Suzuki to Increase Ties With Toyota, Maintain Its Independence
Suzuki and Toyota Motor Corp. have agreed to begin official talks on pushing their partnership further. The partnership memorandum announced today covers a wide range of issues crucial to developing and producing automobiles, while keeping Suzuki independent as an automaker. Toyota is apparently not interested in corporate control. The automaker showed a similar gentle touch in its partnerships with Mazda Motor Corp. and Subaru parent company Fuji Heavy Industries.
Instead, the two companies have agreed to start brainstorming on how to best collaborate on advanced safety systems, environmentally friendly tech, information technology, overlapping components, and shared product.
Suzuki has fallen behind in research and development. While it has proven it can produce some of the best-value motorcycles and Kei cars in all of Asia, it isn’t on track for autonomous driving, electric powertrains, or even stringent emission regulations. It has spent a long time seeking a partner to help bring it up to speed technologically.
Meanwhile, Toyota gains access to Suzuki’s well-established supply network in India. The country is expected to become world’s third-largest car market by 2020, and Suzuki dominates that market right now. Toyota wants to double its own share of India’s passenger vehicle market to 10 percent by 2025, and the best way to accomplish this goal is to get Suzuki to help it produce and distribute simple, extremely affordable, and very small cars.
The two became chummy after Suzuki broke its alliance with Volkswagen AG due to repeated disputes over sharing technology (and downright nasty issues between upper-management). While that partnership ended in a lot of bad blood, a joint release by the Toyota and Suzuki suggests the companies are eager to establish a framework for the partnership and get the ball rolling.
“In response to Toyota’s display of enthusiasm, Suzuki also intensively engaged in the discussions, and we now stand at the starting point for building a concrete cooperative relationship,” Suzuki Chairman Osamu Suzuki said in the official statement. “I want to give this effort our fullest and to aim at producing results that will lead Toyota to conclude that it was the right thing for Toyota to have decided to work together with Suzuki.”
[Image: ©2016 Murilee Martin – The Truth About Cars]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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Authentic Japanese Suzukis are very good cars. Just not by the American definition of "good." The American definition of a good car since around the mid 2000's has been something that makes the driver look either cool/wealthy/smart, reliable and refined. In the third-world, which puts bread on their table and for their Japanese buyers, it's reliability, reliability and reliability. My uncle bought a 2002 XL-7 which he has since sold. For a weirdo like me who loved the honest practicality of 1980's-1990's Japanese cars, I thought it was wonderful, although it would piss off anyone who wanted something like a CR-V or RAV4 since it was trucky, a gas guzzler with quaint mismatching interior fixtures that had the appearance that Suzuki stuck in whatever worked. Was reliable and tough as hell though. I'd love for Toyota to import the Swift as a Starlet or something. Me thinks Suzuki might have had a better chance of staying alive if they would have just imported the Swift instead of wasting all that money to create the goofy Kizashi.
My brother's experience with his Japanese-built '02 XL7 (4wd, 2.7L V6, 5spd manual) has been mostly positive, and fits his needs very well. It has a unique combination of BOF toughness and true off-road capability, with very stable car-like RWD handling and lower center of gravity. Rides very well thanks to the longer wheelbase and isolation of BOF construction. Ultimately limited by the lower ground clearance and mediocre breakover angle offroad, I've seen it scramble up some stuff it had seemingly no right to. Decent power with the 5spd, the automatics are dogs. Suspension has held up like a champ to quite a bit of dirt road and In the negatives I will put timing-chain tensioner issues that necessitated a 10-hr operation to replace. The curse of the sub-3.0L V6 I suppose :p Trackers/Vitaras of all generations including the older stubby 2dr variants were thick on the ground in Costa Rica, their design fits the locale to a 'T' over there. Our own rental Diahatsu Terios was likewise a perfect fit the for the job, if only lacking a lower-range gear set for the steep and narrow dirt roads that climb up into the hills. I also suspect in longer term use, the BOF Trackers hold up better in terms of body integrity and sqeaks/rattles and such.