A Japanese Icon Turns 100: We Name The 10 Greatest Suzukis Ever Made
And now, it’s time to pay tribute to one of the true unsung heroes of the motoring landscape; Suzuki.
This month, the plucky Japanese marque celebrates its 100th anniversary. In the world of bikes, Suzuki are often ranked as a true great. In cars, however, the brand have always been engrained in the wants and needs of everyday people. Here’s 10 of its best.
10. Suzuki Kizashi
Here’s an excellent case of a fantastic car that was widely applauded by critics, well priced, and ... well, a terrible seller.
The handsome, neatly engineered Kizashi is a good example of how even succeeding on your ambitious doesn’t ensure everyone else is going to be on board. It landed just as the SUV curve was entering its dominant phase and sedans were on the outer, and it also became an unwilling poster-child for the end of Suzuki’s four-wheeled presence in America.
9. Suzuki Suzulight SF
Suzuki’s car-making journey becane with this thing back in 1955. Based largely on the Lloyd 400 by Borgward and designed by founder Michio Suzuki, it featured a frontengine, rear-wheel drive format paired with a two-cylinder, twostroke engine.
In a lot of ways the SF was rather ordinary for the period. But, it had its little nuggets of ingenuity.
It’s tall, it’s square; it’s the amazing Wagon R. Suzuki’s oddly proportioned rectangle of beauty is hardly poster-on-the-wall fodder, but when it was launched in 1993 it helped push what people thought a ‘kei car’ could be capable of.
Kei cars, as you may be familiar with, are a Japanese sub-segment that sees cars adopt a maximum engine capacity of 660cc and a raft of maximum dimensions in order to minimise the amount of traffic and clutter on Japanese roads. And while those kei regulations had been around for quite some time, it was cars like the Wagon R that kicked off the movement for building cars to the extremes of those regulations. It also sold like absolute hot cakes. .
7. Suzuki SC100 / Whizzkid
Any car that earns itself a happy nickname in regions outside of its homeland deserves a second or third look. One of those cars is the Fiat ‘Bambina’, and the other is the Suzuki ‘Whizzkid’.
The Fronte was Suzuki’s big ticket replacement for the Suzulight series. In the spirit of Suzukis of the era, it too adopted a faintly weird, thoroughly awesome rear-engined format. This was couples with a wicked pair of rear fender vents, a Ford Anglia–esqe reverse angle rear window, and an adorable face.
Kei cars, while focussed on economy and affordability, weren’t above the notion of the odd extravagent sports car from time to time. And Japan’s ‘bubble era’ of motoring through the ‘80s and ‘90s also impacted the world of kei.
The result were three tiny, dinky, excellent little sports cars — the Honda Beat, Autozamn AZ-1, and Suzuki Cappuccino.
4. Suzuki L40V
One of the most common misconceptions of modern motoring is that the electric car is a recent invention. No, not so. Suzuki was doing it in 1970.
In the same year that the brand debuted the first Jimny, it also debuted a van called the L40V. It was tiny (no, duh) and looked like its front was its back and its back was its front. But more to the point, it was also the firm’s first electric car.
3. Suzuki Jimny
Suzuki owes its hardy off-road reputation almost entirely to the Jimny.
Launching in 1970, the Jimny is Suzuki’s longest standing nameplate. And while it’s tempting to wax lyrical about the iconic second-generation Jimny or the quirky roundededges third-generation Jimny, it’s the current Jimny that really deserves this praise most.
2. Suzuki Vitara
What was the world’s first crossover? The SUV that popularised the idea of taller vehicles replacing the station wagon and minivan as family cars of choice? Well, the real answer is the Toyota RAV4. It was the first to be built on a ‘car’ platform, and it became wildly successful. But, it’s also worth paying acknowledgement to the first generation Suzuki Vitara.
1. Suzuki Swift
It’s Suzuki’s best selling car these days, and that’s for good reason.
Things weren’t always rosy, to be fair. The first cars to be badged as a Swift in the 1980s and 1990s weren’t exactly iconic (apart from, perhaps, the Swift GTi). And the first true Suzuki Swift at the turn of the millennium (also known here as a Holden Cruze) was a bit of an oddity.
But, from 2004’s second generation Swift onwards it has arguably been a supermini market leader. Cute styling, chuckle-worthy chuckable driving dynamics, and a focus on sturdy build quality are just some of the reasons why the Swift is on track to become a bit of a small car legend. Of particular note is the wonderful Swift Sport. For over 15 years, it’s sat as arguably the cheapest way to buy an enthusiast car new — gradually improving more and more with every iteration.
They might be a ubiquitous, common denominator car today. But, the Mini Cooper and Volkswagen Golf were once like that, too. - driven