Suzuki Grand Vitara 1 concept.

[F.L.]

Hi everyone,
My question concerns a car project, and I'm not sure where to post it, so I'm putting it in the bar.
I'm a big fan of the Grand Vitara 1, which is my daily driver.
I found this image of a Grand Vitara pickup truck project on fb. Does anyone know more about it ?
Or any other Grand Vitara projects that were never realized ?

 

[Hicks]

It was presented at the 34th Tokyo Motor Show in 2000.
https://www.suzuki.co.jp/release/d/d001016.htm

I also find this report about a possible release in 2008, but i find that late.
https://www.autoblog.com/features/suzuki-equator-mid-size-pickup-slated-for-chicago-debut

As stated in the article, small and mid pick-up sale were declining at the time and Suzuki never was a big player in the US market.
They ceased their operations there during 2012.

 

[F.L.]

Thanks you mate !

 

[TinWing]

Hi everyone,
My question concerns a car project, and I'm not sure where to post it, so I'm putting it in the bar.
I'm a big fan of the Grand Vitara 1, which is my daily driver.
I found this image of a Grand Vitara pickup truck project on fb. Does anyone know more about it ?
Or any other Grand Vitara projects that were never realized ?
View attachment 803159

That was the last generation of Grand Vitara built on a ladder frame, so the pickup concept was indeed feasible. The problem is that Suzuki had to buy in diesel engines and that domestic Japanese sales for pickups were dying in favor of Kei mini trucks and vans. Toyota was making huge numbers of Hilux trucks in Thailand for global markets and the big domestic Thai market. Suzuki’s biggest global market would be India, where pickups still aren’t volume sellers. And the United States has a 25% “Chicken Tax” which makes all imported trucks uncompetitive. Building something on a longer wheelbase than a contemporary Nissan Navara/Frontier without conventional opening rear “Crew Cab” doors is also bad for marketing. In short, I think they were right to leave this one as a concept.

 

[TinWing]

It was presented at the 34th Tokyo Motor Show in 2000.
https://www.suzuki.co.jp/release/d/d001016.htm

I also find this report about a possible release in 2008, but i find that late.
https://www.autoblog.com/features/suzuki-equator-mid-size-pickup-slated-for-chicago-debut

As stated in the article, small and mid pick-up sale were declining at the time and Suzuki never was a big player in the US market.
They ceased their operations there during 2012.

Suzuki ended up rebadging the Nissan Frontier as their Equator truck and very few American could see the point of buying one as Nissan had more dealers. In general, rebadging killed Suzuki in North America, except it was the rebadged GM/Daewoo products that killed the brand, such as the horribly dated Reno or a gas guzzling Verossa, which bizarre had transverse inline 6 that produced less power than most comparable 4 cylinders. It didn’t help that Suzuki’s own products were the silly looking SX-4 or the tragically flawed Kizashi. The Kizashi was as a fine car meant to be a mainstream midsized sedan but was hampered by the CVT transmission and being somewhat undersized. It drove well, but only with a manual transmission and in base form. Few Americans knew how to shift a manual and fewer still would seek out the base model of an oddball sedan from a dying Japanese brand. So Suzuki went the way of Isuzu. A pity, as the current Jimny would sell in America.