Well, the inevitable happened, i ran out of time to get the cinq done, new issues popped up and with the BMW off the road and loads to do, i had no transport so being stuck, had been keeping an eye out for a runaround. Especially as it was vital for getting parts for the cinq to the garage, lugging tools around etc on top of day to day travel.

Loads of boring fiestas etc with a few months mot left popped up, then out of nowhere, plus very local.... up popped a Suzuki Ignis Sport, 12 month mot, 6 months tax and at a bargain price, 15 minutes from home... result.

As people know, i've raved about these wee cars for a few years, they are something of a hidden gem in the motoring world, as close to a "modern" cinq sporting as you can get, except built by the Japanese... which can only be a good thing :laugh:

It's been a monsoon here for the best part of 3 days, so there's no pics i've taken yet, but as a teaser, here's some from the ad





The wheels are 17" Lenso superlight samurai's and i also got a spare set of fox 15" wheels with basically rally tyres on them for winter!, issues.... there's a dent on the front wing and a dent and scrape on the passenger door. Body wise, that's about it.

Mechanically, the worst it gets is the alternator belt, which has recently been replaced, has an occasional screech from cold for about 15 seconds, after which it's fine. The rest of it is all good, even the air con works!

3 days of driving it, Positives.... Steering is razor sharp, well weighted (and it's an electric rack too, so that's well done), The grip is just astonishing... and i'm not exaggerating on that, i'd run out if bottle before i even got understeer! and that's in the wet!, engine is flexible and loves to rev hard, which is just as well because it only comes on song at 4k, below that it's "ok", nothing more, Gearbox is nice and light yet accurate, clutch is a nice weight, whole car strikes a good balance of supermini/off roader/hot hatch, seats are supportive and the engine at idle is almost silent compared to most cars, ground clearance is insane and wind noise at speed is surprisingly excellent with windows up. Fuel economy also seems a solid 35-40mpg in mixed driving.

Negatives, the ride is very, very harsh, the boot is shallow and mine doesn't have a load cover, which renders the boot useless as storage just now, and the turning circle is terrible... and i mean terrible, it's a city car by trade and on full lock, i estimate that it's about 10 meters wider in a u-turn than the bmw. But they are niggles, it's great fun to drive

I can see the resemblance to a Cinq when you look at it side on.

Just an overgrown Cinq.

Looks nice, hope you enjoy it.

A few pics

ive always had a thing for there`s ignis , id love a blue one like that to park next to lola on my drive ... i think ive got a blue car problem...

PLEASE change them wheels....

Nope, i quite like the wheels tbh!, i'll be changing them to the fat rubber for winter anyway soon enough so you won't have that long to wait for a wheel change :laugh:

I've had 2 Japanese cars

They've both been blue

They've both been around the 1.5-1.6 mark

They've both had no rear doors

They've both overheated and pissed all their coolant on the floor.

Think it's a relatively small issue like a sticking thermostat, managed around 200 miles with no issue before a 50mile hard run today resulted in the warning light coming on and the coolant boiling over when i stopped. Topped up with water as an emergency solution, drove home 50 miles with no issue at all. No leaks etc but the heater is being erractic so reckon thats a pointer to the problem.

Mark...cracking wee car!

Overheating...sounds like circulation problems. pump/heater matrix/radiator, or sticky thermostat like you said.

Thanks

The pump is silent and it's"working", pumps water to the matrix etc fine and given that the problem seems a really hard to start and has only happened after a really hard run, but still drove home fine without so much as a leak or warning light when topped up, it doesn't really ring quite right as being a pump issue.. i mean i haven't ruled it out, but i'd expect the problem to be easier to coax if it were the pump.

Think i'm going to just change the stat and flush the system, replace the water that is now in there with actual coolant etc and see how it goes from there.

On a side note of it's cooling system, it's a very strange setup, aside from the normal system with a rad, pump, thermostat, matrix, rather than a coolant resevoir it has an overflow tank of sorts t-d off the upper rad hose, which also has its own vent pipe to atmosphere..... haven't seen one of them before but it looks almost like it's a self bleeding system

Defo looking like the thermostat, changed the coolant today and bled the system, the thermostat hose eventually gets hot, but nowhere near as hot as the other coolant hoses so think it's only partially opening.

It's been a right wee bitch of late.

I've been keeping the mileage right down because of the cooling issue, still waiting on the parts arriving (Thanks Bank holiday again for royally ****ing up a whole week). I managed to just about overheat it again a week ago, couple of flashes of the "oh **** light" so shut down and have hardly drove it since.

Today i went out and re-bled the system the old fashioned way, rad cap off, engine running, massaging hoses and ended up getting loads of bubbles out. So far i haven't heard the cooling fan on anything but it's lowest setting (and that took ages to come in), and the expansion bottle isn't filling to the brim either so that's a better sign. Done about 40 miles today with no overheat light and not a drop of coolant used (bar what spurted out with the bubbles before it all stopped). I'm still a bit suspect of the stat and the condition of the rad is "old looking" so will see how it goes in it's newly bled stage rather than throwing parts on it just yet. Think it probably needs stat and rad however. I really can't be ****ed changing the stat btw, on a cinq it's pretty much drain coolant, undo hoseclip, undo 2 bolts, replace. On the suzuki it's a case of draining coolant, removing the airbox, throttle body, inlet manifold, loads of piples and the stat is in a housing right down the back of the engine block, close to a 2hr job.

It's also developed another exhaust rattle, so that's the back box heat shield and the cat heat shield now chattering away :laugh:

My celebrations of finally having a car with working air con were short lived as that's now failed too.

Every side light bulb has decided to not work, just old bulbs popping.

The clock only half illuminates.

one of my back calipers is sticky, having not driven for a week, it developed a pull to the left today and the handbrake felt heavy but seems fine again now after a run and the pull has gone.

When i say it's like a big Cinq... it really is, both in terms of how it drives and the temperamental nature of it just now :laugh:

However, i'll say again...despite the trouble..... it is a properly, properly immense little car to drive. a really phenomenal chassis on it, just lives for the b roads

Problem fixed... i think. Changed thermostat and the same run that was causing it to cook before didn't even trigger the fan.

What a pig of a job! made worse by the fact the thermostat housing on mine was cracked, then split completely meaning i had to take the car off the road for 5 days. Second hand one arrived and fitted with new stat. and after about 40 minutes of trying to get the idle down (traced eventually to egr pipe not sealing correctly, which some exhaust paste and a longer spanner fixed, all is well for now (touchwood).

Pic tonight, think it's probably going to be the last on those wheels before the fat winter ones go on (Maybe a week, we'll see)

Just liked how it actually did look like a road/rally car though in that light

Hope santas letter consists of lowering springs? Lol

Stuart said:

Hope santas letter consists of lowering springs? Lol

Click to expand...

Nope, I like the height it is, off road rally style ftw (think the chunky tyres may suit that look more though!)








*plus it's not a straightforward car to lower, yeah you get lowering springs for it, but because the rear suspension isn't independent it throws the rear beam out of alignment and means you really need a shortened panhard rod aswell, which is about £300 from Japan, so it can stay high for noo :laugh:

Typical Japs, they'll ensure you can get Lowering Springs, but they only work on the front.... & they'll let you find that out the hard way.

Still it's a decent looking motor, it's the Cinq that's been going to the Gym & taking all sorts of suplements.