1986 Suzuki Samurai 1.6 Efi Built & Ready on 2040-cars

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Funning around with ZF's Smart, Advanced Urban Vehicles

ZF has a lot of experience building various electric vehicle parts, including transmissions, but it doesn't put them all together into one cute little package that often. The ZF Advanced Urban Vehicle changes that, and shows what the company can do when it takes bits and pieces of its admittedly cool tech and throws them all into the shell of an old Suzuki Swift. We got to control the all-electric beast at an event in Germany this summer, using nothing but a connected iPad. There were three headline technologies on the AUV (also called the Smart Urban Vehicle): the remote control Smart Parking Assist function, the all-electric rear-axle drive electric Twist Beam (eTB), and the PreVision Cloud Assist. PreVision Cloud Assist ZF had a short track set up for us to try out the PreVision Cloud Assist. The first time around the track, nothing was different. It's not supposed to be. The trick with Cloud Assist is that the car saves real-world driver interactions into its memory and, with the addition of GPS coordinates, starts to learn how to drive the route. Go to work the same way every day? If you're being assisted by a cloud, then all you have to do is steer. The car learns how fast it can take a turn and when it needs to slow down, with the idea here is to let the car move when it can, increasing the efficiency and range of an EV. You're still in charge in case of traffic ahead, but in open road circumstances, you won't need to touch the brakes or the gas. Just the steering wheel. On my second time around the demo track (which had data from other drivers who had tested the car earlier in the day), I kept my feet off the pedals, and the darn thing worked. It slowed me down when necessary to make a curve, but kept me at a brisk pace that felt a bit too fast but was in fact totally appropriate. Electric Twist Beam There's another bit of cool tech hidden near the front wheels. The car uses a MacPherson strut that was modified to offer a wider steering angle, up to 75 degrees, to be exact. ZF calls this the electric Twist Beam (eTB), and it gives the car an incredibly tight turning radius, about 6.5 meters. An axle like this could go into an EV or an ICE vehicle, but it makes a lot of sense in an electric car since it does have a major problem: it can't be powered. No worries, thought ZF engineers, who made the little SUV rear-wheel-drive by adding two electric motors.

Suzuki Jimny is the classic Defender homage Land Rover should be building

Lake District, U.K. – The Land Rover Defender is to Brits what the F-150 is to Americans. Or rather it was, before it got too expensive and the farmers all switched to Japanese pick-ups. The Defender was effectively put out to pasture, relegated to being a lifestyle trinket. And Land Rover's endless prevarication over replacing the Defender can be partly attributed to this dilemma: Should it be in the original's mold, a fix-it-with-hammers rugged utility vehicle? Or should it concede that market and instead become a premium premium-priced Mercedes G-Class rival? Meanwhile, while Land Rover had dithered, others have capitalized – not least Suzuki's Jimny, which nails the seemingly conflicting demands of the new Defender's brief in one cute, pint-sized package So too is the Jimny priced at a level buyers in markets where it is offered can chalk up as a discretionary purchase. Dating back to the early 1970s, the Jimny has a heritage of its own to draw upon. But this lo-fi remix of traditional 4x4 tech and functionally slick styling has scored a bullseye for both utility users and the hipster brigade, both of whom place great value in authenticity. True, U.S. buyers won't have the option of the Jimny as they will the Defender, no matter how many emails Suzuki receives. But it's interesting to explore how it pulls the rug from underneath Land Rover, right here on the British stalwart's home soil. To demonstrate this we've travelled to the Lake District, a picturesque region on England's northwest coast with classic countryside vistas. Outside of the U.K., mountains topping out a little over 3,000 feet sound little to write home about – but, like the Jimny, modest size and ruggedness aren't mutually exclusive and there are trails here to test any street-spec off-roader. Competing pressures for access and a popular backlash against mechanized vehicles in the countryside mean tight controls for recreational drivers though, with many once-popular trails now closed to traffic. Those that remain accessible carry severe restrictions, our chosen route over Gatescarth Pass rarely opened to traffic and, when it is, limited to 4x4s with wheelbases of 100 inches or less. A Wrangler would just scrape through but these remain a rare sight in the U.K., and the limit is arguably skewed to favor the home team: the 90-inch, short-wheelbase Defenders that remain a staple for the quaintly English pursuit of 'green-laning'.

Suzuki ending auto sales in Canada, too

Suzuki of Japan has reportedly made the decision that almost everyone assumed it would make when it announced it was leaving the US market: when the 2014 model year concludes, it will no longer sell cars in Canada. With six employees overseeing its auto business in Canada and a dealer network that has shrunk to 55 outlets in the country, we can't say we're shocked.
At the time of the US announcement, however, the senior VP of sales and marketing in the automotive division of Suzuki Canada said it would be able to survive on its own because, among other reasons, Canadians prefer smaller, more fuel-efficient cars that fit the company's offerings. Five months later, after some time to think about a 30-percent drop in sales to open up 2013 instead of the 1.4-percent increase in sales that Suzuki Canada posted last year, things have evidently changed.
The Globe and Mail reports that as is in the US, Suzuki's motorcycle, ATV and marine divisions in Canada will remain.