1987 Suzuki Samurai Jx Se Sport Utility 2-door 1.3l on 2040-cars

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American Suzuki Motors files chapter 11, will no longer sell cars in the United States

As much as we knew it was a possibility, we have to say that Suzuki's announcement this afternoon that it is filing chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings caught us a bit off guard. American Suzuki Motor Corporation - the sole distributor of Suzuki automobiles in the United States - will realign its business to focus on motorcycles, ATVs and the marine market.
What does this mean in simple terms? In short, new Suzuki cars and trucks will no longer be sold by Suzuki in the United States once current supplies run out. Period.
Suzuki cites "low sales volumes, a limited number of models in its lineup, unfavorable foreign exchange rates, the high costs associated with growing and maintaining an automotive distribution system in the continental US and the disproportionally high and increasing costs associated with stringent state and federal regulatory requirements unique to the US market."

Suzuki shows electric coupe that's also a wagon, autonomous van and Hustler Concept in Tokyo

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.

Junkyard Gem: 1996 Suzuki Swift SLOKYO DRIFT Edition

General Motors sold plenty of rebadged Suzukis over the decades in the United States, starting with the Chevy Sprint in 1985 and continuing with various Geo- and Chevrolet-badged machines into our current century. The one we remember best remains the fuel-sipping Metro, successor to the Sprint and available here through the 2001 model year. The Sprint and Metro were based on the Japanese-market Cultus, and Suzuki put its own badges on this car in the United States for the 1989 through 2001 model years. That was the Suzuki Swift, a car we know best today for its factory-hot-rod version, the Swift GT. Normally, I wouldn't bother to document an ordinary Canadian-built Swift found in a boneyard, but today's Colorado-found Junkyard Gem boasts some interesting custom touches that make it worth our attention. Get ready for… SLOKYO DRIFT! While countless American owners of Integras and Lancers and 240SXs went nuts with JDM-influenced car decor following the release of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift in 2006, drivers of the tiny and miserably underpowered Metro/Swift econo-commuters felt left out of the party. The owner of this car knew what to do, though: buy some stick-on mailbox letters and slap them on this Swift's hatch. Junkyard-acquired badges adorn every surface of the SLOKYO DRIFT Swift, because why not? It turns out that many Reddit regulars in Colorado spied this car on the street, and so you'll find many references to it on that site. Since any 24-year-old econobox with a manual transmission and a salvage title will be nearly impossible to sell, we can assume this car spent its last few years just one broken part away from The Crusher. Once it needed an expensive repair, it wasn't worth fixing. The original owner's manual and documentation remained in this Swift until the end. It appears that Colorado TV-advertising legend Dealin' Doug moved this iron off his Cherry Creek Dodge lot when it had a mere 5,920 miles on the clock, based on this "Phoney Monroney" I found in the glovebox. 168,925 hard miles later, here it is. At some point, it got totaled, put back together, and stamped with this REBUILT FROM SALVAGE lettering on the door jamb. We think of the Metro/Swift as a three-cylinder car, but many of the later versions got this 1.3-liter "big-block" four-banger under the hood. That's 70 raging horsepower right here. The 5-speed made it more efficient and fun to drive, but killed whatever resale value it may have had.