Suzuki had a record year for sales in the UK last year with more than 40,000 vehicles coming on to our roads and which was a six per cent growth year on year.

While this is small beer is compared to India where they sell Suzukis by the hundreds of thousands there is a small but loyal fan base in the UK and there is a choice of seven different models.

Five of them have four wheel drive capability either as standard or as an optional choice and their ALLGRIP models account for more than 25 per cent of Suzuki sales in the UK. And Suzuki offers seven of the top 10 most fuel efficient lower cost four wheel drive cars on sale in the UK.

Surprisingly instead of going down, the sales of 4x4 are on the up because most people feel safer in one of these type of cars.

A welcome to their fleet last year was the Ignis compact SUV which has been around for 12 months and which more than 6,000 have been sold in their first year.

Low cost of ownership is a key benefit with Suzuki and this was recently demonstrated in two independent fuel consumption tests with the highly efficient Dualjet petrol engine fitted in the Ignis with the 1.2-litre model recorded an average of more than 81mpg with both Parkers.co.uk and Fleet World magazine.

The Ignis starts the Suzuki range and the 90PS 1.2-litre four cylinder Dualjet engine with the mild hybrid system has CO2 emissions of 106g/km.

With 180mm of minimum ground clearance, the Ignis enhances driving performance on rough roads, with a higher seating position for clearer visibility.

Enhancements to the ALLGRIP auto system include Hill Descent Control and Grip Control. Grip Control activates on slippery surfaces at speeds of less than 18mph.

There is a special edition model of Ignis which is now on sale. The Ignis Adventure is based on the SZ-T versionand adds a selection of the most popular and distinctive personalisation options available. SZ-T standard specification includes rear view camera, 16-inch alloy wheels, roof rails and individually sliding rear seats and Adventure adds a further specification of rear spoiler, side mouldings, front and rear skid plates, coloured front grille centre bar, side decal set and colour keyed front fog lamp bezels.

The added value of these options is £1,900 and with Adventure priced at £13,999 represents a premium of just £1,000 over the SZ-T.

The Ignis is certainly great fun to drive and while its top speed is just 100mph, it is more than enough.

The acceleration gives you 11.5 seconds on the 0-62mph mark but it’s the miles per gallon which is the most attractive part. With the experts getting more than 80mpg even the amateurs can easily manage more than 60mpg while driving the car hard.

If you move the seats around you can get more than 1,000 litres of space and if you are four up there is still 260 litres of capacity in the boot. There is bags of kit even for the cheapest model.

The insurance group is 18E for the 1.2 litre model and the car is built in Japan A zero per cent purchase agreement is available at just £159 per month over 43 months. This requires a deposit of £2,216 and an optional final payment of £5,105 to keep the car.

A limited number of Adventure models are being produced and four colours are available which are Fervent Red (Solid paint) and Boost Blue Pearl, Pure White Pearl and Super Black Pearl as optional metallic colours at £465.