It is a bare bones vehicle and it does the job just fine. My kids thought it 'flavored' the vacation all the more. If you like having the extras, rent up to a Wrangler.

We have had many different kids of cars down there. The best one so far is the Jeep Liberty. It is a bigger and more expensive car, but I felt the safest in it and felt it was the best I have driven down there for the roads. I have had a Vitara once and wondered if it was going to get up Jacob's Ladder when it was wet...just kidding...a little bit. I'm sure a Wrangler would be good, but I can't say for sure...have fun.

It kind if depends on where you're planning to drive. Some of the dirt roads have trees and shrubs that hang into the roads. In the little Suzuki you can get whacked with branches. I generally get the Grand Vitara from conrand Sutton or Penns. Had the Jeep one year and thought it was too big, but the locals seem to favor it. If you want to get up and down the really steep hills, gear down the Jeep,the breaks don't always to hold well, esp. on wet roads. The little Vitara's don't have the HP to handle the really steep climbs,but if you're sticking to the main routes and southshore, they are more fun.

Just returned from STJ (2 weeks) We considered a Vitara but ending up renting a Grand Vitara. The regular Vitara was very small and, frankly, looked a little scary - and no A/C because of the open top. There were definitely days where the A/C was very welcome. If your girls are 9 and 13 I think they might have a difficult time with space in the back seat and you will have a very difficult time carrying beach gear for four people. The Grand Vitara was very reliable on steep climbs, had a hard top (which saved us from a lot of tree/brush scrapes) and a fairly roomy back seat with some space behind the seat for storage. As cute as they look, I couldn't recommend the Vitara for four people. Think you would be unhappy with it for lots of reasons.