressure to maintain progress up the hills or accelerate briskly (may just be different to my other cars which have a lot more power anyway). Admittedly it was 4 up yesterday so some additional weight.

Have to admit I do like it really, I was even thinking of changing one or two of the others for a Vitara as I am getting too old to maintain them all now but why does that only have single zone AC? We never agree on the temperature and she fiddles with it constantly.