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Junkyard Gem: 1985 Chevrolet Sprint

For in the 1985 model year, General Motors began selling Chevrolet-badged Suzuki Cultus hatchbacks in California. Sales of the cheap three-cylinder econobox in the rest of North America followed soon after (with the Canadian version known as the Pontiac Firefly), and did pretty well considering the crash in gasoline prices during the middle 1980s. Starting in 1988, the facelifted Sprint became the Geo (and, later on, Chevrolet) Metro. Here's one of the very first Cultuses sold on our shores, found in a San Francisco Bay Area car graveyard. Amazingly, the primitive rear-wheel-drive Chevrolet Chevette remained available all the way through 1987, competing with the thriftier front-wheel-drive Sprint in the same showrooms. For 1988, Pontiac started selling a rebadged Daewoo LeMans, so the Sprint/Metro never lacked for intra-corporate competition. Inside, you'll find the same stuff most mid-1980s Japanese econoboxes got: tough cloth upholstery and long-wearing hard plastics. Suzuki quality in 1985 wasn't quite up to Honda or Toyota levels, but you weren't paying Honda or Toyota prices for the Sprint. MSRP on this car started at $4,949, or about $12,000 in 2020 dollars. The cheapest possible 1985 Chevette cost $5,340, while a new no-frills Ford Escort would set you back $5,620. Subaru, however, could have put you in a punitively unappointed base-model Leone hatchback for just 40 bucks more than the Sprint that year. I think I'd have sprung the extra for a $5,348 Toyota Tercel, a $5,195 Mazda GLC, or— best cheap-commuter deal of all that year— the $5,399 Honda Civic 1300 hatchback. I was 19 years old and driving a Competition Orange 1968 Mercury Cyclone that year, and I recall feeling pity for Chevy Sprint drivers, new-car smell or not. Still, these weren't bad cars for the price, though a Sprint with an automatic transmission was a real character-builder. Got three cylinders and uses 'em all! 48 horsepower from this hemi-headed SOHC 1-liter. The Turbo Sprint — yes, such a car existed — had a howling 70 horsepower. The hood-latch release is a rectangular button that resembles a badge. 1985 Chevy Sprint Commercial The highest-mileage, lowest-priced car you can buy. 1985 holden barina commercial The Australian-market version was the Holden Barina, and the TV ads featured the Road Runner. 1983 SUZUKI CULTUS Ad In its homeland, this car got screaming guitars and a drive through New York City for its TV commercials.

Suzuki brought a retro hybrid coupe and an autonomous van concept to Tokyo Motor Show

Update: More photos and details of these Suzuki concepts have surfaced since their official reveal at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show. Turns out, the Waku Spo coupe can also be a wagon. We love it. When you swap in the wagon rear end, the rear seat slides back and automatically reclines. All of a sudden, the sporty coupe has turned into a somewhat roomy wagon kei car. Its interior features a fully digital dash that will actually simulate wood grain on the passenger side when in the Normal drive mode. When sport mode is selected, the "wood grain" transforms into a massive screen of dials and vehicle information. The Suzuki Hanare is the van pictured in the gallery and further below. Its drive wheels feature in-wheel electric motors, and the interior is all about customization. The folks in Suzuki's press photos look happy to be hanging out by their Hanares, and we think we'd be pretty happy too. One of the vans has a bar; the other has a massive screen with a map, and the middle van is full of storage for outdoor activity supplies. Lastly, Suzuki showed us the Hustler Concept. It's essentially just a Hustler made to look like an off-road kei car. We're picking up the Jimny vibes Suzuki is laying down. It's wonderfully boxy and features a bevy of neat accessories. Suzuki is celebrating its 100th anniversary at this year's Tokyo Motor Show. To mark the occasion, the company has created two unique concepts that look to the past for style, and the future for powertrain and use cases. One is called the Waku Spo, and the other is the Hanare. The Waku Spo is pictured above, and it's a plug-in hybrid with styling rooted in '60s Japanese cars. It's simple and squared off save for the wide fender flares and charming round headlights. There are dashes of chrome trim around the car and two-tone paint. The fender-mounted rearview cameras are a high-tech twist on a classic Japanese car feature. But if this design doesn't appeal to you, Suzuki says body and interior parts can be quickly switched out so each driver can have a car that's personalized to their tastes. While the Waku Spo is a more traditional, driver-oriented car, the Hanare is more of an autonomous pod. According to Suzuki, Hanare translates to "cottage" and the theme of the van is to be your home away from home. It's meant to be a mobile room to do whatever you want. It also looks like it's intended to be private and secluded, as the only windows are slender pieces that wrap around the roof.

Suzuki Alto goes back to basics in Japan

Believe it or not, you're looking at a brand new car. Not an old model from the '80s that's still being manufactured in some far-flung corner of the world, not a rehash of old technologies, but an all-new model introduced in Japan for the Japanese domestic market. Looking like a cross between a Jimny and a VW Up!, the new Suzuki Alto is a different machine entirely from the somewhat ungainly but comparatively modern model of the same name manufactured in India by Maruti Suzuki for markets around the world. This is the JDM version, built to Kei car specifications, and shares little more than its badges with the Indian model. Based on a supposedly all-new platform, the new Alto boasts what Suzuki claims is the best fuel economy of any non-hybrid in Japan. That's partially because of its spritely curb weight, down by 132 pounds over the model it replaces to tip the scales at just 1,345 pounds. That's over 600 pounds lighter than a Smart Fortwo. The whole thing rides on a tiny 97-inch wheelbase, of which 80 inches are taken up by the passenger compartment. Power comes from a 660cc three-cylinder engine mated to either a five-speed automated manual or CVT in a number of configurations that ought to help Suzuki sell even more of these than the 4.8 million Altos it's sold in Japan alone since its introduction 35 years ago. Featured Gallery 2015 Suzuki Alto (JDM) News Source: Suzuki Green Suzuki Hatchback Lightweight Vehicles JDM kei kei car