We’ve seen Toyota’s planetary gearset, Honda’s pretend CVT and Renault’s four-speed dog 'box. Now here’s another one to add to the collection of quirky hybrids: Suzuki has revived the much-maligned automated manual for its new Vitara Hybrid. First drive
, and our test drive did suggest that you will get close to that in the real world. The trouble is that the existing mild-hybrid Vitara, even with the torque-converter automatic 'box, got 49.5mpg.
The hybrid replaces the mild-hybrid automatic in the range but, priced from £25,499, the new car is £570 more expensive, considerably slower and nowhere near as pleasant to drive, all for improvements of 3.5mpg and 8g/km CO2 emission. That drop in CO2 does put the full hybrid in a lower BIK band, but due to the higher list price, the saving in company car tax comes to only about £50 over three years for someone on 20% income tax.