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The Suzuki XL-7 sport-ute may not be the best vehicle on the market, but the television advertising campaign alerting the public to its debut in the U.S. for 2001 has to be considered classic.

One ad shows a huge SUV trying to parallel park, but in doing so it runs over the hood of the vehicle behind it.

And the best is the woman who has to jump up to reach the handle on her huge SUV’s hatchlid in an attempt to close it, only to end up swinging in midair, her feet wiggling, as she hangs onto the hatch handle and can’t get it closed.

The message is clear–gigantic sport-utilities have their drawbacks or, as in the case of the woman dangling from the hatchlid, their hangups.

Or, as Suzuki says, “Does everyone really need a vehicle that requires $90 to fill the gas tank?”

So here comes Suzuki with a sensibly sized SUV with big windows so you can see down the road, just like in bigger SUVs, and a sensibly sized SUV with four-wheel-drive so you can motor securely on- or off-road regardless of the weather, just like in huge SUVs.

Yet here’s a sensibly sized SUV with a sensible price as well, such as the XL-7 we tested that stickered for $23,499 for the top-of-the-line Touring edition with four-wheel-drive. Only option on the test vehicle was floor mats for $95.

The test vehicle came with the standard 5-speed manual, which probably will account for at least a dozen sales in the U.S. annually, so to get a truer picture of actual cost, you have to add $1,000 for the optional 4-speed automatic.

Once you’ve giggled, chuckled or guffawed at the TV ads, reality sets in when you experience an XL-7. Sensibly sized and sensibly priced, but it does have a few shortcomings, so to speak.

The XL-7 is a stretched offshoot of Suzuki’s compact Grand Vitara sport-utility vehicle. While some might say it looks like a larger Grand Vitara, we think it looks like a miniature version of the big Toyota 4Runner sport-ute.

The XL-7 represents a 12.6-inch stretch of the Grand Vitara wheelbase and a 19.1-inch stretch of the Grand Vitara’s bumper-to-bumper length.

Stretch the wheelbase and you improve ride and handling, stretch the length and you improve cabin room. But what we found with the XL-7 is that the suspension seems to have a case of antsiness. Lots of motion and movement. Suzuki says the suspension is tuned to allow for lots of travel to smooth out blemishes in the road. Too much travel for our liking. We’d rather sit still for a better feeling of control.

The XL-7 is 70.1 inches wide, same dimension as a Ford Escape SUV, but for some reason the Suzuki feels a tadnarrow.Notthefold-your-arms-across-your-chest-because-there’s-no-room-to-stretch-them narrowness, but the kind of narrowness that, when teamed with the height of most SUVs, tends to create body lean in corners and turns, a trait that quickly had us adjust speed into those corners and turns to compensate.

The XL-7 is powered by a 2.7-liter, 24-valve, V-6 teamed with the 5-speed manual that develops 170 horsepower for adequate off-the-line power. But it did tend to growl a bit on quick take-offs.

And those 170 horses are no match for 18 wheels, as we found when trying to scoot down the tollway merger ramp and had two choices, stand on the gas pedal and let the semi driver taste our exhaust or back off and settle for a portion of crow as the 18-wheeler zoomed by. In case you are ever asked, crow tastes a bit like chicken.

The mileage rating is 17 m.p.g. city/20 m.p.g. highway, nothing spectacular, but then, this is a four-wheel-drive machine.

Perhaps the XL-7 lacks a little muscle as well as a little smoothness over the pavement, but it makes up for it in offering a host of noteworthy features as well as value for the dollar.

The most noteworthy feature, of course, is that has three rows of seats to hold up to seven passengers, a feat that General Motors will accomplish in its newly designed and enlarged midsize SUVs about a year from now.

Hmm. Maybe GM should have bought an equity stake in Suzuki sooner so it could add its own third-row seat less than a year after its tiny Japanese partner did, don’t you think?

By the way, while Suzuki offers a compact Grand Vitara, a version of which it provides to Chevy as the Tracker, there are no plans to give GM a version of the XL-7 badged as a Chevrolet, Suzuki says.

But we digress.

One problem in offering a third-row seat in a midsize SUV is finding an access aisle to get to that seat. Suzuki came up with a good solution. The second-row bench seat is split. Enter from either side of the vehicle and press the bar under the second-row seat and that side slides forward in a track built into the floor rather than on a metal rail bolted on top of it. If you need more room to get in the third row, pull the lever on the second-row seat back and it folds forward.

Once in back, you’ll find it surprisingly roomy, thanks in large part to the fact the third-row seat backs recline easy-chair style. When it’s time to get out, pull one handle to release the second-row seat back ahead of you, pull another handle to slide the second row seat forward and a wide aisle is created.

Caution, however, that the seat belt that stands out of the way when getting in the third row, tends to attach to your feet when getting out.

If you need more room for cargo than passengers, the second- and third-row seats fold flat.

In back, entry to the cargo hold is through a very wide-opening swing-out door with spare tire attached. Surprisingly, even with the third seat in place, there’s room for a set of golf clubs back there. And if you stack them carefully, you could get two sets of clubs inside.

Another nice touch is that if you lift the handle on the carpeted cargo floor, it opens to reveal several stowage compartments as well as a first-aid kit that includes one of those high-tech warming blankets that looks like a sheet of aluminum foil. There’s also a power plug, cupholders and little stowage compartment in the sidewall in back as well for passengers riding steerage.

Base price is $23,499 for the top-of-the-line four-wheel-drive Touring edition, which comes with front- and rear-seat air conditioning, power windows/locks/mirrors, remote keyless entry, cruise control, rear wiper/washer, privacy glass, AM/FM stereo with cassette and in-dash CD player, anti-lock brakes, 16-inch all-season radials, power sunroof, fog lamps and rear spoiler.

The 4WD system is engaged by a smooth and simple push of the transfer case lever in the center console–and can be done on the fly at up to 60 m.p.h.

One gripe, however. When in 4WD “hi” in the snow or 4WD “lo” in deep sand, the instrument panel light simp ly shows “4WD,” not “hi” or “lo.”

One other gripe is that it’s nice to have a power sunroof as standard, but why does this unit require that you press one overhead button to open, but two overhead buttons to close?