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Suzuki has to take out $45M loan just to shutter US dealers

Bloomberg reports American Suzuki is set to borrow up to $45 million to to close its automotive dealerships and freshen up its it motorcycle and marine business. Suzuki Motor Corporation will loan American Suzuki the funds at three percent below the London Interbank offered rate in order to offer dealer owners a cash payment in exchange for voluntarily abandoning franchise agreements. The company's 216 dealers have 10 days to make a decision on the matter. Under the plan, Suzuki would give dealer owners half of what they're owed in one lump sum, and the dealers would then be able to pursue the remaining debt through the company's bankruptcy procedure.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Scott C. Clarkson granted American Suzuki interim authority to borrow the funds, but Bloomberg reports the company will likely return to court in a few weeks to seek up to $100 million. According to Richard Pachulski, a lawyer for Suzuki America, the automaker may owe its dealers somewhere around $50 million.

Suzuki Jimny gets confused by American guardrails

The reborn Suzuki Jimny 4x4 has faced some crosswinds in the time it's been on the market: It earned only three stars in its Euro NCAP test due to a badly-inflating driver airbag and troubles with pedestrian protection. The automatic emergency braking function also had some issues in NCAP testing, but now the Jimny's AEB system is facing an another problem — it appears to be confused by guardrails. Two German-market Jimnys had been shipped to Los Angeles for the World Car of the Year testing, Australian journalists found that on some corners of the California test route, the AEB was seemingly triggered by a guardrail in a curve in the road. The problem was found with both Jimnys, and Suzuki's Jimny chief engineer was present to look into the matter; later, Suzuki engineers were able to replicate the glitch with these particular vehicles on the same road. While U.S. sales of the Jimny are extremely unlikely, test data acquired on American roads still seems to be highly valuable for Suzuki, as tests in Japan could not replicate the problem. It appears the road condition, tilt angle, curve aspects and vehicle speed all conspired to puzzle the AEB system, which is now being evaluated for a software or calibration change. The jerky correction by the electronic stability program, audible on the CarAdvice video, happened at 45-55 mph, which is not overly fast for even the narrow and tall Jimny — it is possible that the AEB mistook the guardrail for another car. Suzuki stated: "There is a possibility that the (stability control) is instantaneously switched on (by) reacting to the vehicle sway when departing the S-shaped curve — and then consecutively switches on because the vehicle is circling the curve at high speeds. [...] The intervention of the stability control may give a sense of discomfort to the driver but is not an event that would disturb the vehicle's direction of movement." The driver safety assists are a good addition to the Jimny, of course, given that the 1980s second-generation truck was the subject of a beef between Consumer Reports and Suzuki North America due to its reported tippiness in corners. Related Video:

Japanese motorcycles moving into forced induction

While turbocharging and supercharging may be nothing new in the automotive industry, motorcycle engines are almost always naturally aspirated. But even that's beginning to change. At the Tokyo Motor Show last week, two major Japanese companies showed off new forced-induction motorbike engines.
Kawasaki rolled in with a supercharged four-cylinder motorbike engine. It offered little in the way of details, disclosing only that the turbine blades were developed in-house to withstand the heat and vibration of spooling up at motorbike speeds.
Suzuki is taking a different approach, however. Its Recursion concept bike packs a turbocharged 588cc two-cylinder engine with a turbocharger and intercooler. The compact package churns out just under 100 horsepower and 74 pound-feet of torque, packaged into a motorbike that weighs just 384 pounds dry.