Two years ago, my BIL bought a Suzuki crossover. It seemed well-appointed, and reasonably priced. Anyway, he has just sold it. The reason was that the dealer that he bought the car from dropped the line, and none of the 4 other dealers in the area service them anymore. As well, he a had a minor accident last year (required replacing a fender)-it took 6 weeks to get the part.
He was advised by the salesman to get rid of it, because the guy was of the opinion that Suzuki was about to quit the market-the cars were never big sellers.
Any word on this? It must be hard for a small company in this market-when the big guys cut pricing, it makes it difficult to compete.
It could be, but it would be bad timing. They recently came out with the Kizashi, which is getting better reviews than any previous Suzuki.
According to the American Suzuki website they have 300 automobile dealers in 49 states. That’s a pretty small number compared Chevrolet or Toyota, and it’s entirely possible that they might lose, say, the single dealer they have in Arkansas. Not the same as quitting the entire country, but it won’t help if you’re in Arkansas.
So your brother-in-law took advice from a car salesman, who no longer sells that brand of car but does sell others? Do you think that perhaps he’s not the most disinterested advisor?
My local Saturn dealer just switched to being a Suzuki dealer as Saturn has been famously shut down. It would be ironic is Suzuki also shut down all their US dealers and this dealer had to switch manufacturers again.
A couple of Suzuki dealerships in the Milwaukee/Metro area switched to other brands. I hope the one remaining stays that way for a while. We have a '03 Vitara that we bought new but now use as a “beater car”. I drive it a lot in the winter as it’s 4X4 is much better in snow than my Mustang GT. It has over 100K on it and eventually will need parts.
Next time I’m at the dealership I’ll ask them WTF is going on.
A big part of Suzuki’s North American operations revolved around a few joint operations with GM. There were a few models that were jointly made in the US, and also many of Suzuki’s passenger cars sold here were really rebadged Daewoos (which is now owned by GM). These operating agreements have recently come to an end, and Suzuki is introducing more in-house models to North America. So Suzuki itself is probably not pulling out of the North American market (they’re doing quite well, considering the bad market), but support for the older GM joint venture vehicles might become iffy.
Well, with the original dealer quitting the line, and 4 others about to, my BIL found he had no dealer service in the area. Plus…6 weeks for a fender? That doesn’t seem like a company that has its act together.
Years ago, there was another unfamiliar japanese marque setting up shop in the USA (Daihatsu). They had a model called the “Charade”-not a name to inspire confidence. I went looking at one, and the dealer was just setting up-when I came back, the doors were locked and the sign gone!
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-20015712-48.html
No plans to pull out. Sales are hurting. Some dealers were offered buyouts (probably the worst ones who were bleeding money). VW bought 20% of Suzuki and it’s unclear how this will change things.
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Ralph was right! Suzuki is pulling out of the US and liquidating inventory. Anyone own a SX4 Crossover and like to share how well they like it? Dealers are offering $4K-$5k off and 0% financing.
Well, the OP being from Sept. 2010 it *did *take two years for the forecast to come to pass, so it may have been premature to dump the vehicle at the time, unless no continuing factory authorized support was arranged for that area. The person who spoke with **ralph **probably was at the time extrapolating from weak sales that they would not be able to stage a comeback (knowing there would be no bailout from Tokyo), and may have had prior experience with Isuzu’s departure from the US market.
Here in Puerto Rico Suzuki started selling motorcars under their own brand before they started doing so Stateside, and being sales territory under Suzuki Caribe, rather than under failed American Suzuki Motors, they say that (for the time being) they are staying here (though I would not be surprised if they quit bringing their saloon cars and stuck to their more profitable SUVs/Xovers).