RELIABILITY

[basil]

Had my Suzuki Sam sj 413 1987 for years now very reliable ......unlike a neighbours discovery
which has been flat bedded back to his abode 5 times what a dreadful vehicle to own and it cost him from new a heap of money...although the Suzuki is no stranger to rust at times the Discovery is on first name terms with Mr Rust......the company does not appear to even comment on the extreme rust nature of their vehicle.
Basil

[Anton]

Yes, if you are on top of basic maintenance, they're pretty much bombproof besides the rust thing.

Bombproof. I say that bearing in mind that these are circa 30 year old vehicles!

[basil]

Thats right mine is 28 years old now 96 thousand miles on the clock.....change oil/filter every 3 thousand miles or so.....no smoke at all no rattles on start up check it over every week ..hope i can get many more miles from it ..wonder what mileage they are good for if looked after well?????
my1979 Escort mk2 did 145 thousand miles before breaking a piston ring.
perhaps others on here might like to say their mileage ...
cheers

[dan_2k_uk]

My truck is on about 80k and the engine in it is on around 110-120k.

[basil]

Looks good..put in a few hours on that mate

[RickUK]

Mine is a 1998 Vitara V6 LWB,just clocked up 110k and running as sweet as a nut,one of the best engines that i have driven for a very long time.Had to have a inner sill last year,no other major rust infact it looks pretty smart for it age.

[d_r_1989]

Now without sticking up for the blandies, it's all down to good parts and maintenance. I have a disco v8 which is proving very reliable to date, purley down to me only using genuine parts and not cheap aftermarket stuff. Japanese cars are pretty lucky as most aftermarket parts are better than or same as genuine.
One thing that can't be saved is land rover electrics, they were bad from factory and now are there for more comical reasons than actual use, for instance, rear electric windows won't open until the engines warm?!
Either way, you keep on top of suzuki maintenance and you have a motor for life! Everything's so simple and there's not much that can kill one that's looked after properly.

[andyrew]

My same is just shy of 125k on the Original 1.3.

Still runs fine. Burns/leaks a little bit of oil.

[donkeychomp]

My Vit is on 118,000 miles. Just about run in now...

[Jordi]

Mine did approx 430 miles round trip last weekend. Was a superb drive.