Part 35: Suzuki Equator


Suzuki always had a very dubious business case for existing in North America.  As far as I can tell, their sole reason for being here at all was to supply Vitaras to General Motors, who rebadged them as Chevrolet and Geo Trackers.  Once GM stopped buying the Canadian-built Vitara in 2004, Suzuki's financial position in North America became even more tenuous.

Without the General's cash rolling in, Suzuki needed to find a new revenue steam.  That usually means finding more customers willing to buy your cars.  The problem was Suzuki was a very niche brand with a limited model range and a sparse dealer network.  The only way they could do this was to flesh-out their product portfolio but, with Suzuki's core business being in Japanese kei-class cars, they lacked the sort of product Americans were inclined to buy.

The immediate, quick-and-dirty solution was to strike another deal with Big-Daddy GM and buy a bunch of Korean-built Daewoos and slap some Suzuki badges onto them.  This worked for a little while and Suzuki experienced a temporary bump in sales until early-2000s Korean build quality came back to haunt them.  By the time the 2008 Great Recession blew-up in everyone's faces, Suzuki was in deep doo-doo.  They needed something, anything, that cash-strapped Americans were still willing to squander their kid's inheritance to buy.  But what?

Well, Americans love their pickup trucks.  A truck seemed like an obvious way to get customers in the door and parting them from their money.  Knowing most Americans would never consider a Suzuki Sambar mini-truck, they needed to come up with something more America-friendly.  That something turned out to be a rebadged, Tennessee-built Nissan Frontier.

Why buy a Nissan-built truck from a Suzuki dealer as opposed to a Nissan dealer?  Hell if I know?  Nobody else seemed to know, either.  Production ran from from the 2009 model year through 2012, although Suzuki gave up trying to flog these in Canada after 2010.  2012 also coincided with Suzuki's withdrawal from the US car market.  Maybe if they had bothered to import the Swift or the Jimny, both of which get rave reviews overseas, Suzuki could have carved out a small, profitable niche for itself?  Alas, we'll never know.

Because sales were limited to the USA and Canada, you're unlikely to see a Suzuki Equator in any of the Equatorial regions around the world.  You'll just have to settle for the equivalent Nissan.

Quote from: Morris Minor on May 14, 2024, 05:27:12 AMOkay they bought the Odyssey - immaculate EX-L, 32k miles and the rear entertainment add-on. The new tires are Michelin CC2s - so that's good.

This means the end of the road at last for the 2003 Pilot. I bought it new in 2002 when my son was 13, & it now has something like 260k miles on the clock.

That's a strong run for the Pilot.  20+ years and a quarter million miles is impressive.

Okay they bought the Odyssey - immaculate EX-L, 32k miles and the rear entertainment add-on. The new tires are Michelin CC2s - so that's good.

This means the end of the road at last for the 2003 Pilot. I bought it new in 2002 when my son was 13, & it now has something like 260k miles on the clock.

I saw lots of Rogues in New Zealand (OT: and, funnily enough, lots of Mazdas [or "Mazda's" as they say on the Internet]. Mazdas of all kinds, several of which I'd never seen before.)

I'd rather not risk dealing with flat tire on 2hr drive to catch a flight, so we'll take Odyssey this week. And yeah, these exact tires are $200. Michelin Primacy A/S with 8k miles on them.

The Primacy Tour A/S has better user reviews on tirerack, but also 3lbs and $30 more per tire.

Quote from: MrH on May 13, 2024, 09:16:54 AMI can't think of a single competitive Nissan product at this point.

Rogue is somewhat competitive, or at least not terrible compared to the rest of its segment.  But I agree the rest of Nissan's lineup is garbage.

Buying a new Nissan is a smart move if you hate yourself and get pleasure out of self-harm.  That's about it. 

Probably fine unless you hit a pothole hard. Gonna need to be replaced soon

I can't think of a single competitive Nissan product at this point.

Looking over Nissan's current product portfolio, it becomes readily apparent the Rogue is their only competitive product.  Everything else is either roundly trounced by the competition, or is as old as the hills.  It's obvious Nissan won't (or can't) spend money on product development and frequently resorts to the "mutton dressed as lamb" approach by clothing very old underpinnings in new bodywork.

Look at the Nissan Z.  The 2023 model is effectively a reskin of the 2009 370Z, which itself was based on a slightly modified version of the 2003 350Z platform.  Likewise, the Z's VR engine is an evolution of the VQ engine which is now 30 years old.  So what we have here is a new body masking a very old car underneath.

I got stuck with a Nissan Kicks rental car last year and I can't even begin to fathom why anyone would spend their own money for one.  Wait, I can think on ONE reason.....

Living in Middle Tennessee, I am in Nissan Central.  Their US headquarters is in Franklin and there's a massive production facility in Smyrna, plus the engine plant in Decherd.  Just about everyone here is either related to someone or knows someone who can swing them a killer Friends & Family discount on a new Nissan.  This explains why, like cockroaches in a Waffle House, these damned Nissans are EVERYWHERE in my neck of the woods!

Even with this incentive, I still have no burning desire to buy one.