Ground clearance helps, so does a capable driver. 4WD really only needed in slippery conditions on slopes. Should know, driven offroad with standard cars for years (that's pretty much all we had when I was young - valiants, holdens and falcons)- constantly searching for where to put the wheels, but with 4WD just put brain in idle and drive....I think fear drives the demand for 4WD. Great video, thanks guys at practical motoring.
The Vitara 2wd is good for passing through many places but even in "light" off-road conditions, the 4x4 is interesting. If the 4 wheels are in greasy mud or even on a small hill with wet grass (just on the side of the road), the 2wd will have a hard time getting out. And in the snow it's obvious. My wife has the Vitara 1.6, 2wd and I have the 1.4S Allgrip.
I’m really happy to see this I have a 2015 Nissan qashqai and it’s front wheel drive and I did something very much the same and it did really well to so to see front wheel drive SUVS Go off road it’s cool 😎👍
Good vid, the 2WD Vitara coped very well. I own the 4WD diesel version here in the UK, where I live is quite rural and I hope to put it to the test this Winter. Winter tyres going on soon, so low temperatures and snow covered roads should be a breeze! 😃
@PM great video, thanks. I'm just curious though, would you have driven this car on these very same roads if it was rainy? If yes, how well do you think it would have performed? Thank you!
I have the turbo diesel all grip it's a shame it wasn't available in a manual transmission because the auto really struggles under any type of load smell of burning clutch with the slightest off road incline. On road it is indecisive and at times a clunky gear shift, the engine is a pearler though
And here am I worried if I could take my Subaru forester on roads like this, I used to drive my old 2wd Holden HR ute on roads like this when I was a young fella and never got bogged. I agree fear stops a lot of people from giving it a go.
+ luis cannon: where i live such offroad we call roads, because we don't have many good roads. so driving in such conditions on 2wd's is a usual thing together with a lot of snow and mud. and the cars are mostly chep oldies.
Does this 2W vitara have elektronic difrential lock i. e something like LSD? it should have i think otherwise it could not climb slopes it would get spinned and stopped.
I have realised something like that in my s cross.. my previous car when spinning one wheel you could see engine revs fall without take my foot from pedal..In my s cross i see the light of esp but the revs are steady ...I think somehow the car brakes the spinning wheel and give torque to the other...Also search youtube for " suzuki swift on rollers".. We will see swift with one wheel on roller but it moves..
To my mind, coming from a country with lots of unpaved (gravel) roads, all of your test as shown track here is 2WD terrain. I.e. I would NOT select 4WD in any of my vehicles to drive this route. But, as I said, I come from a "rural" nation, with lot of gravel, and also "informal", roads.
Thanks EE Cubed. Yes, the roads aren't super extreme but they're more extreme than many 2WD SUV buyers in Australia would travel across. The video was simply to show that 2WD SUVs are more capable than many buyers realise.
The track we used for the 2WD Suzuki Vitara RT-S is a 4x4 test track used by manufacturers and off-road enthusiasts and clubs ... Obviously, the Vitara wasn't driven across the more extreme parts of the track, but the types of surface it was taken across show what a 2WD can do... most owners wouldn't take a 2WD anywhere near these sorts of surfaces. We shot the video simply to show that many 2WD SUVs are more capable than owners might realise.
What I find with these 4WD test tracks is they are not real world tests. A 2WD and 4WD low range vehicle is completely different. This Suzuki would not move 5 meters on an articulated steep undulating track which is wet. Also, combine that with a very steep incline from a standing start and the gearbox torque converter would not cope or traversing a steep decline where you need constant low range four wheel traction. That test track on this video is very generic bordering on vanilla if you want to consider it a true 4WD test track. I could navigate that on a Moped.
Still impressed for what it did byt yes, getting a bit fed up with promotion videos when pointless look like offroders city suv is shown going on gravel road.....even wheel chairs can go roads like that
At the risk of being pedantic: That's not off-road. You are driving in a clearly defined path which is the basic definition for... wait for it... a road. Off-road means no clear track and may include pushing down a tree, hopping over a boulder or falling off a dune. Just sayin'
A road is mostly common known as a flat tarmac surface. Most of normal cars would have been stuck in lots of these conditions. It counts as offroad situation because most people wouldn't even think about driving along these paths.
