Awd, One Owner, Clean on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Suzuki design chief discusses Tokyo e-Survivor SUV concept

Underdog Suzuki is one of the more mysterious Japanese brands. Rarely talked about, or indeed self-promoted, it quietly sold nearly 3 million vehicles worldwide in 2016 (alongside sister brand Maruti), and Suzuki has made some intriguingly original cars in recent years. Take the cute-but-tough Ignis city car SUV or the boxy-but-compact Hustler minivan, plus quite a few more. Autoblog took the chance to catch up with the automaker's relatively new head of design, Akira Kamio, at the recent 2017 Tokyo Motor Show to discuss Suzuki latest e-Survivor SUV Concept, plus his personal inspirations. The 54-year-old Kamio – whose design back catalog includes the concept and production Splash city car and second-generation Vitara small SUV, among others – says the beach-buggy-on-steroids show car "imagines a 2030 autonomous car with electric motors within each wheel on a ladder frame." That's a long way out in conceptual terms, as some of the vehicle's futuristic details suggest – rim sections that change color from green to blue according to mode aren't strictly necessary – but there is solid functional thinking to some of its more outlandish elements. Case in point, the see-through doors – long a staple of concept-car design from Italian masters such as Giugiaro and others – have been rendered here in a forward-thinking way. "When in autonomous mode the door glass goes opaque for privacy," Kamio said. "But when in off-road mode, the door glass automatically clears again so the driver can see the obstacles around it to help maneuver over rough terrain. This feature works on the model; it's a serious concept." As to the most relevant element of the e-Survivor's design for nearer-term vehicles, Kamio points to the five vertical slots with the Suzuki "S" logo in front of the center slot. A familiar design cue of the classic Jimny SUV, here this graphic is illuminated and set behind a black-tinted perspex-like cover. Kamio would not be drawn on when the next version of that long-running vehicle would arrive. But given that the third-generation version of the Jimny has been in production since 1998, the mark 4 is long overdue – even by the standards of Jimny's long manufacturing cycles – and is widely expected to arrive in 2018, taking proportional and design detail cues from the e-Survivor.

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.

Suzuki calls in 26,000 Daewoo-built Veronas for overheating lights

Suzuki is recalling yet another Daewoo-built model due to possible problems with the daytime running light module in the instrument panel. This time it covers about 25,899 units of the Suzuki Verona from the 2004 through 2006 model years that need fixing. Like the repair campaign of the Forenza and Reno in May, it's possible for the part to overheat, melt and potentially cause a fire.
According to the Chronology of Principal Events section in the defect notice submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, this recall was actually a direct result of the Forenza/Reno campaign. After finding the problem in those vehicles, General Motors Korea started investigating for more affected models and discovered that the Verona was also at risk. However, the report says that no cases of melting or fires have been found in the Verona.
Obviously, Suzuki will be notifying affected owners and will replace the DRL module free of charge. Scroll down to read the recall request or check out the full defect notice in PDF format, here.