William Shakespeare questioned in ‘Romeo and Juliet’: “What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

And it appears to be the same sort of thing with Suzuki’s Fronx. As weird a name as it is for a car, it’s selling well, and the brand-engineered Toyota Starlet Cross (essentially a Fronx in a Toyota frock) that was recently launched is sure to follow suit.

But where did Suzuki stumble on this odd name?

I asked Suzuki’s marketing people and they told me it was a portmanteau of “Frontier” and “Next”. I would’ve thought just Frontier, or even Frontier Next would’ve been just fine. Frontier NXT, even. But no, Fronx is what we’ve got.

It’s based on the highly successful Baleno, and has the same interior trimmings — hard, scratchy plastics abound, as to be expected at this price point, and the Fronx also carries over the weird burgundy-brown-maroon colouring of the Baleno’s door mouldings and dashboard trim. But that’s essentially where the off-putting things end.

Overall, the car is great. A small crossover, it doesn’t try too hard to emulate a boxy SUV and goes for a sleek raking back, more like a hatchback in hiking gear. Black alloy rims, with contrast black roof paint, roof rails, and black plastic wheel arch mouldings complete the rugged look.

The boot is deep-set, so loading things in and out takes some work, but I prefer depth in my cargo area, so I didn’t mind this at all. That being said, the boot’s not very big (304 litres), but this means your back-seat passengers have plenty of space. It’s deceptive how big it is in the back, and I found knee-room and legroom aplenty even behind my driving position.

The 1.5l naturally aspirated engine punches above its weight - those 77kW and 138Nm feel lively enough as you nip through the five-speed manual gearbox, but you do start to feel it runs out of steam at highway speeds. The lightness of the body appears to contribute to this; it’s not too heavy a body for the engine, but the strong Cape Town wind does factor in when you’re approaching 100km/h and above.

Even in the base model GL spec I had on test there were features aplenty, and at under R300k, that’s not bad at all. For 297,000 of your finest South African Randelas, you get a reversing camera, 7” touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, cruise control, rear parking distance control, follow-me home automatic headlights, and those aforementioned 16” black alloys.

The GLX model comes with polished alloys.

Only the four-speed automatic models come with keyless entry and push-button start, and the GLX model adds a 4.2” colour LCD driver display, heads-up display above the dashboard, a larger 9” touchscreen, height adjustment for the driver’s seat, and a 360-degree camera system, for which you’ll need to spring R334,900 for the GLX manual and R354,900 for the auto.

All models come with automatic climate control and very comfy fabric seats, with leather-wrapped multi-function steering wheels with flat bottoms to make you feel like you’re in a much more premium car.

Suzuki claims fuel consumption of about 5.5l/100km, but I averaged around 6.2, and the 37 litre fuel tank should take you just shy of 600km at that level of consumption.

The Fronx’s peppy motor, Suzuki’s legendary reliability, and affordability makes it a good looker if you’re after something a little out of the ordinary, and judging by the sheer number of Fronxes (Fronxen?) I’ve been seeing on the roads in and around Cape Town, plenty of other cost-conscious buyers are opting for them too.

I can’t help but think something like the base model Chery Tiggo 4 Pro, with its 1.5l naturally aspirated engine pushing out 83kW retailing at R269,900 would give you something that feels at least a little more premium for around the same price, and looks a bit more like an SUV than the Fronx does.

The Fronx, just like its Baleno, Celerio, Ignis and S-Presso stablemates, is a budget-beating hero that deserves its spot on the South African sales charts.

IOL Motoring