By Al Vinikour 

  Great V-6 engine, available all-wheel drive, huge warranty.

  Flexible seating arrangements--which means dragging more people along with you. 

  Suzuki cachet not yet up there with Toyota and Honda.

Your first thought when shopping a crossover might not be Suzuki. It's one of the few brands known more for its name than its vehicles (what exactly is a Forenza, anyway?). And even then, the Suzuki most of us know has two wheels and a 200-mph top end.

But that may change after a first drive of the new XL7. Suzuki doesn't have the cachet of a Honda or a Toyota , but its XL7 readily compares with the RAV4 and CR-V, and now offers seven-passenger seating, too. The sharply-dressed new XL7 is also a cheaper alternative to the coming class of crossovers that includes Ford's Edge and the Honda Pilot, as well as existing Subaru wagons.

And then there's the trump card - a seven-year, 100,000-mile, fully transferable warranty, nearly the best in the industry in time and miles.

Forget the former

The new XL7 isn't what you remember from years past. Instead of a truck-based vehicle with rugged four-wheel drive (the last XL-7 was a stretched Grand Vitara, after all), the new version is longer, wider, and offers more seats and more power. Essentially, it's a version of the Chevrolet Equinox crossover, but with one important difference other than style - the engine.

Only one engine is offered in the XL7 and it's a good one: a 3.6-liter, 24-valve DOHC V-6 that puts out 252 horsepower and 243 pound-feet of torque. It's almost a liter larger and 70 horsepower more powerful than its predecessor. Plus, it's coupled to a seamless five-speed automatic transmission with manumatic control.

Fuel economy is decent, for all that power. The XL7 gets approximately 10-15 percent better fuel economy than most mid-size body-on-frame SUVs, Suzuki claims. EPA figures are 18 city, 24 highway with front-wheel drive; 17/23 mpg for all-wheel drive.