Once you include kei cars, JDM numbers are a little more complicated to figure out since Toyota sells no kei cars, but Daihatsu, a Toyota subsidiary sells a number of models.

With regard to the people who think Suzuki has always made crap cars, I nominate the original Swift GTi as one of the greatest street-legal gokarts of all time.

Keith

The Aerio was the ultimate un-sellable car. No one knew the car, no one knew the dealers, and there was nothing about it that was distinguishable in a good way.

The first gen had these digital gauges that looked straight out of the 1980’s. The dashboards were even more idiosyncratic than the ones in a Subaru XT.

The Aerio was a weird bird… and now it’s a dodo bird.

You’re spot on. The pre-refresh (2003-2001) Aerio, particularly in the SX / Premium trim offers outstanding value as a used car.

A 2001 Aerio isn’t much worse than a 2001 Civic.

A 2006 Aerio and a 2006 Civic though is not a fair comparison.

They sometimes detract from your overall point, and aren’t humorous in a ha-ha, laugh out loud sort of way.

Suzuki is number two in Japan.

What metric do you use, Robert?

In terms of units sold, Toyota/Honda/Nissan are the top 3, in that order. I have HMC in my stock portfolio, so Google always put related news items to my attention—that’s how I learned it.

I still think Suzuki had zero to no chance to recover after the Samurai disaster. Remember Audi in 1984 or so? Weren’t their sales several years later under 10,000 or so? I wonder at that time if their backing with VW (and I’m guessing they were under the VW family by the early 1990s but don’t know for certain) was the only thing that kept them alive in the US.
I remember Suzuki replaced the tippy-mobile with that two-seater SXsomething that had no cargo room, no power, and a hardtop that came off. Add to that the Swift thingy that became less than interesting when they dumped the lightweight body, rice-rocket engine model, the Verona with a whopping 150 hp from a 6, and a few and far between dealer network. Yup – Isuzu and Suzuki cars can’t make it much longer. I can see Isuzu still selling their heavy duty equipment and Suzuki selling their crotch rockets that we drool over.
At least the Sidekick (2-door) was a decent off-roader as shown in a rather challenging and exciting mud and snow series of trails in the Cascades by Mount Saint Helens. A little too much body flex though – I had to explain the crack in the windshield…and thankfully the coverage picked up the tab!

http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/hl/images/02aerio_dash.jpg

But actually, that’s not point (and it would probably be a pretty thankless job to be the Focus’s defender on this site). My point is that both Suzuki and Ford seem to be really misreading the way the market is moving. American drivers have been rediscovering the hatchback since about 2001. When you think about the small cars that have produced the most buzz in the past 4 or 5 years, they’ve pretty much all been hatches … Matrix/Vibe, Protege5/Mazda[speed]3, xA, xB, Fit, Rabbit/GTI, A3, etc. Even Dodge is in the game, even if the Caliber’s a piece of junk. Americans seem to be realizing that sedans just don’t make much sense (from a space-efficiency standpoint) on the small-car scale. It seems weird that this is the moment that Suzuki and Ford choose to discontinue their small hatches. At least Suzuki is replacing the dead Aerio hatch with the SX4 hatch (which is by all accounts a much better car). Which leads us once again to the conclusion that Dearborn is one of the world headquarters of Lights-On-But-Nobody-Home.

I have an ‘01 Trooper that I adore – perfectly sized, hugely reliable, tremendously comfortable, and goes anywhere. My only disappointment is the 16 mpg.

When I shopped around in ‘00, my local Isuzu dealer (also a Lincoln-Mercury dealer – talk about a sales trifecta of suck) had hundreds of L-Ms on the lot, and dozens and dozens of Troopers, Axioms, Rodeos and even a few of that freaky space thing, the Vehicross. From all indications, business was VERY good.

Starting around ‘04, the back dealer lot got thinner and thinner concerning inventory. By ‘06, there was no need for use of the back lot…..dozens of L-M’s were parked out front, and a handful of Isuzu Ascender and i370 models were available.

I was in for service a few days ago – they had 3 Ascenders (one and ‘06 model) and 2 i370s…..and maybe 120 or so L-Ms. The back lot was packed to the hilt again….the Toyota dealer down the street was leasing the space for his additional inventory. Truthfully, I’m surprised the dealer still handles Isuzu, although there always is a smattering of older Troopers and Rodeos around for service.

Isuzu blew it big time when they went to rebadged GMs for their product. The Trooper should have been updated – owners are generally rabid when it comes to loyalty. A turbodiesel or hybrid crossover would be a welcomed addition, as well as a reliable (non-GM clone) small pickup.

Alas, though, I’d be surprised if Isuzu retail sees 2008.

Mazda 3, Impreza, maybe VW