Grand Vitara sills

mickt wrote: Mine do not have covers but still rotted. The paint is good and the sill ends are intact so they must rot inside to out because the steel must be crap!

Yes that is exactly what happens. With older Vitaras I inject the sills with Waxoyl or similar and did the same with my SJ LJ and Jimny. There is no protection inside in the ones I have had had with rot holes and as has been said the MoT man can look for rot in the proximity of seat belt mounts and body to chassis mounts and such.

I class it as a Vitara weakness; I don't think you have to park in the sea for it to happen, IMHO just regular road use seems to me to be enough and let's be fair a lot of folk take these through deep water and indeed snow covered roads which, thanks to the local authority, are covered in salt! Which side is worse, gutter or other??

The main thing is that the fact it has a separate chassis will mean in general the motor will last for years. Bluntly though, I noticed a lot of VERY rusty Jimnys when I was looking for my Jimny.

Only had it a year and the garage/dealer we bought it from put a full mot on it! Shows what they are worth! There is no way the sills rotted in the year especially with the mild snowless winter we had here in Stoke. This, and the daughters Jimny, is the first foray into the Suzuki marque and did not know of their weak points. I do now though! The jimny passed the mot last October but whilst showing her how to remove the car jack from its storage found a bit of rust through the rear floor just inside the door. So more welding to do once I have finished the vitara.

At last I have found a pic of a Vitara's sill rust I had to deal with not long ago.