Off-roading in the Suzuki Ignis 4x4

What makes this 4WD variant interesting isn’t just that the rear wheels are driven – there’s a viscous coupling which detects slip at the front and pushes power to the back – but also because it’s a mild hybrid. This is thanks to an initialism (and Suzuki loves an initialism) called SHVS (Smart Hybrid Vehicle by Suzuki). It’s an extremely mild hybrid system. If it were a curry, it would be a desperately sad analogy that your kids could order with boiled rice and a plain naan.

SHVS comprises an uprated starter motor-generator system to allow a smooth automatic stopstart. When it draws power under deceleration, it saves it to a battery underneath the passenger seat and, at times, it’ll chip that energy back in through the motor under acceleration. The motor makes – wait for it – 1.7bhp, but also a more helpful sounding 36lb ft of torque, assuming conditions are right. The battery has to be within a certain temperature range, and have enough juice, and so on, so it doesn’t always work. That might explain why I quite often stalled, but sometimes didn’t, despite the pedal weights and spacings being absolutely spot on. I told you this new Ignis is an interesting car.

Anyway, so this Ignis is four-wheel drive after all, the weather is terrible and, thanks to a feature I did in a Land Rover Discovery last year, I know where there are some off-road tracks that might pose a decent challenge for the Ignis, as well as an impressive water splash.

I fear for the future of the green lane, or the Byway as it’s officially known. I think as time goes on we’re going to have to use them to prove their worth, and fight for the continued right to use them. Some close completely in winter; I once found two in Hertfordshire that had been blocked – illegally, but apparently with impunity, presumably by local landowners – by tree trunks. Sometimes they’re just poorly marked or it’s implied you shouldn’t be there. It’s not on. They’re ours to use and we should cherish them and fight for them as horse riders do bridleways.

But plenty of ye olde Fosse Way is still accessible, in some ways more so to a Suzuki Ignis with Allgrip than a Land Rover Discovery 4. I spent two days polishing scratches out of the Discovery’s paintwork after driving down some of these lanes, but the Ignis is only 1690mm wide and a tiny 3700mm long, which means that it slips through gaps that other off-roaders cannot.

Does this make it a surprising good off-road package? Well, let’s be blunt, no. For the record, the approach, departure and breakover angles are 20, 38.3 and 19.2 degrees respectively, which sounds fine, but we’d only taken two photographs before a little rubber strip beneath the Ignis’s bumper was pulled clean off (albeit easily reattached), despite a 180mm ground clearance.

When we reach the ford I put in a call to Suzuki and ask if they quote a wade depth. There’s a pause on the line, which I infer means that just asking the question indicates that what I’m contemplating isn’t a great idea. The exhaust pokes out below the rear bumper and, although the air inlet is halfway up the grille and then rises further on its way to the inlet manifold, I figure there’s the mild hybrid system to consider too.