2008 Suzuki Grand Vitara Jlx Sport Utility 4-door 2.7l on 2040-cars

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Junkyard Gem: 1986 Chevrolet Sprint Plus

General Motors sold second- and third-generation Suzuki Cultuses with Geo or Chevrolet Metro badging in the United States from 1989 through 2001 model years, and we've all seen plenty of those cars on the street over the years. The first-generation Cultus was sold here as well, with Chevrolet Sprint badges, and I've found a rare example of the Sprint five-door hatchback in a Northern California car graveyard. The Chevy Sprint first appeared on the West Coast as a 1985 model, then became available everywhere in the United States for the 1986 through 1988 model years (in Canada, it was sold as the Pontiac Firefly). It was available here as a hatchback with three or five doors; for 1986 only, the five-door was badged as the Sprint Plus. Soon enough, The General would be selling many more Asian-built cars with Detroit badges here. Isuzu I-Marks were sold as Chevrolet/Geo Spectrums starting in the 1986 model year, while Daewoo provided the Pontiac LeMans two years later. Under the hood, a 1.0-liter three-cylinder rated at 48 horsepower. The five-door Sprint cost $5,580 in 1986, which was $200 more than the three-door (those prices would be $15,445 and $14,891 in 2023 dollars). I've documented seven discarded Sprints prior to this one (including an extremely rare Turbo Sprint), and all of them were three-doors; we can assume that price was the most important factor for Sprint buyers. Gasoline prices were crashing hard during the middle 1980s, but memories of gas lines and odd-even-day fuel rationing from 1979 remained strong. What cars competed with the '86 Sprint on sticker price? Well, there was no way to undercut the hilariously affordable (and terrible) Yugo GV, which cost $3,990. The much bigger (but still pretty bad) Hyundai Excel listed at $4,995, while Toyota would sell you a sturdy (but zero-fun) Tercel starting at $5,448. Even the wretched Chevy Chevette — yes, it was still available in 1986 — cost $5,645. The original buyer of this car was willing to shell out an extra $395 to get an automatic instead of the base five-speed manual. That's about $1,093 in today's money. This car must have been slow. By the end, the doors were held shut with duct tape, but it still stayed alive until age 37. 53 miles per gallon on the highway! It does everything. The camels of the highway.

Suzuki teases production C-segment crossover, could it have saved them in US?

Suzuki may be retreating (amidst booming sales) from the US market, but its efforts to woo European buyers are still going strong. Witness as proof these shadowy teaser images of the automaker's new C-segment crossover that it plans to unveil at the Geneva Motor Show next month.
Until the official debut, we've got just a few tidbits of information to report about the upcoming Suzuki. We're told, and can see, that the car has been modeled on the S-Cross concept car from the 2012 Paris Motor Show. Quite a bit of translation has happened, however, from show car to production form, as we see that the sweeping greenhouse of the S-Cross has been ditched in favor of a traditional pillared setup, large LEDs have moved from the lower front fascia to under the headlamps, and the grille is now much more in line with the rest of Suzuki's current range. The crossover is still painted in a faintly froggish shade of green, though, so the weirdness hasn't been completely leeched out.
We're also informed that the new C-segment offering will have an available a four-wheel-drive powertrain and one of the largest luggage areas in the segment. All of which strikes us as good stuff, but we're still not convinced that this unnamed entrant could have turned the Japanese automaker's fortunes in North America - even if it would have competed in one of the industry's fastest-growing segments. Feel free to read over Suzuki's brief press release below and look at the images before speculating for yourself in Comments.

Top Gear hosts' classic bikes head for auction

The BBC seems quite certain that Top Gear is making a return to television in 2016, but James May and Richard Hammond are extremely unlikely to be among the hosts. Instead, the two of them are probably following Jeremy Clarkson into any future endeavors, but for the time being that leaves the Little One and the Slow One unemployed. They won't have to worry too much about spending money in the meantime, though, because Bonhams is selling 12 motorcyles owned by the former TG stars on April 26. "Just because I'm unemployed now doesn't mean I have to get rid of everything. I was going to sell these bikes anyway. And those paintings, and my collection of Scalextric cars. Honest," May joked to Bonhams. However, the auction house was clear in its announcement that the cycles were consigned to the Spring Stafford Sale in the UK months before the Top Gear fracas. Eight of the bikes come from May's collection and are generally small-bore, Japanese models. They include a 49cc 1974 Yamaha FS1-E and a 1976 Suzuki AP50 E, but there's also a very attractive 1980 Ossa 250cc MAR trials bike. If you're looking for a bit more performance, Hammond's four offering include a 2010 Norton Commando 961SE and a 1970 Triton 500cc cafe racer. He's also selling a Yamaha FS1-E, though a year newer than May's. Unfortunately the Vincent Black Shadow and Honda RC30 the hosts are riding in these photos aren't part of the lots, but the whole list of the available models can be read in the announcement below and checked out in the gallery, above. Bonhams Spring Stafford Sale will include 12 motorcycles belonging to Richard Hammond and James May, former presenters of the popular motoring programme, Top Gear. May and Hammond discussed the sale of their respective motorcycles in their usual humorous manner: "Just because I'm unemployed now doesn't mean I have to get rid of everything," said May. "I was going to sell these bikes anyway. And those paintings, and my collection of Scalextric cars. Honest". Hammond added: "As a serious collector of motorcycles, it's important to review one's stable regularly, and the Bonhams Stafford sale is the ideal opportunity to move bikes on and possibly acquire new ones. I also have a canoe, and some Wharfedale hi-fi speakers, if anyone's interested".