Suzuki Ignis Review 2024

The Ignis is as capable in the city as anything else in the class, and with its generous passenger space it is a sensible choice if you need a small car that can regularly carry four people. It also has an extra string to its bow with the option of four-wheel-drive, although this means it can tackle a muddy field rather than traverse the Alps. It’s also an appealing choice for new drivers, with distinctive looks and a strong standard specification.

If you regularly plan to travel long distances or hit the motorway frequently, you might want to choose an alternative with a bit more refinement, however, and if you want a city car that’s as good to drive as it is to look at, you probably need to take a look at one of the Up/Citigo/Mii triplets.

Because the Ignis is something of an oddball in this sector there are few cars that really qualify as direct rivals. Fiat’s diminutive Panda is available as a Panda 4x4 and costs similar money, and although it’s a good car it’s feeling its age and is quite cramped inside.

Of the more mainstream alternatives, the Toyota Aygo, Peugeot 108 and Citroen C1 are big on value and equipment, while the Skoda Citigo, SEAT Mii and Volkswagen Up are classier alternatives.

Climb into the cabin of the Ignis and the initial impressions are good. It looks pretty smart, with a two-tone finish to the dashboard that feels like a step above the usual uniform grey finish. SZ-T and SZ5 models look particularly swish, with a touchscreen infotainment system that gives off quality vibes.

Get a bit closer, however, and it becomes clear that the materials aren’t quite as fancy as they first appear. Although the steering wheel and gear lever are leather-wrapped on SZ-T models and above, most of the materials are actually quite hard to the touch and do not feel particularly substantial, which takes some of the shine off the interior.

Suzukis generally offer a good standard of build quality and reliability, and although the Ignis appears to be well-built, the fact that some of the cabin materials are a little flimsy as well as cheap-feeling suggests they might not last as well as you would hope. There are a number of optional upgrades to the cabin, too, but they are added colourisation rather than adding anything of substance to the mix.

The entry level SZ3 Ignis still has a decent specification infotainment system, which includes an FM/AM radio with DAB and a USB input, as well as Bluetooth for phone connectivity and audio streaming. Move up to the SZ-T or SZ4 models and this is upgraded to a 6.2-inch touchscreen system that includes both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as well as Bluetooth, with additional controls on the steering wheel for the major functions.

In the SZ3, the system has an old-fashioned digital display, which can make flicking through DAB stations or streamed music a bit of a faff, although having physical buttons to press can also be the better option at times.

The touchscreen system looks quite fancy but can be fiddly to use on occasion. Pair it up to your smartphone and it works well enough, replicating the functions of your phone and being easy to control. If you use the system’s internal functions, however, including the sat nav, it’s less impressive, with the occasional lack of response when you tap the screen and a mediocre screen resolution. Even so, once you’ve actually got the system doing what you want, whether that’s playing audio or connecting to your phone, it works well enough, so while it might occasionally frustrate it does still provide the functions it promises.

This isn’t the first car Suzuki has had in the city car class, and like its predecessors the Ignis makes the most of its footprint on the road by building upwards. All city cars are up against the same conflicting need to be small on the road and big inside, but the Ignis does a pretty good job on both fronts. Up front, adults of all sizes should find there is enough head- and legroom, even if the lack of reach adjustment on the steering wheel means the tallest drivers may find their view of the instruments slightly hampered.

In the rear it’s also impressive, big enough for adults to travel in reasonable comfort. If you go for the SZ3 model you get bench rear seat that has three seat belts, although you would do well to get three normal-sized adults across the back. SZ-T and SZ4s have a more sensible option, with a rear seat designed for two with a pair of seat belts, and the option to slide them forwards or backwards to increase the amount of legroom or boot space. Taller adults may start to feel a little cramped, but it is a realistic prospect to travel four-up on a regular basis.

The Suzuki Ignis boot space is a handy 260 litres with the rear seats in place, a little more than most of its rivals. That increases to 514 litres when you fold the rear seats, which is quite a bit less than the competition, and the design of those seats means they don’t fold completely flat. It’s also worth noting that should you go for the AllGrip four-wheel-drive version, the boot is smaller by 60 litres because of the extra hardware required.

Storage space in the cabin is good, though, with reasonably-sized door pockets that can hold a water bottle, four cupholders dotted around the cabin, and a glovebox that can hold more than just a pair of gloves.

In terms of its actual size, the Suzuki Ignis' dimensions are 3700mm long, 1690mm wide and 1605mm tall. 

The Ignis’s 1.2-litre engine almost seems a little old-hat now as it does without a turbocharger, but in fact Suzuki is a little ahead of the curve by using other methods to boost the performance and efficiency of its engines.

The 1.2-litre unit has Dualjet technology, which in simple terms means it has a pair of fuel injectors per cylinder instead of the usual one, allowing more precise control and increasing efficiency. The other option is called SHVS, which is a mild hybrid system. It harvests energy that would otherwise be lost during braking and stores it in a small battery pack, and this energy is then used during acceleration to boost torque levels. Mild hybrid means it is a system with limited power, not enough to drive the car on battery power alone, but it does increase performance without using any additional fuel. Initially, you could have your Ignis either with or without the SHVS system, but later examples all have it as standard.

Both engines offer genuinely useful performance. No one expects a car of this size to be rapid, but there is useful acceleration available without having to thrash the engine from a standstill. As for choosing between the two units, the mild hybrid does offer slightly improved acceleration and better fuel consumption, but did cost more than £1,000 extra when buying new, and used versions will have a similar deficit. 

The standard five-speed gearbox is an able companion, too, with a positive shift action that is accurate and easy to use. Suzuki also offered the Ignis with a five-speed automated manual gearshift, or later on a CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) automatic. Unless you really need an auto we’d stick with the regular manual in both cases.

Thanks in part to the modern engine design, the Ignis offers competitive levels of refinement, even at higher speeds. In town the engine is audible but never intrusive, and even at higher speeds it is usually a background thrum rather than anything more significant or bothersome. In fact, the engine has a pleasing, eager sound to it.

Road noise is also largely kept in check, regardless of how fast you’re going. In town you’ll not notice any kind of hum coming from the tyres, largely due to the fact that they are quite narrow in profile. Get up to speed on dual carriageways and motorways and the volume increases, which isn't helped by the fact that the interior lacks a great deal of substance.

More of a factor is wind noise, which is a downside of the Ignis’s bulky and bluff design. Once again, low speeds are not much of a problem but at out-of-town speeds you can hear the wind whipping around the windscreen and the door mirrors, with the only solution to slow down. Overall, the Ignis is a little less refined than the better cars in the class, but this only really becomes an issue at higher speeds.

Euro NCAP tested the Ignis when it was launched in 2017, and was awarded two scores depending on the level of equipment. The standard version scored three stars overall, with an adult occupant score of 79 per cent, child occupant score of 79 per cent, a pedestrian mitigation score of 67 per cent and a low safety assist score of just 25 per cent. 

The version with the safety pack, which adds automatic emergency braking among other features, scored 87 per cent for adult protection, 79 per cent for child protection, 77 per cent pedestrian mitigation and a much-improved 60 per cent for safety assist. That meant a five-star rating overall. However, both scores are now expired, because Euro NCAP states that ratings are only valid for a five-year period due to ever-increasing safety standards.

As standard, all Ignis models are fitted with six airbags - driver and passenger plus side and curtain airbags, but there is no knee airbag for driver or passenger. There are two Isofix points in the rear seats, plus seatbelt pre-tensioners and load-limiters for front seat passengers.

ESC is standard on all models, while the safety pack is standard on the top SZ5 models but optional on the rest of the range. It includes automatic emergency braking, including pedestrian detection, a speed limiter and lane departure warning, and to achieve the five star Euro NCAP rating this pack is required. Go for the AllGrip option and the Ignis also comes with hill descent control, which is a useful additional feature if you regularly need to travel off-road.

You can expect the Suzuki Ignis to be very reliable. In the latest HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index, Suzuki was ranked second in our list of the most reliable car manufacturers, only just getting pipped to the post by Lexus. All Suzukis come with a three-year/60,000-mile warranty. 

One area where the Ignis falls down compared to much of the competition is in car insurance costs. Even the cheapest versions of the Ignis sit in group 15, and can go as high as 21 if you choose the wrong spec. Many of its city car rivals are comfortably ten groups lower, so if you are in a demographic that has to endure high insurance premiums, the Ignis is going to cost you extra for the privilege. It may well also make it unsuitable as a car for newly-qualified drivers.

The very earliest versions of the Ignis will have been registered just before the rules changed for VED and the 100g/km CO2 threshold became less meaningful, so if you manage to track down one of these early cars you can have an annual VED bill that is just £20 or even zero. However, most cars were registered after this date, and of course all new examples, will pay the higher rate. Expect to pay £180 per year for most models.

There’s no shame in choosing the basic SZ3 trim for the Ignis. It includes the basic essentials such as air con, but also a few more of the useful extras like Bluetooth, DAB and daytime running lights.

The pick of the range, however, is the SZ-T model, which introduces the touchscreen infotainment system - no, it’s not perfect, but crucially it adds Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which is a must-have for modern drivers. It also includes the sliding rear seat, which for most people will be more useful than the three-seat rear bench on the SZ3.