The Suzuki Ignis is a real breath of fresh air in the city car class, offering desirable crossover-style looks and a distinctive character that sets it apart from rivals. Love or hate the exterior, you have to accept that there’s little else at this price with so much personality.
The Ignis also sticks to Suzuki’s usual traits of offering tonnes of equipment for not an awful lot of money, and despite the dinky dimensions it’s actually very versatile and spacious. It’s light, and feels agile and nippy around town, but the market’s best small cars are both more comfortable and more composed to drive.
The Ignis does lack the class of city cars like the Skoda Citigo inside, with some cheap trim but when you think how much you’re paying, it’s entirely forgivable. Four-wheel drive, and a super-frugal hybrid variant, means there are plenty of strings to this little Suzuki’s bow.
Key to the new Suzuki Ignis’ appeal is its styling. Unlike the boxy old Ignis, today’s model brings a fresh and distinctive approach to small car design, ushering in a crossover-style look that stands out next to rivals.
From the front, the Ignis looks narrow and has a bold bumper and grille design, surrounded by a chrome strip and with U-shaped LED running lights on higher spec models. Side-on, you start to see the crossover influences in the stretched wheelarches and body cladding although, interestingly, you need to choose SZ-T models and above to receive those and roof rails. Several different colours for the roof can also be selected.
The rear is where the retro influences lie, with the steeply raked windowline and slits in the C-Pillar designed to hark back to Suzuki’s ‘Whizzkid’ city car of the 1970s. It’s easy to see why Suzuki positions this as the emotional offering compared to the dull-looking Celerio.
The inside is far more conventional, but still more stylish than many city car interiors. The two-tone effect for the upper and lower dash brightens things up, as does the body coloured door pulls and centre console plastic. The central screen juts out from the top of the dash, yet the graphics are dated and that lets things down a bit.
Another problem is the materials used. You can tell where Suzuki has made weight savings, particularly with the tinny-feeling doors, but this is forgivable given the price and kerbweight. All of the cabin plastics are hard and scratchy, and the seats aren’t very supportive – a number of rivals feel more grown-up inside. It’s all solidly put together, though, and mostly feels built to last.
There’s no arguing with the sheer amount of kit on offer. Base models are slightly more expensive than other entry-level city cars, yet few offer the same level of equipment as the Ignis for under £10k. Top-spec models are even better value, offering an almost executive car level of kit.
Sat-nav, stereo and infotainment
The first UK example of the Ignis came with a fiddly aftermarket Pioneer infotainment system, but Suzuki’s bosses ensure us that customer models will come with the same seven-inch touchscreen infotainment system as the Baleno. It’s feature-packed, with a DAB radio on all models and sat-nav on mid-spec trims and above. There’s also Bluetooth connectivity, USB and AUX ports, although there’s no CD player.
Unfortunately, it’s not the easiest screen to use. It often takes a couple of prods to respond to your inputs, while the graphics are low-res and a bit cheap looking. The volume slider on the side of the screen isn’t very user-friendly either.
The Suzuki Ignis might pretend to be a shrunken SUV, but it’s actually one of the lightest cars you can buy in Britain. The platform underneath is shared with the larger Baleno, which is hardly portly as it is, yet the smaller size means the Ignis has a tiny kerbweight. Base models weigh in at just 810kg, which is lighter than a two-seat Smart ForTwo.
The Ignis feels agile and nimble as a result of that low weight and short wheelbase, meaning it certainly feels a world away from most heavy crossovers. It’s a delight to drive around town, with the small size, upright driving position and excellent visibility making it perfect for threading through tight gaps.
However, it lacks the sophistication of rivals once you head out onto the open road, with slow and vague steering reducing the fun factor when speeds increase. Body roll is noticeable despite an initially keen feel, while a number of conventional city cars tackle bends with more composure.
The ride is also a bugbear. The Ignis is softly sprung, taking the edge off speed humps, but it gets caught out easily by sharp bumps, which thud and crash through the cabin. Road noise is quite pronounced, too, while noticeable wind and engine noise mean it isn’t the best city car for long journeys. Interestingly, the lighter non-hybrid models are a touch smoother in terms of ride quality.
Engines
Your engine choice is limited if you want an Ignis. To keep costs down, Suzuki offers just an 89bhp 1.2-litre four-cylinder ‘Dualjet’ petrol engine, with the option of an innovative 48v mild hybrid system for economy-minded buyers.
The standard 1.2 is hardly inefficient, thanks to the small weight it has to pull along. Around town there’s plenty of poke to get you about, with a slick gearshift letting you keep it on the boil. 120Nm of torque isn’t an awful lot, however, so on motorways and up hills you’ll need to rev it hard just to keep up with traffic. It’s noisy when you do so, too.
Suzuki claims a 0-62mph time that’s around two seconds faster for the SHVS hybrid model. The Ignis’s 48-volt system uses a simple belt-driven ‘Integrated Starter Generator’ (which also acts as a starter motor) providing electrical assistance during acceleration. A small battery pack stores the energy from the regenerative brakes. It’s a set-up that’s cheaper, lighter and simpler than a full hybrid, doing without the heavy batteries and electric motor.
The Ignis SHVS is a bit punchier from the get-go, but when the assistance tails off you’re left with the same need for revs. It’s not enough of a boost for us to recommend it over the standard car, particularly as you have to opt for the top-spec SZ5 trim to have it.
Suzuki finished 19th in our 2016 Driver Power survey, which is a big improvement on the year before. Reliability scores are strong, too, with the brand finishing in seventh place in that category. It’s too early to judge the Ignis for overall dependability, but the early signs are good.
It helps that the little Suzuki is relatively simple mechanically. Even the hybrid is far less complex than other petrol-electric models on sale. The same can’t be said for the electrical systems, though, as top-spec models in particular come loaded with kit.
Entry level Ignis models suffer at the hands of Euro NCAP’s stringent new testing regime. It scores three stars, mostly because it lacks standard safety equipment and driver assist systems. SZ-T models and above see that increase to four stars as a suite of driver aids is thrown in. All Ignis models get front, side and curtain airbags as standard, however, and Euro NCAP’s ratings for adult and child occupant protection are good.
Warranty
As with every Suzuki, the Ignis comes with a three-year, 60,000-mile warranty. That’s in line with most of the industry, although brands like Hyundai and Kia are now offering five or seven year warranties. Suzuki’s strong reliability record means you shouldn’t spend too much time back at the dealer with problems.
Servicing
The Ignis requires servicing every 9,300 miles or 12 months, whichever comes sooner. A main service is needed every 18,000 miles. Those intervals are about average for a car of this size, but not exceptional. Thankfully, Suzuki’s labour and parts rates are pretty low, so it’s not a big expense each time.
Take one look at the tiny dimensions of the Ignis and you’d be forgiven for assuming it’s not very practical. But you’d be wrong - Suzuki has done a great job of squeezing the maximum amount of space available from the slim bodywork.
The key thing that helps to make the most of the Ignis’ space is the sliding rear bench seat, standard on SZ-T models and above. It can be moved forward and aft up to 165mm to allow buyers to choose between rear legroom and boot capacity. The seat backs recline, too, while storage is decent, taking the form of big door bins, two central cupholders and a split glovebox.
Visibility from the driver’s seat of the Ignis is very good, mainly thanks to the high-up driving position. It’s a characteristic taken from larger crossovers that will please city dwellers, and makes the Ignis very easy to thread between traffic.
Size
The Ignis is 3.7m long and 1.6m wide, making it a fair bit longer and slightly wider than both the Celerio and rival city cars like the Skoda Citigo. It’s surprising given the Ignis is meant to be less practical than the Celerio but it translates into a good amount of space for occupants.
Legroom, headroom and passenger space
We’ve yet to try an Ignis without the sliding rear seat bench but with it fitted, four average-sized adults will find a surprising amount of legroom and even decent headroom – impressive given the car’s sloping roofline. The two-position reclining backrest also makes things more comfortable.
Obviously, if you slide the seats forward to prioritise bootspace legroom is reduced, while the Ignis’ slim width means there’s little hope of carrying three passengers in the back. Still, the same can be said for other city cars.
Boot
The Ignis’s bootspace for models without the sliding rear seat is a sizeable 267 litres. By comparison, a Skoda Citigo offers 251 litres, while the Renault Twingo’s 219-litres is a long way down on the Suzuki. It’s worth remembering that the capacity changes to 204 litres if you opt for the four-wheel drive model. You can fold the back seats to increase that space to 1,100 litres, which is also a very good size for the class.
The Ignis shares the familiar Suzuki family trait of being really good value for money. And even looking past the attractive list prices, it should prove cheap to run. Even the non-hybrid 1.2-litre engine manages a claimed combined figure of 61.4mpg and emits 104g/km of CO2, which is impressive for a non-turbo unit and means it’s very cheap to tax. Better still, we found it easy to exceed 50mpg in normal driving, so that figure seems realistic.
The hybrid manages a slightly better claimed 65.7mpg combined economy and emits 97g/km of CO2 , though if you spec it with four-wheel drive those numbers creep out to 60.1mpg and 106g/km. It means the first year of road tax is free on all Ignis models, while the maximum you’ll pay in year 2 is £20.
All of those figures are amongst the best in the city car class, while the 4x4 version is considerably more frugal than the Fiat Panda Cross with a petrol engine. The only drawback is the small 32-litre fuel tank.
Repair bills for the Ignis are likely to be roughly in line with the rest of the Suzuki range – and not very expensive.
Insurance Groups
For a small, low cost city car, the Ignis isn’t all that cheap to insure. One factor to blame on that is the three-star Euro NCAP safety rating (rising to four stars on top-spec models). All Ignis models, regardless of spec, are fixed at group 9E. For comparison, a VW up! starts at group 2E, and a Fiat Panda kicks off from group 4U.
Depreciation
Residual values for the Ignis are decent but not outstanding for the class. Base versions of the Suzuki are predicted to retain around 42 per cent of their value after three years, yet top-spec models see that drop to 35 per cent. Still, it’s a cheap car in the first place so that’s not too difficult to swallow.