Why does Suzuki still sell cars in the US?

Suzuki Equator

I like to think that I keep up with the car industry, but I had NO idea Suzuki sold the Equator pickup...let alone the fact that they have been selling the truck since 2009! I have never EVER seen one on the road. This lazy excuse of a Nissan Frontier rebadge is exactly why Suzuki has had trouble gaining traction in the US in the last 20 years. Most of Suzuki's cars have been sourced from other automakers, notably through its partnership with GM/Daewoo. Unless it changes its strategy, I give the Suzuki US brand another 5-10 years before going the way of Isuzu -- that is, extinct. Click through to read why...

Suzuki Swift

Let's start by discussing Suzuki's smallest offering, the Swift, which is not sold in the US, but should be. For all intents and purposes, this is a perfectly competent car: reasonably attractive, sporty, and has competitive interior materials. Suzuki has likely resisted bringing the latest-gen Swift to the states for a few reasons: 1) an inability to effectively market its brand, 2) historically soft subcompact sales in the US (until recently) and 3) the troubled past of the Swift name. When I think of the Swift, I instantly think of the lazily rebadged Geo/Chevy Metro, one of the ugliest, most pointless subcompacts ever to hit US dealerships...

Second-gen Suzuki Swift (aka Geo Metro)

Does this picture ring a bell? None of these cars have held up over time, including this ripe example.  The new Swift is not rebadged at all, but Suzuki would need to change the name to give the car a fresh start.

Suzuki SX4 / Liana

The SX4, formerly known as the Aerio, is also known as the Liana in other parts of the world. This car was co-developed by Fiat and was designed by Italdesign Guigiaro, so it definitely has the right ingredients for a winning design. The SX4 also has had a successful run in the rally circuit. In addition, over the last 10 years, the Liana/SX4 has been featured in Top Gear as the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car both in the UK and US. Despite all this, I rarely see SX4s on the road, which I believe is the result of weak consumer marketing. Buyers of cheap compacts cars aren't necessarily watching Top Gear and WRC races. I also don't like the odd piece of glass between the A-pillar and door frame, which makes the car look cheap.

Suzuki Forenza

The now-defunct Forenza sedan / Reno hatchback, also designed by Italdesign, is a pair of reasonably attractive cars also sold under a plethora of names around the world, ranging from the Chevy Lacetti (as seen in the UK Top Gear), Holden Viva in Australia, Buick Excelle, Daewoo Nubira, and a variety of other names. After Daewoo left the US as an independent brand, its parent GM decided to pump their econoboxes through every partner and sub-brand possible, and the US got the Suzuki Forenza. At the end of the day, poor marketing killed the success of this bland yet competent car.

Suzuki Verona

The Verona, also now defunct, was another forgettable Italdesigned GM/Daewoo concoction, competent but not relevant enough to compete with the Camry, Accord, etc. If GM felt so highly about this design, wouldn't they have used it in place of their Malibu / Impala? The truth is, they didn't, so they gave the Verona to Suzuki to sell. Its success was miserable.

Suzuki Kizashi

Starting to see a trend? The Kizashi is Suzuki's replacement for the unmemorable Verona. It consistently performs well in comparison tests, but you see none on the road because of lack of marketing (and probably because of that ugly Lincoln Continental-style hump on the trunklid...ugly!). The front end, side profiles, and interior of the car are attractive, but I don't anticipate this car being successful enough to make a compelling business case in the US.

Suzuki Grand Vitara

Suzuki has historically seen success in the SUV market, and this is where they should continue to focus their efforts. The Grand Vitara (and the larger and slightly uglier XL7) is based on the Chevy Equinox platform, but is altered enough so as to mask the part-sharing. This is the one Suzuki you DO see on the road because it is consistent with the company's heritage. The Vitara is the modern-day replacement for the Sidekick, which was very successful in the US, along with its rebadged sister, the Chevy/Geo Tracker.

Suzuki Sidekick

I can't say the Sidekick has held up very well over the years, but at its time, it held a dominating position in the small, fun SUV category - a more refined alternative to the Jeep Wrangler. The convertible top (now absent from the Vitara) was an appealing feature for young buyers.

So, my advice for Suzuki? Marketing is not your forte, so stop selling cars no one knows about or cares about. Scale down your partnership with GM/Daewoo, which isn't helping you. Focus on the small SUV market where you actually have brand equity, and actually create something innovative people WANT to drive. Otherwise, you will always be an also-ran, no matter who you get to design your cars (ahem...Italdesign). Selling a poorly rebadged Nissan Frontier does not fool buyers, just as selling a rebadged Dodge Dakota did not fare well with Mitsubishi.

Ugly door handles can RUIN a car

BMW Z4

Door handles, while small and seemingly unnoticeable, are a crucial part of car design. In my opinion, European-style handles (think Mercedes) are most attractive, and have made their way onto most cars by now. However, quite a few car designs have been harmed by ugly door handles, like this BMW Z4. This awkward looking coupe/convertible could've been slightly improved with the handles seen on any other car in BMW's lineup. Click through to see some more examples:

#1: The dreaded 90s-00s GM door handle

Corvette C5 Z06

Look carefully at the door handle of this Corvette Z06, and compare to the pictures below. As mentioned in my previous post, this is a major reason why the C5 will lose appeal over time:

Buick LeSabre

Oldsmobile Intrigue

Pontiac Grand Prix

Chevy Malibu

There are even more (Impala, Aurora, Monte Carlo, Cutlass, Bonneville, Century, Regal, etc.), but need I continue? The fact that this ubiquitous door handle made its way to the Corvette disgusts me.

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#2: The Toyota Camry door handle

1991-1996 Toyota Camry

1996-2001 Toyota Camry

The Toyota Camry is the world's most uninspiring car. It is popular because it has excellent reliability and build quality - not because it looks good, because it doesn't. Notice that Toyota carried over the same bland door handle across 2 generations of Camrys, as well on many other cars in its lineup, ruining them as well.

Toyota Celica

Toyota MR2

Lexus LS

Lexus ES

Toyota Avalon

Toyota Corolla

Toyota Solara

Toyota 4Runner

Toyota Supra

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 #3: Nissan's hideaway SUV rear door handles

Nissan X-Terra

A sporty 2-door SUV can be pretty cool (think Land Rover Defender, Evoque, Jeep Wrangler, Hummer H1, Isuzu Amigo, Ford Bronco), but lack the functionality and space that a 4-door SUV provides. In an attempt to achieve the best of both worlds, some car companies - especially Nissan - have moved the rear door handle to the C-pillar to achieve the look of a 2-door SUV. However, I think this is really ugly and impractical - I am not tricked by this trompe l'oeil at all. And, by the way, it must be difficult for children to reach that high, which is counterintuitive given that children typically sit in the backseat. Aside from the Nissan X-Terra pictured above, here are a few more examples:

Nissan Pathfinder / Infiniti QX4

Nissan Armada / Infiniti QX56

Nissan Juke

The designers must have thought...could we make this any uglier? Yes! Let's add weird door handles to the rear doors!

Jeep Compass

 What a disaster the Jeep Compass is. The Nissan-like rear door handles add to the car's confusing mess of a design.

Honda Element

The Element's rear door handles are not as bad given how small the back doors are.

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#4: Miscellaneous Examples:

Renault Twingo

If you travel to any European country, you are bound to see many Renault Twingos on the road. Unlike Americans, Europeans love small, economical hatchbacks, and the Twingo definitely fits the bill. However, the styling is too cutesy for my tastes, and the round door handles do not help.

Audi A3

Everyone knows I'm a HUGE Audi A3 fan. However, if I have 1 gripe, it is the outdated door handles: why hasn't Audi put the same handles on the A3 as on the rest of the lineup?

Ford Thunderbird

The Thunderbird remake had a lot going for it, but always fell short in my eyes. Imagine how much sleeker this car would look with the European-style handles seen on all of Ford's models today...

Mazda 626

The Mazda 626 actually gives the Toyota Camry a run for its money on the most boring car ever made. The 626 has absolutely no style, except for its ugly, overstyled door handles, which make me not want to get inside this car even more. There is an extra crease in the door handle that just should not be there. It is subtle, so you may need to enlarge this picture to see what I'm talking about...

Honda CR-Z

I understand that Honda wants to be edgy, but the CR-Z's door handles are weird looking and do not look easy to open. Traditional handles may have looked sleeker.

Nissan Micra

Fortunately not sold in the states, the last-gen Micra looked like it was frowning from the side-profile. This frumpy design actually may have been improved with a more traditional kind of door handle.

Pontiac Trans Sport / Chevy Lumina / Oldsmobile Silhouette

Yikes! In its day, this minivan looked futuristic, but its design certainly has not stood the test of time. The door handles are quite avant-garde, something the already bonkers design did not need.

Porsche 911 996

Why not end with a bombshell - for first time in Porsche's history, the Porsche 911 996 and first-gen Boxster moved away from traditional door handles to the ones pictured above. For that reason alone, I do not like either model when I see them on the road. Everything else about the 996 and Boxster is beautiful, but the door handles impair the designs to such an extent that I would never buy either car. Fortunately, Porsche reinstated its old traditional door handles in the 997, 991, and refreshed Boxster.

My Ford Fiesta rally experience

I recently participated in the 1-day Ford Fiesta Rally Experience at Team O'Neil Rally School in Dalton, NH. My father accompanied me, and while he did not want to drive, he was able to take some awesome pictures (thanks dad!). I was taught basic rally techniques in both a classroom and track setting. For $569, the 7-hour class for 15 people was an amazing value and more fun than I could ever imagine. Click through to see more.

We started off learning how to left-foot brake by spinning the Fiesta around in a circular track. At first, it seems counterintuitive, since most people use their right foot for gas OR brake, but ralliers hold the gas and tap the brake at the same time to drift-turn the car on loose surfaces, rather than turning the steering wheel.

Once we learned how to left-foot brake, we went to the slalom, which sat at the bottom of a steep hill to gain speed. The instructors had us whip the cars around like there was no tomorrow, providing rapid-fire instructions like, "left, tap the brake, countersteer, keep your foot on the gas, right, tap the brake, countersteer" and after a few tries, I was picking up the technique. They had to continually wet the track to maximize the looseness of the dirt track.

By the way, the car in front with the busted bumper was actually the most souped up model of the bunch. It had previously been in a minor accident, so Team O'Neil gave it a sport exhaust system an real alloys.

Then things started to get more difficult...Pendulum turns and Trail Braking. Both techniques are ways to quickly turn the car at a sharp degree, and demand a strong understanding of when to use braking and how much pressure.

Pendulum turns involve counterintuitively turning the car in the opposite direction of the turn while braking, then letting off the brake and countersteering to use the car's momentum to correct itself and turn in the correct direction. To be honest, I will need quite a few more runs before I could master this one...

Trail braking is a bit simpler: as you approach a turn, you apply brake pressure. Once you release the brake, the car's weight shifts and slides you into the turn at the correct angle.

The next set of exercises were related to accident avoidance and were actually quite practical, in addition to being fun. The instructor had us ramp up speed to 40 mph and approach a set of cones (we were supposed to visualize a moose in the middle of the road), and he would randomly shout one of three instructions: 1) stop, 2) stop turn (left or right), and 3) no stop turn (left or right). Similar to a real accident scenario, the randomness of the instruction required us to stay on our toes.

The Fiesta itself was a joy to drive and is very easy on the eyes. The little subcompact is probably the best looking car in its class and fits nicely with the rest of Ford's design language. The interior is exceptionally high-class for a car at this price range. The models we were driving were stripped of carpeting for safety and to save weight, but the dashboard is smartly designed with easy to operate buttons. The cars we were driving are heavily flogged on a daily basis, but have held up quite nicely, which is a testament to Ford's quality. The steering was direct, the acceleration was peppy, and the brakes were responsive. By the end of the day, I was convinced - if I was in the market for a subcompact, the Fiesta would be at the top of my list.

As a treat for finishing the long day of exercises, the instructors took us on a lap around the track at full speed. I am sitting in the back seat of this red Fiesta pictured above, and was clinging on for dear life! The pro driver took us off small jumps, sped down a tiny wooded path at 40+ mph, and did huge powerslides - much larger than the ones I was attempting to do earlier. This experience was almost more fun than driving the cars myself!

In sum, I would recommend this course to anyone who is a car enthusiast. Every single person who participated left with a huge grin on their face (myself included). The program was professional, educational, and excellent value compared to some of the other driving schools out there. I hope to do the 2 or 3 day school, which goes into more depth in some of the more advanced techniques. Plus, they have a full stable of Audi, Subaru, Jeep, VW vehicles of all drivetrains. I could see this getting pretty addictive...

Top 10 ugliest SUVs of all time

Pontiac Aztek

SUVs are a relatively modern phenomenon, rising in popularity in the mid-90s and losing steam in the late-00s when gas prices rose. In this short amount of time, we've gotten some great designs (which I will save for a subsequent post) and some scary designs. I want to spend time discussing the latter. I've ranked the top 10 ugliest SUVs, in order of bad to worst. Click through to see:

Mercedes GLK

10. Mercedes GLK. If you haven't already noticed, I am a huge Mercedes fan...so it pains me to include the GLK on this list, but it must be done. The GLK is oddly proportioned throughout. The front end looks like a cartoon character, the sides are too boxy, and the car looks pretty wimpy for an SUV. The interior is up to Mercedes' standards, but the exterior falls short of competitors like the Q5 and SRX.

BMW X3

9. BMW X3. BMW has finally fixed the awful Bangle-era styling of its 3, 5, and 7 sedans, but there's still something very displeasing about the X3 - too many nips, tucks, creases, and bends for my liking. The rear windows between the C and D pillar are an ugly shape, and I don't like the little downward curls and creases on the sides of the car. The front end is nothing extraordinary. The interior is the design's only saving grace in my opinion.

Acura ZDX

8. Acura ZDX. As the Honda Crosstour's ugly sister, the ZDX has had a hard time getting notoriety as a contender in the swoopy-SUV category. After the success of the Mercedes CLS, all the car manufacturers are racing to get 4-door coupe designs on as many vehicles as possible - sedan and SUV. The ZDX is Acura's answer to the BMW X6, but falls short. The front end has Acura's ugly shield, the rear doors have Pathfinder-like handles, and the rump is too big. Acura tried way to hard on this one.

Jeep Compass

7. Jeep Compass. Jeep screwed up on the Compass / Patriot combo. The quirky Compass was meant for the female demographic, while the boxier Patriot was for the male counterpart. Instead, why not create 1 vehicle the entire population would want to buy? Neither car could actually go off road; based on the Dodge Caliber, this platform was meant to be an SUV-like successor to the Dodge Neon. The harmless looking Patriot was the less egregious of the 2 Jeeps. Meanwhile, the Compass is a hot mess of design cliches. We've got the triangular front indicator lights, the word "Compass" is written in huge letters on the fake aluminum-trimmed bumper, the D-pillar is ugly and provides poor rear visibility, and the rear doors have Pathfinder-like handles (similar to the aforementioned ZDX) to give a fake-coupe look. None of this works, and the car hasn't sold well. For 2011, Marchionne has ordered up some much-needed improvements to the front end and the bargain-basement interior...but is it enough?

Infiniti QX

6. Infiniti QX. One word to describe the QX: ghastly. Check out my article on Infinitis...nuff said.

Lincoln MKT

5. Lincoln MKT. The MKT would make a good hearse, but not much else. Check out my Lincoln article.

Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet

4. Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet. Kudos to Nissan for trying to push the design envelope...but it didn't work, sorry. The Murano's front end looks like a frog; shedding 2 doors and roof does not help its case. There is something unflattering and hunchbacked about the design. The rear lights are awkward, similar to the Toyota Venza. For close to $50k, I don't understand why you would get an unsporty convertible instead of the myriad of true 4-seater convertibles in that price-range. And if you're dead set on an SUV convertible, get a Jeep Wrangler.

Subaru B9 Tribeca

3. Subaru B9 Tribeca. There is something very feminine about the Tribeca's design. Nothing wrong with femininity, but a dainty SUV fundamentally confuses me. The front end is one of the biggest trainwrecks in modern auto design history. The rest of the car is forgettable and irrelevant. The dashboard is shaped in an ugly swirl. Subaru tried too hard to innovate, and the result was one of the ugliest SUVs in history.

Honda Crosstour

2. Honda Crosstour. What's the only thing worse than an Acura ZDX? Its hideous sister the Honda Crosstour. This ugly duckling came very close to unseating the #1 ugliest SUV. The Crosstour is Honda's self-indulgent take on the swoopy SUV, mixing a variety of poor design cues. When the car was revealed on Facebook, the overwhelming number of negative responses resulted in one of the worst marketing campaigns in history. Honda is so embarrassed of the bad publicity, that they removed "Accord" from the nameplate, which is now just "Crosstour". The front end is oddly proportioned and the grille looks like it was yanked off of a last-gen Honda Odyssey. The rear end is jacked up too much, and whereas the Porsche Panamera can pull off a big rump, the Crosstour doesn't manage to. Time for an emergency redesign, Honda.

Pontiac Aztek

1. Pontiac Aztek. The king of ugly SUVs reigns supreme! Despite being out of production for over 5 years, AND despite the fact that the Pontiac brand does not exist anymore, the Aztek is still often mentioned in car publications in reference to the quintessential ugly SUV. The Aztek concept was a cool idea - a study to design the most functional SUV. But when the concept met reality, too many design features were scrapped and the vision was compromised beyond repair. Excessive gray plastic body cladding, ugly wheel arches, an amphibious "double grille", an oddly-slanted rear end, and frumpy proportions throughout plague this car to this day. I personally believe the Aztek was the catalyst (followed by the G6 GXP) that eventually brought Pontiac to its demise.

Honorable Mention:

• Toyota Venza


• (First-gen) Toyota RAV4


• Buick Rendezvous


• Saab 9-7X


• Chevy Blazer


• (Current-gen) Honda CR-V