We’re back to the classic jams. This is a car review I wrote on spec a couple years back. As I’m becoming increasingly disgusted with the rampant consumerism in which we constantly fester, I was happy to read that I at least attempted to tackle some of the psychology behind that in this piece. Although that could also be why I never heard back about it. I’ll discuss it further in the comments.

Since its launch in 2007, I’ve been taken with Suzuki’s SX4.

My attraction to the car was that it offered a new entry-level price for an All-Wheel Drive vehicle at just under $20,000. Its most similarly priced AWD competitor at that time was the Subaru Impreza, which sold for just under $23,000. However, as I’ve learned on the 2009 Suzuki SX4 JX AWD, these vehicles are not really very similar.

The Impreza is simply a car, while the SX4 clearly wants to be more than a car. It’s a crossover, which in this instance means it’s a car that takes design cues from SUVs. It sports a slightly jacked-up ride height, some black plastic cladding around bottom of the car, and a roof rack.

I’ve never liked this about the SX4. I don’t care for SUVs, and I care even less for cars pretending to be SUVs. Anything that tries to be all things to all people rarely succeeds. However, I was on a mission to find a vehicle that sent a reasonable amount of power through a manual gearbox to all four wheels.

At the cheapest possible price.

Beggars can’t be choosers.

The SX4’s weakest ingredient in my magic formula is definitely its engine. It’s an efficient 2.0L inline-4 that produces 143hp. It’s by no means gutless, but probably not going to win many drag races.

Of course, most people won’t need it to.

The most unique thing about the SX4 is definitely Suzuki’sIntelligent All-Wheel Drive. The system can change on the fly from front-wheel drive to a front-biased all-wheel drive to a full-time four-wheel drive. The only other similarly-priced vehicle with anything like this is the aforementioned Subaru Impreza 2.5i, which features a full-time AWD system that’s very different from iAWD.

One standout feature on the SX4 is its five-speed manual transmission. It’s surprisingly smooth, while still feeling satisfyingly mechanical. The pressure demanded by the clutch is negligible, which makes it an ideal manual for taxing city traffic.

It probably needs to be, because despite the SX4’s potential rough-terrain capability, the vast majority of these vehicles will undoubtedly be driven in the city.

It’s pretty hard to deny that the Suzuki SX4 is a small car originally designed for city use, but it’s equally difficult to deny that it has some legitimate claim to off-road usability. I have no doubt that many people will find the implication that, if absolutely necessary, this car could be driven off-road very reassuring. This makes the SX4 a true crossover.

I suspect what defines a crossover is not its actual capabilities, but rather its perceived capabilities.

Ultimately, it’s these perceived capabilities that ruin the car for me. It’s trying to make me think it’s tougher than it is. By extension, if I owned one, I would be trying to make people think I was tougher than I actually am. The many intrinsic merits of this car are made irrelevant by the fact that it wants to be something I don’t.

The SX4’s best feature is still its price. Since 2007, its asking price has crept from $19,995 to $21,195, but even at this inflated price it has no direct competition. For people looking for a capable and affordable crossover, there’s no conceivable reason not to look at the SX4.

However, the SX4 also offers great news for those of us who would rather have a car than a crossover. Since 2007, the Subaru Impreza has come down from $22,695 to $20,995. If the SX4 is even slightly responsible for this, then it really is all things to all people.