Sayonara, Suzuki

With the 2013 automobile model year winding down, many car buffs are eagerly awaiting the start of the 2014 season in a few weeks.  And for the first time since the late eighties, Suzuki won't be among the brands in an increasingly competitive U.S. auto market.

I just learned this the other day while reading a satirical farewell to the Japanese car brand in the current issue of Car & Driver (the September 2013 issue), but the news actually came out in early November 2012. Suzuki's sales of cars in the United States had gotten so bad - 21,188 cars sold in the first ten months of 2012 - that the firm had no choice to call it quits.  The Web site of American Suzuki Motor Corporation - which filed for bankruptcy last fall - is still up for Suzuki owners who need parts and warranty information, but that's it. After the 2014 model year, you won't be able to by a new Suzuki car in Canada, either.

The reasons for Suzuki's departure included losing out to larger Japanese competitors in an increasingly contracting economy car market in North America, the loss of partners (like General Motors) to develop new products, and an abysmal dealer network.  Suzuki lost its edge in the one market segment it had strength in - the compact SUV market - when Toyota and Honda got into it.  Suzuki tried to cater to American tastes with larger cars, but despite respectable mid-size models like the Forenza and Kizashi, it couldn't attract enough people to check them out in its showrooms.  The only Kizashi sedan I've seen was at the auto show. Not at the next one, though.

Suzuki, which started out supplying re-badged subcompacts for Chevrolet dealers in the United States before selling cars here under its own name, will still survive in the U.S. with its line of motorcycles.  I never thought I'd see any Japanese car company not named Isuzu give up on the American market, but it may get worse for the smaller Japanese companies; Mitsubishi, which has sold cars in the U.S. under its own name since 1983 (some of its cars were sold here through Chrysler before then), may follow Suzuki back to the land of the rising sun.  It's more like a setting sun for these firms.

(So why didn't I find out about Suzuki's departure back in November? Three reasons.  One, my house had just gotten its electricity restored after Superstorm Sandy hit a week earlier.  Two, the U.S. presidential election campaign was dominating the non-Sandy news, with a day or two to go before the election itself.  Three . . . I don't really care about Japanese cars. :-p)