2006 Suzuki Forenza Base Sedan 4-door 2.0l on 2040-cars

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Suzuki design chief discusses Tokyo e-Survivor SUV concept

Underdog Suzuki is one of the more mysterious Japanese brands. Rarely talked about, or indeed self-promoted, it quietly sold nearly 3 million vehicles worldwide in 2016 (alongside sister brand Maruti), and Suzuki has made some intriguingly original cars in recent years. Take the cute-but-tough Ignis city car SUV or the boxy-but-compact Hustler minivan, plus quite a few more. Autoblog took the chance to catch up with the automaker's relatively new head of design, Akira Kamio, at the recent 2017 Tokyo Motor Show to discuss Suzuki latest e-Survivor SUV Concept, plus his personal inspirations. The 54-year-old Kamio – whose design back catalog includes the concept and production Splash city car and second-generation Vitara small SUV, among others – says the beach-buggy-on-steroids show car "imagines a 2030 autonomous car with electric motors within each wheel on a ladder frame." That's a long way out in conceptual terms, as some of the vehicle's futuristic details suggest – rim sections that change color from green to blue according to mode aren't strictly necessary – but there is solid functional thinking to some of its more outlandish elements. Case in point, the see-through doors – long a staple of concept-car design from Italian masters such as Giugiaro and others – have been rendered here in a forward-thinking way. "When in autonomous mode the door glass goes opaque for privacy," Kamio said. "But when in off-road mode, the door glass automatically clears again so the driver can see the obstacles around it to help maneuver over rough terrain. This feature works on the model; it's a serious concept." As to the most relevant element of the e-Survivor's design for nearer-term vehicles, Kamio points to the five vertical slots with the Suzuki "S" logo in front of the center slot. A familiar design cue of the classic Jimny SUV, here this graphic is illuminated and set behind a black-tinted perspex-like cover. Kamio would not be drawn on when the next version of that long-running vehicle would arrive. But given that the third-generation version of the Jimny has been in production since 1998, the mark 4 is long overdue – even by the standards of Jimny's long manufacturing cycles – and is widely expected to arrive in 2018, taking proportional and design detail cues from the e-Survivor.

Suzuki recalling 184k GM-built models for fire risk

Suzuki is recalling 184,244 total units of the 2004-2008 Forenza (pictured above) and 2005-2008 Reno manufactured under contract by Daewoo, now General Motors Korea, between September 1, 2003, through July 30, 2008, for a risk of fire. The exact split in terms of number of each model isn't available yet.
In the vehicles, the heat generated in the headlight switch or daytime running light module could cause the parts to melt and cause a fire. If this sounds somewhat familiar, it's the same reason that 218,000 units of the 2004-2008 Chevrolet Aveo are being recalled. According to General Motors spokesperson Alan Adler: "It's the same issue."
Adler explained that as the contracted manufacturer, GM is responsible for finding a remedy to this problem and providing it to Suzuki. It's a similar situation as Toyota recalling the Matrix and giving the automaker the repair parts to fix the Pontiac Vibe, which shares the platform.

Junkyard Gem: 1997 Geo Metro LSi

General Motors created the Geo brand in order to sell cars built in partnership with Suzuki, Isuzu and Toyota in the United States, and Geo-badged machinery was sold from the 1989 through 1997 model years. Today's Junkyard Gem, found in a New Orleans self-service boneyard recently, is one of the very last Geos ever built. There was always a close relationship between Geo and Chevrolet, which GM demonstrated by sneaking the Chevrolet bowtie into the Geo logo. The first three Geo-branded models began their careers with Chevrolet badging before getting Geo-ized for 1989. The Spectrum, twin to the Isuzu I-Mark, was a Chevrolet from 1985 through 1988. The 1985-1988 Chevrolet Sprint was a badge-engineered first-generation Suzuki Cultus, with its second-generation successor becoming the Geo Metro. The Prizm was a NUMMI-built Toyota Corolla Sprinter, which replaced the Sprinter-based 1985-1987 Chevrolet Nova. The Daewoo-built Pontiac LeMans never became a Geo, presumably because its ancestry was South Korean rather than Japanese. In 1989, Geo added the Storm (Isuzu Impulse), followed by the Tracker (Suzuki Sidekick) as a 1990 model. In December 1996, GM announced that the Geo brand would get the axe in the fall of 1997, with the Prizm, Tracker and Metro becoming Chevrolets. This car was built at CAMI Automotive in Canada in May 1997, making it one of the final handful of Geos assembled. The Chevrolet Metro stuck around through 2001. For its final model year, the Geo Metro was available with one of two trim levels: base and LSi. This car is an LSi three-door hatchback, which had an MSRP of $9,180 ($17,906 in 2024 dollars). The base three-door hatchback for 1997 listed at $8,580, or $16,735 after inflation. The most important difference between the base and LSi versions was found under the hood. The base Metro got a 1.0-liter three-cylinder engine rated at 55 horsepower and 58 pound-feet, while the LSi got the 1.3-liter "big-block" four-cylinder with 70 horses and 74 pound-feet. I owned a '96 Metro with the four-banger for a brief period, and it wasn't quite intolerably slow. This car has the optional three-speed automatic, which added $595 ($1,161 today) to the price. It also has air conditioning and a Delco AM/FM radio, which were included as part of the $1,346 1SE option package ($2,625 in today's money). It was thus a boring but serviceable commuter car that sipped gas and got its job done for 27 years and 113,610 miles.