Not A Driver's Car, But Makes A Strong Case For Itself With Excellent, Well-Equipped Interior
Written: Mar 21 '04 (Updated Oct 24 '07)
Product Rating:
Pros: Extraordinary feature content, high-quality interior, soft and comfortable ride.
Cons: Vague, rubbery shifter and clutch, sloppy steering and handling, mushy brake-pedal feel.
The Bottom Line: The Daewoo Nubira-based Forenza is marred by a terrible manual transmission and a soft, floppy suspension. But its high-quality interior, standard features, and bargain pricing make it a contender.
I test-drove a Suzuki Forenza 5-speed at a local dealership. My test drive lasted about half an hour and covered city streets, a winding frontage road, and the freeway.
Performance
The Forenza's performance wasn't especially remarkable, but was certainly competitive for the economy car class. The only thing it's really missing is excitement--I drove the Forenza immediately after driving a less-powerful Hyundai Accent, and although the Forenza is probably a quicker car by the numbers, it didn't feel that way from the driver's seat.
Acceleration felt adequate, but a bit flat--there was no eagerness here, and the 2.0-liter four never seemed to "come alive." Part of this impression is due to the fact that the engine builds and drops revs slowly and gradually. This also complicates shifting, but I'll get to that later. When I gave the Forenza full throttle on a standing-start freeway on-ramp, it felt a bit soft off the line, but once in the midrange it pulled the car up to speed adequately.
Perhaps more importantly to some buyers, this is quite a refined powerplant. The engine idles almost silently--with the windows rolled up, it's as quiet and smooth as a Corolla when you're sitting at stoplights. In gentle cruising, its noises are well-muted and unobtrusive, and vibrations are practically nonexistent. The calm is only disturbed when you rev it past 3500rpms or so--from then on, it emits a loud, muddy groan that does little to encourage pressing it further.
Transmission/Clutch
This may have been the weakest point for the Forenza. Its shifter and clutch are decidedly "not good," and this quickly became apparent on my test drive. The shifter's throws are mushy and sloppy, so that rowing through the gears feels a bit like stirring a bucket of mud.
When you push the lever into gear, there's no positive "click" or "thunk" to announce that you've found the correct gate--just a numb, rubbery bump as it finds the slot. It doesn't always engage fully, either, and sometimes requires an extra push after you think you've found the gear. Not reassuring. And neither is the odd, angled location of the slot for third gear, or the gearlever's tendency to move slowly and pause between gears.
The clutch wasn't great, either. Its effort was very light--perhaps too much so--but it felt springy and artificial on the return, with a vague engagement point that made quick, clean shifts impossible. Finally, as I mentioned in the previous section, the engine's lethargic revving requires a conscious pause before you let the clutch out, further reinforcing the impression of sluggishness.
My advice? Get the automatic. Although I didn't drive a Forenza with one, I have driven the automatic version of the Daewoo Nubira, the car on which the Forenza is based and shares many components with. In that car, the automatic was smooth, fairly responsive, and unobtrusive in operation. It would likely go a long way towards making this car more satisfying for most drivers, since even a die-hard stick shift fan like myself would get tired of the Forenza's manual.
Steering/Handling
The Forenza didn't do so well here, either. Its suspension was supposedly tuned by Lotus, the English sports car manufacturer, but this is either not their best work, or a bit of exaggeration on Suzuki's part. Whatever the press kit and salespeople say, the Forenza's suspension lacks the adroit tuning of a Honda Civic, or even a Hyundai Elantra. It's simply too soft.
Even around town, at modest speeds, I could feel the Forenza's body leaning from side to side, and it hard turns, it really heeled over. Grip was okay, but nothing special--fast corners still felt like they were challenging the front tires, and suggested understeer wasn't far away.
Another bit of equipment that doesn't live up to the on-paper promise is the speed-sensitive steering. This sounded impressive on the "standard features" list, but fell considerably short of my expectations in execution.
The Forenza's steering was well-weighted at parking-lot speeds, but quickly lightened up on the move--too much so for my tastes. Around town and on the freeway, effort felt too light and fluid, and on-center feel was somewhat nebulous, detracting from the sense of precision. Path control wasn't as intuitive as the best cars in this class, and the lack of road feel through the steering wheel gave it a numb and uncommunicative feel on winding roads.
Braking was also made more difficult by a light and mushy pedal that felt squashy underfoot and gave little feedback. All this places the Forenza's handling about on par with the unimpressive base-model Nissan Sentra--funny, since Suzuki's other small car, the Aerio, is quite a responsive handler.
Ride
The Forenza's ride comfort is one of the areas where I can drop the negativity and start giving compliments. In terms of smoothness, the Forenza seemed right up there with the class leaders. Its demeanor was remarkably serene on city streets, and on patched, concrete roads, there was almost no bobbing or pitching. I was expecting its soft suspension to go all floaty and loose on the freeway, but it kept its composure quite well.
The ride was also commendably quiet. Sitting at stoplights, it actually sounded as if the car hadn't been turned on yet, such was the silence and smoothness of the engine. On the move, there was very little tire noise, and wind rush was the only disturbance on the freeway.
The Forenza's body structure didn't feel super-stiff, but it was commendably solid and refused to quiver or shake on rough pavement. For many buyers with more conservative (read: not sporty) tastes in cars, I imagine the Forenza's soft, smooth ride will be a major selling point.
Interior
The Forenza's interior was another one of its strong points, and much better than I expected from a relatively unestablished brand like Suzuki. It was far superior to the interiors from any of the domestic compacts, but it wasn't quite as good as the class-leading (and more expensive) Civic and Corolla. Its ambiance wasn't as well-integrated or refined as those cars, with a slightly unfocused look to the interior appointments.
For example, the dashboard is done in a two-tone color scheme, with a coffee-colored dash top and a lighter beige bottom half--a nice mini-luxury-car look--but then there are pseudo-sporty panels of aluminum-look plastic running across the middle of the dashboard and console. Hmm. It would be better if Suzuki would pick a mood--luxurious or sporty--and stick with it, to give the Forenza's interior a better-defined personality.
But aside from this stylistic complaint, I found nothing to criticize in the Forenza's cabin. The shape of the dashboard, door panels, and console is fresh and modern--it feels like the brand-new design that it is.
More importantly, the quality of the materials was deeply impressive. The dashboard was made of a rich-feeling rubbery material, and the door panels were trimmed in a soft, fuzzy fabric that felt expensive. All the controls moved with a slick smoothness that I would have expected in a Honda or Toyota, but not a Suzuki. The only cheap-looking item in the whole interior was the long, ball-topped shift lever, and if you get the automatic (which I would recommend, given the manual's poor shift quality) this is replaced with a gated, leather-wrapped shifter that looks much nicer.
The driving position was very good, with an appropriate wheel-to-pedal relationship and fine visibility. While the seats were a bit soft for my taste, they provided good support and were trimmed with the same fuzzy, expensive-feeling fabric as the door panels.
One last thing about the Forenza's interior that deserves mention is feature content. The car I test-drove had a window sticker under $14,000, but felt loaded--there were radio-control buttons on the steering wheel, power windows and mirrors, a CD player, air conditioning... if a Corolla or Civic was equipped this well, you'd be looking at a $16,000 car. Combine the Forenza's generous level of equipment with an air of quality that's right behind the best in class, and you have a car that makes a strong case for itself to shoppers who place a nice, comfortable interior as a high priority.
Practicality
The Forenza's practicality was about on par for the economy-car class--I wasn't disappointed, but I wasn't especially blown away either. The Forenza's biggest strength when it comes to practicality is its comfortable roomy-feeling interior. There was plenty of space and a "big-car" feel up front, and the seats came standard with height and lumbar adjustment--a nice touch at the Forenza's bargain price. The rear seat was also comfortable, with the same slightly squishy feel as the fronts, but with an impressive amount of room for this class.
The trunk was about average, with more than enough capacity for the daily groceries, and there's a standard split-folding rear seat to accommodate bigger loads (the level of equipment on this $13,000 car really is incredible). Except for rear-seat space, the Forenza didn't feel much bigger or more useful than the economy-class norm, but the fact that it matches the class-leading Civic and Corolla in this department is a compliment in itself.
Reliability
Consumer Reports has no reliability data on the Forenza as of yet. To try to get some idea of what to expect, I looked at two factors that might hint at the Forenza's reliability. One is the reliability data on other models in the Suzuki range. Apparently, the XL-7 SUV is the only one which has sold in large enough numbers to provide an accurate sample group, and this car's reliability is rated as Average. Nothing to worry about, really, as the average number of defects in a new car is low. Then, I looked up reliability data on the Daewoo Nubira on which the Suzuki Forenza is based. Unfortunately, Consumer Reports didn't have any data here, either. I know the Nubira didn't rack up a reputation for catastrophic failures, so the Forenza is unlikely to be unusually troublesome. And Suzuki must have some faith in the dependability of their cars, because their powertrain warranty is a lengthy 7 years/100,000 miles (although the bumper-to-bumper warranty is the usual 3-year/36,000-mile coverage). Other than that, it's pretty much all speculation--there's no hard data out there yet.
Overall
Although the Forenza was designed with comfort in mind more than performance, and therefore isn't tuned to my tastes, I found the Forenza to be a worthy new competitor in the economy-sedan class. If your priorities run toward smooth and quiet comfort and an accommodating interior, you'll probably find the Forenza nearly as pleasing as the class leaders, for considerably less money.
Its drawbacks are clear and significant to enthusiastic drivers: unexciting performance, a dreadful manual transmission, slightly loose steering feel, and soft, wallowy handling. I'll admit freely that this is not a car for people who love to drive--and maybe not even for people who kinda like to drive. Those with appetites for responsiveness and precision should hit the Mazda store first and ask to look at the new 3. Also, those who want the last word in precision, refinement, and attention to detail will probably still want to stick to the Civic and Corolla if price permits.
But the Forenza isn't just an also-ran in this class. It has a very smooth ride, a quiet and composed demeanor, and an interior whose materials and comfort are right up there with the class leaders. In many ways, I think it's a stronger player in its field than Suzuki's other compact, the Aerio. Most importantly, it delivers all of its strengths--plus loads of equipment usually reserved for the options list--at a rock-bottom price.
So the Forenza's ability to cosset its occupants and its generous standard equipment list set it a step above the class underachievers like the Cavalier, Neon, and Sentra. In my opinion, the Forenza is about on par with the Mitsubishi Lancer and Hyundai Elantra, both cars with reasonable dynamic capabilities and high feature content for affordable prices. Bravo to Suzuki for a better-than-expected effort.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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