2011 Suzuki Sx4 on 2040-cars

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The Suzuki Jimny pickup truck might be the best Jimny

Suzuki showed off a Jimny pickup truck concept at the 2019 Tokyo Auto Salon, and it garnered more positive hype for the already beloved new-generation 4x4. But more than a year later, there are no signs that a production version is coming in the immediate future, if at all. So, members of the aftermarket are building their own. Shropshire Quads out of the United Kingdom takes regular Jimny SUVs and converts them into pickups by lifting the vehicle and adding a metal tub to the rear. Shropshire Quads has been building Jimny pickups for years. The company started doing the conversions on used models but has since grown to add the new Jimny to the operation, as well. Here's how it all started:  We are a small family run business based near Cleobury Mortimer in South Shropshire. We are main agents for Arctic Cat and Kymco ATVs. We felt that there was a niche gap in the agriculture/land management sector for a small lightweight pickup with more creature comforts and reliability than your usual UTVs. We went in search, and following lots of research, we decided that the Suzuki Jimny would be the ideal base vehicle. We now convert quality, low mileage Suzuki Jimny's to pickups using the best quality, factory designed and manufactured components. We hope you agree that we offer the best Suzuki Jimny Pickup on the market. The blue example seen here is the shop's first conversion on a new Jimny. According to Farmer's Weekly, Shropshire Quads orders the factory-manufactured kit that was designed for Suzuki from Austria and is the sole distributor and installer in the United Kingdom. Somebody in New Zealand is running a similar operation. As seen in the photos, the kit can only be installed once the rear portion of the Jimny is chopped off. The kit includes a metal rear bulkhead panel that is equipped with a heated rear screen. Plastic side moldings smooth out the conversion into the bed, which is made of stainless steel and aluminum. The rear tailgate is removable, and Shropshire Quads says the kit uses strong high-quality latches. A recessed fuel filler is mounted with cast aluminum and found on the driver's side. As this is a conversion intended for labor, it can be ordered with a one-inch lift or a three-inch lift. For added utility, the Jimny can be fitted with flotation tires or smaller all-terrain tires. The Jimny was already cool, and having one on the farm sounds like a fun way to do chores.

Suzuki Kizashi recalled due to pesky spiders

Spiders seem to love the fuel tanks of Japanese sedans. Mazda had to recall its Mazda6 twice for arachnid webs blocking their car's vent lines. Now, the Suzuki Kizashi is also being called in because spiders can block the car's evaporative canister vent hose, a condition which could cause excessive negative pressure in the tank, eventually leading to a crack and fuel leak. The campaign covers about 19,249 examples of the 2010-2013 model year Kizashi built from October 2009 through July 2012.
According to the automaker's defect notice released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the first report of a spiderweb blocking a vent line was in 2011. It began monitoring field data and found six more incidents from 2011 to 2013. In 2014, there was one more case, and with further investigation, Suzuki decided to initiate a recall. There are no reports of accidents or injuries of the webs causing accidents or injuries in the US.
In a similar move to Mazda, Suzuki is replacing the evaporative canister vent line with one that has a filter in place to keep the spiders out. Also, if the lines are obstructed by webs in a specific vehicle, the fuel tank will also get swapped. Scroll down to read the full recall announcement from NHTSA.

Junkyard Gem: 1998 Suzuki Swift, Schnorchel Edition

To enable the use of internal-combustion engines underwater, German submarines during the later years of World War II used a pipe system swiped from the Dutch to suck in air and spit out exhaust. This rig was known as the Schnorchel, and a similar setup can be used on modern trucks to keep the engine from inhaling water or dust during river-fording or off-roading. In fact, you can buy a new Ford Bronco with a factory schnorchel (or snorkel, if you prefer the English spelling) right now. Purchasers of new Suzuki Swifts, however, had no such factory — or even aftermarket — option, and so the final owner of today's Junkyard Gem had to fabricate one using hardware-store components. Yes, this is a fully functional air-intake snorkel, made from PVC pipe and entering the engine compartment via not-so-precision holes sliced through the fender and inner fender. Once in the engine compartment, the pipe connects directly to the engine's throttle body. Sure, for serious underwater use you need to waterproof the distributor plus any sensitive electrical components, not to mention find some way to keep water from getting into transmission vents and the like. We can assume, however, that this snorkel wasn't intended for sustained underwater use. Other limitations of the Swift as an off-road machine, such as suspension design, ground clearance, and lack of four-wheel-drive, may have become apparent once the snorkel was installed. There are some wheel flares installed, to enable the use of oversized wheels and tires. The Swift is the same car as the Suzuki-built Geo Metro, which became the Chevrolet Metro starting in the 1998 model year. Known in its Japanese homeland as the Cultus, these cars were sold in every far-flung corner of the world. It appears that you could buy a new Cultus (with Margalla badges) in Pakistan as recently as a few years ago. This isn't the first interestingly modified second-generation Swift I've found in a Denver-area car graveyard in recent years. Perhaps the "Slokyo Drift" 1996 Swift was modified by the same person. There's just something about a tiny, fully depreciated car that inspires creativity. The 1998 Geo Metro was available with either a 1.0-liter three-cylinder engine or a 1.3-liter four-banger, but every new Swift sold here that year was a big-block car with the 1.3 and its 70 horsepower. This one even has the five-speed manual transmission, for added driving fun. Just 166,280 miles on the clock.