I have to be honest when anyone mentions the name Suzuki to me, and I would suggest to an awful lot of readers, it immediately conjures up motor bikes, cars possibly but primarily motor bikes, writes Bob Hickman.

Suzuki has been round for quite a long time and has been manufacturing some nice vehicles over the last few years.

They have specialised in the Vitara type of small off-road vehicle but an area that they entered in to quite a time back now and are still producing them, and producing them in abundance, is the small diminutive Alto.

See more pictures of the Alto in our photo gallery below.

The new version now on sale is the 7th incarnation of this derivative and they start out at an attractive price of £7,155.

But of course if we take in to account the scrappage scheme then an awful lot of motorcar can be obtained for not a lot of money.

The Alto is actually produced as a joint initiative in India and at just 3.5 metres in length the 5-door Alto is one of the smallest cars on the road.

In fact, when you look at it and place it along side one of the other so called super minis, you realise how the others have grown whilst the Alto really does tick the box of being a city car.

However it is not really an intimidating vehicle to drive and to own, it is comfortable and has sufficient head, shoulder, and leg room both for drive and front passenger – although rear passengers would need to be friendly and not want to do huge long runs because after all the Alto is primarily an inner city car.

This design and being so small, it is easy to park, nips through little gaps in traffic quite easily and is a functional vehicle.

Running costs

The engine fitted to the Alto is a 996cc 3 cylinder petrol engine. It produces 67 bhp which is enough to give a top speed of just over 95 mph and a 0 – 60 in 13 and a bit seconds. The fuel consumptions quoted are obviously impressive.

The extra urban figure of 74 mpg is staggering but the combined figure of 64 mpg is even more impressive.

During my week with the vehicle I couldn’t quite reach that but I was certainly obtaining in excess of 55 mpg and that has to be a bonus.

Other bonuses on the running costs are the insurance at a very low Group 1E and because of its small CO emissions of 103, then this little vehicle is cheap to tax.

From a driving perspective those of you who have read previous reports of mine know that I love 3-cylinder and 5 – cylinder engines, they have a quirky growly type of noise and the performance isn’t bad either once you get that engine spinning.

The Alto proved to be a hoot to drive and to park in around town.

A long motorway journey did show the short comings of the vehicle, the sound insulation and the feed-back that was transmitted from the tyres was a little bit debilitating at times, but of course this vehicle is primarily a town car, but it will perform out and about if you wanted it to within its limitations.

This is the time and place to be looking for small inner city vehicles and the Alto has its issues – the plastics possibly could be a bit better, the interior trim perhaps you could argue is a little bit bland, but then again for what you pay.

I still believe you get quite a lot for your money with the Suzuki Alto.

Ownership of an Alto will be between £7,155 and £8,370 and benefits will include a three year 60,000-mile manufacturer’s warranty.

By Bob Hickman