My ongoing belief is that, in general, Subaru makes its money from well-marketed economy cars. Now that Subaru is producing more cars with Toyota, this feels even more true. That marketing is incredible, though, and I don’t mean to slight it. It’s not that the cars are bad; it’s just that the way they’ve been positioned as a lifestyle vehicle for people who have the money–but not always the time to live that lifestyle–is just incredible. Subaru’s marketing and brandwork is probably the best of any automaker over the last 20 years.
A good example of this is that now Toyota is selling a compact electric CUV with Subaru, and the Toyota version is only AWD, whereas the Subaru version comes with FWD. That’s strange, right? I think that’s incredibly strange. I’m confident that if the Uncharted FWD flops, it’ll have little to do with capability and more to do with the pricing, tariffs, or the general state of the EV market in the United States.
Do you know another Japanese brand that’s been making capable economy cars for arguably even longer? Suzuki is celebrating 55 years of its 4×4/AWD technology this year.
The company thought that what the world needed was a mini car that could actually go somewhere without getting stuck. Suzuki’s solution was the LJ10 Jimny, a vehicle the company calls “the one-and-only authentic off-roader in the Japanese mini-car segment” when it launched in 1970. It looks like a Jeep that was hit with a shrink-ray, but this one gets eight slats in the grille. Eight! What value.
Over time, the vehicle was improved with bigger engines, including a 550cc three-cylinder, water-cooled two-stroke engine. Can you imagine the luxury and power of that?
While Suzuki had success with the original Jimny, the company knew that it would need to make increasingly less spartan vehicles for markets like the United States. In America, we got the Jimny as the very cool Suzuki Samurai, alongside a bunch of other cheaper economy cars. The Samurai was a minor hit, but was discontinued for… reasons.
Suzuki kept going, and we got a vehicle that was more of a middle ground in the still-handsome Vitara. This was also sold as the Geo Tracker in the United States, and I kind of love this. It still looks remarkably good and I’d definitely rock the little convertible version. The later Chevy Tracker was a uglier, but David thought it was extremely capable.
Ultimately, Suzuki would make a hodgepodge of vehicles in the United States that didn’t quite connect with an audience. The Kizashi was the company’s last attempt, and though the car itself was good (I was on the press launch), it didn’t fit within the company’s larger brand. Or, worse, the company didn’t have a larger brand.
Around the time that Suzuki focused on giving crossovers and SUVs to consumers in the United States with the help of General Motors, there was another GM-aligned brand that tried to do the same. But that brand did it with a station wagon of all things.
While the wagon market was fizzling, the marketing was choice, and Subaru has gone on to be one of the biggest brands in the United States. Suzuki? If you want a new Suzuki you’ll need to go somewhere else.
Top photo: Suzuki
The final Grand Vitara that we got here has always intrigued me. I remember hearing that it had partially boxed frame despite being unibody and I’d love to hear the technical specs but alas I’ve yet to find anything about it online. It seems to be a victim of that grey space that Thomas Hundal was talking about the other day regarding press data and official automotive reports.
Suzuki does pretty well in Australia, I had a swift sport for 15 years and loved it, never had any trouble with it. The new Jimny sells really well – last time I looked (admittedly a while ago) you couldn’t get one the waiting list was so long.
Absolutely, I have a few friends with Jimnys that love them, and my mum traded in her bought-new 2006 Impreza for a Vitara Turbo last year and loves it.
2 brands that leave me scratching my head as to why they didn’t succeed, are Suzuki and Isuzu.
Easy. Neither could crack the crossover formula. Sure their proper 4x4s and off-roaders were formidable, but what people wanted were RAV4 and Honda Pilot-esque ‘SUVs’ that looked cool but drove like Camrys and Accords. Isuzu’s attempt with the BOF Axiom was just far too expensive and unrefined, and Suzuki’s Grand Vitara was not as cushy as buyers wanted despite being more capable than any Toyota or Honda soft-roader.
But I think the real kicker is that both were heavily tied up with GM—moreso than Subaru ever was—and GM preferred if you bought an Isuzu-badged Trailblazer or Suzuki-badged Equinox rather than something actually Japanese-designed.
Suzuki would’ve been a success in the US if it stuck around just a bit longer. Affordable SUVs…they’d have virtually no competition.
We all know the Jimny would sell here in spite of its shortcomings.
The later versions of the Suzuki-built Vitara / grand Vitara and XL7 are very capable, reliable, large(ish) cars. Just don’t buy the last generation XL7 that was made by GM.
As a marketer and Geo Tracker owner I agree, it’s too bad that we don’t have Suzuki here anymore. And that we do have Subaru.
The problem is that Suzuki is at its core a mini car specialist. It is not really a full-line manufacturer. Its best products are all Kei cars and near-Kei cars.
Also, don’t forget that Suzuki also built the Chevy Sprint, Sprint Turbo and Suzuki Swift GT. They were all great small cars and Suzuki should be remembered for those efforts too
I’ve always liked the SX4 hatchbacks and still see quite a few around in places where Subies tend to be popular for their AWD prowess.
The SX4 interior looks QUITE basic though, and this is coming from someone who essentially drives a Corolla hatch.
I also liked that about it!
Agreed. I rented an SX4 for a FEMA deployment in Upstate 2011 for the catastrophic flooding: loved it. Very capable and spartan, with nothing missing I actually cared about. An irritating coworker rented a VW CC and joked every time she rode in my car how cheap it seemed. The CC’s interior looked like a video game console in comparison but was the wrong car for the washed out roads and trails I found myself traversing. I’ve wanted one ever since but keep buying irresponsible cars like 300zx’s, Abarths and Paos.