Not good news for suzuki fans. Its the car division but the bike side has not been doing well either.....sure would be sad if suzuki is gone for good!

Anyway they are dropping theri car division, which actually I liked, I have some fond memories of following my wife 400 miles from LA to SFO with her driving a rental Suzuki Esteem and me my new - used F150 that I searched for for 3 months pre google, found one in LA, 97 extra cab long bed 18K miles 18g paid in cash, didn't borrow a single cent after tha tfor 5 years till I bought my house. Cute car, lovely memories.

Man I loved recycler.com, I think craigslist is a poor poor poor substitute for recycler.

Cool.
Srinath.

Pine wrote on 11/06/12 at 08:58:52:


Since most buyers of the Grand Vitara were 50+ years old, I've renamed it the Grand Viagra!

Midnightrider wrote on 11/06/12 at 16:37:57:


That pickup they have is just a rebadged Nissan Frontier.  But ya, the cars were good value for the money.  

It's only American Suzuki Motor Corporation...they only sell 1% of their cars in the US.  They're not made here so that hurts them.  They will continue to honor warranties though

Pine wrote on 11/07/12 at 08:59:32:


Back in the early 80's I was in Puerto Rico and the little Suzuki Samurai's were plentiful, and they were ot available in my part of the US.  These were simple and light jeeps with 3 cylinder engines I believe, and no US smog or crash stuff.  Later you could get similar ones in the US with more stuff and bigger engines.  I always wanted one of these little Samurias.....but like everything else with cars they kept making them bigger and more expensive every year.  If I needed another project - I understand that putting a VW diesel into the Samuria makes a nice vehicle.

I've had a 2002 Grand Vitara LTD (v6) for nearly 11 years.  Some versions of the Suzuki Vitara and Grand Vitara are also marketed as the Chevy/Geo Trakker.  Honestly, it should get better mileage for it's size but it's not something Suzuki put much effort into (at least at the time this one was built).  I do like that it's a full ladder box frame though I'm sure the added weight is part of the poor mileage.  Several years back they stopped using the full frame and went unibody on them using the same base frame as a chevy minivan.  Like any vehicle it's had a few minor problems but other than the mileage, I have no real complaints and will be happy to continue driving her for years to come.

I believe the Suzuki Swift was the three cylinder.