Hi all I am planning to buy a Vitara wagon, and whrn researching the net I came up on this  .....

http://www.geocities.com/suzuki_bites/

I need your help and advice, what is the truth to all this.  Thanks for your help!!!

Reading through it.

First of all I cant wait to see how the court date turns out. If what she said is legit, she is one of the rare few that get a bad one. I currently own 3 Susukis;

89 Sidekick with over 200K and still running strong with the only non 4x4 trouble out of it was a transmission (expected replacement with that many hard miles.

97 Tracker with 150K, that is now a parts car but still runs fine and was a daily driver untill I parked it to use  the interior for my kick.

98 X-90, my daily driver that just turned over 136K. Runs great and even with the LOW mileage for a Suzuki I would drive this ride ANYWHERE with full confidence in the vehicle.

In her 'Car Talk" review the mechanics she "interviewed" are either idiots or they are plain lazy. I have never done much work on a vehicle and can work my away around all 3 of my Suzukis with no problem. Any one that has helped me with my vehicles )friends and my mechanic) always talk about how EASY they are to work on.

If you read the rest of the article you can see that everything is extremely over exagerated.

We all know that the CR reports are BS and not worthy of even commenting towards.

The JD Powers reviews are coming from someone that expexcts the ride and power of a BMW X-5 or an Yukon form a vehicle that is half the price. Read ANY of their vehicle reviews. If it is a SUV and it does not have a $40,000+  price tag, it's not worth having. Wich is total BS.

Suzukis are awesome, reliable fun vehicles. They are not an Cadi or BMW so dont expect the ride quailty of one. But if you want a good vehicle for a good price these things are perfect.

HTH,
Zig

Idiots like Susan S., Click and Clack, CR, and JDPower (if they have any effect at all) will keep the prices a little lower for the rest of us  

That's such a stupid biased website. When was that thing written? Obviously it hasn't been updated.

I agree with the above, you get what you pay for. It's not a $40K vehicle, or even a $20K vehicle. But every one that I have seen is cheap, reliable, and does exactly what it was meant to do.

They are trucks, right down to the ladder frame. They are small, very small, so they aren't going to handle like a bigger vehicle, and being trucks, aren't going to ride like cars.

They are extremely easy to work on, and are great for even a beginning mechanic. Everything is straight forward. Even all the inside pieces and body trim. Mechanics who can't work on them are just plain stupid.

How the heck did you find that? Was it in the back drawer somewhere of Altavista or something?

My truck has been through, what I would call, hell, since I have owned it. Look what I've done to it. It's got 110K miles on it, and is smoking a bit of oil that is bypassing the valve guides. But, this isn't normal use, this is hard core off-road, on-road use. I haven't been *nice* to it. But it's still got full compression, and works great. The only other mechanical issue I've really had is the tranny because it would freeze in the winter. Heh, but that was my fault. Deep creek crossings will do that to you, when you get water in it.

Sigh.

Don't go by that site. Look at a suzuki because it's cheap, reliable, easy to work on transportation, or because it's a great cheap off-road machine. They may not look pretty after 10 years, but they should still run strong. Look at it like buying a high-end geo metro or suzuki swift with 4wheel drive and a ladder frame.

I'll tell you that our Durango has already had to have a new transmission, and it blew out several freeze plugs from the engine and leaked antifreeze all over the street. It's also leaking from the pinion seals, and the lower driving light brackets are broken. So no car is perfect. People expect too much.

I don't get the people that just buy cars as tools. Don't work on them, don't care to know anything about them. Don't even care to understand them.



I love my truck!

Heather

Suzukis are awesome, reliable fun vehicles. They are not an Cadi or BMW so dont expect the ride quailty of one. But if you want a good vehicle for a good price these things are perfect.

HTH,
Zig

This is very true, of course if you're a journalist and you don't have to pay for the ride its probably easy to make stupid comparisons between vehicles of vastly different price range. One of the reasons for the Zuks worse ride quality is because it is designed as an Off Roader. Try a Land Rover and see what thats like, or try driving a BMW off road.

u have to look at how many were built...yes 1, 2 maybe even 10 are turds but that is what happens u can not blame and entire company just becuase 1 car was a floop it happens

nothing is perfect but suzuki is damn close

The rap 'zuks get is really sad. How many do you see on the road? I see tons of kicks still rambling about, and the newer GV/Trackers are everywhere. I do feel bad for the people who do get lemons, and then have problems getting service (ala Samurai Hamster). The comment about vitaras being undrivable after the tires become worn... wtf . That was enough to make me stop reading right there. :-/

I currently have in my posession, my 3rd, 5th and 6th Suzuki's, and love them!

Started with a 91 Kick (#1).  Loved it, so I bought a 92 Kick (#2).

In 95, we decided to trade them on a pair of 95 kicks (#3 and #4).

In 99, my wife traded her 95 Kick (#4), on a 99 Grand Vitara (#5).  She absolutey loves it.

In 2002, I bought my 2-door 95 Kick as a trail rig (#6).

Are they reliable?  Absolutely!

My 95 4-door Kick has 150,000 miles on it.
My 95 2-door Kick has 134,000 miles on it.
My wife's 99 GV has about 109,000 miles on it.

  Full of HOOEY they are....I have a 92 kick with 240,000km, and now an '03 tracker with 30,000km in less than one year.  The only things that broke are the things that I broke off myself.

In 95, we decided to trade them on a pair of 95 kicks (#3 and #4).

In 99, my wife traded her 95 Kick (#4), on a 99 Grand Vitara (#5).  She absolutey loves it.

Geee. I wish I could get my Gf out of her car and into a GV. This way i wouldn't have to get a 4dr. She'd already have one

I've had my first and only (for now) Tracker for 5years and never has it let me down.
Granted, I've only got 120Kmiles so its just getting broken in

In 95, we decided to trade them on a pair of 95 kicks (#3 and #4).

In 99, my wife traded her 95 Kick (#4), on a 99 Grand Vitara (#5).  She absolutey loves it.

Gee. Wish I could get my Gf out of her car and into a GV that easily. This way I could modify/use her 4dr when I needed more space

Well I don't know how long my
old 89 Sidekick will last, I guess
it's just getting broke in at 275,000
Miles  

Still the stock wheel bearings, rotors
drums, transmission, springs, axle
housing and 1 shaft, I twisted to other
when I uprooted a 60 Lb boulder from
the wash bed while doing donuts  

Engine got freshened up at 250,000
but it's still the stock origional pistons,
rods, head and stuff, I just had the Cam
reground by Engle Cams in Santa Monica
for some more power, Ohh and now I've
added a Turbo and intercooler.

Just your run of the mill stock SideKick  

Wild

Well I don't know how long my
old 89 Sidekick will last, I guess
it's just getting broke in at 275,000
Miles  

Still the stock wheel bearings, rotors
drums, transmission, springs, axle
housing and 1 shaft, I twisted to other
when I uprooted a 60 Lb boulder from
the wash bed while doing donuts  

Engine got freshened up at 250,000
but it's still the stock origional pistons,
rods, head and stuff, I just had the Cam
reground by Engle Cams in Santa Monica
for some more power, Ohh and now I've
added a Turbo and intercooler.

Just your run of the mill stock SideKick  

Wild

That's a testament to the reliability of these damn engines right there... 275k on stock stuff with a turbo.

Well I've only got 25,000 Miles
with the Turbo and I think I'm
going to drop in a 16V motor
with a new Turbo Manifold in due
time, suspension mods first, 16V
after that

Wild

I've had three things take a dump on my rig.

1.  ALternator and wiring harness......fixed under warranty.
2.  A/C condensor accumulator weld came loose, lost Freon.  Fixed under warranty.
3.  Spark knock.........still on going issue.....temporariily band-aid by running 93 octane.  Due shortly for inspection and a total cooling sys flush.  Go from there.

Otherwise, nothing with this rig.  I do agree parts are a little steep however, I've found excellent deals on Ebay and scored a set of rims for winter use in a Yahoo group. The design is sound and I believe the engines are tough as nails in these rigs.

Zuke does need to take customer service 101 again.  They are pretty much non responsive in Brea CA.  Perhaps its the smog or something.   I know if I ignored my customers the way I have been ignored, I'd be out of a job.