http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy2Tr2GykPw

–or here, in better resolution–
http://www.savetherhino.com.au/

If you like seeing Grand Vitaras in videos, check out the transsiberia rally website to see a couple of 2-door versions take on hordes of Porsche Cayennes, and fare fairly well. YouTube has a growing collection of videos of people probing the Grand Vitara’s off-road capabilities.

This video glosses over the fact that the Grand Vitara, as a result of being in 4wd all the time, gets lower mileage than similar sized cuv’s.

But, the content of this video shows that corporate Suzuki ‘GETS’ these issues, which is more than can be said for the Big 3. It’s also nice to see they have a sense of humor.

As for staying truer to Suzuki’s roots, the small and simple Jimny 4×4 is popular in other markets where smaller vehicles are more popular. North America is just a small market for the Grand Vitara anyway, which is sold over most of the globe. In most of those places, the Grand Vitara is the sort of large high-end suv that this video beats on. I’d like to see off-road versions of the SX4 and the Grand Vitara, but they’d sell in uneconomically small numbers in North America. How about factory lift kits and skid plates, then?

Even if the Grand Vitara is bigger than what it used to be, it’s still a trim alternative to larger suv’s in our market.

One concern is Suzuki’s own XL7, which certainly is not a small vehicle even in the US. Maybe Suzuki internally regards the XL7 for what it is: a minvan with hinged rear doors. Maybe this video isn’t for North America after all, since this is the only place the XL7 is sold.

Nice to see Suzuki get a nod here at TTAC.

I thought it was a cool video. I don’t see any problem with it.

The problem is that gas prices are back down to the “before” figure in the video ($1.75/gal) in some places, as opposed to the after ($5.05/gal). This ad should have been scrapped the minute it started to look like that might happen.

Then again, this might have actually have been scrapped. Looking at who posted it on YouTube, it wasn’t Suzuki itself, but a Suzuki dealer, who mentioned that it was “prior to the final touches” (disclaimers and crap). I’ll bet the pre-release version that was given to the dealer for internal use only, and he leaked it without Suzuki’s permission. I’ll bet that Suzuki cans this ad and never uses it officially.

Gas prices are depressed because the world economy is going through a deep intestinal fart and people have stopped spending money to excess.

When buyer confidence returns, they’ll go back to mindlessly pumping gas for important 2-block drives to the convenience store. Then the oil industry will start reminding us that there’s this shortage thingy and the prices will start their slow ascent up Everest.

I still like the ‘zuki, the VW CUV, and the CR-V. All great product which despite being considered small are the same size as the Chevy S-10 series that we called mid-sized in the 80s.

My 1st gen CR-V is still getting 26 mpg reliably in mixed driving after 166K miles.

Yes, gas is down to $1.96 here in rural mid-TN but I would not be surprised to see it back up near $4 per gallon next summer.

We shouldn’t move away from fuel efficiency and discussions of other ways to get around town (EVs). Even if it is cheap we’re still buying alot of oil from folks that don’t like us and from companies who count their profits first and damage to our world and heart second or third or fourth.

Suzuki used to have a great minimilist SUV with the Samurai/Sidekick, but abandoned it with the bloated Grand Vitara.

Suzuki needs to bring back a modernized Samurai, and bring the Swift (not the crappy Aveo rebadge Swift+) to North America if they want to stay relevent.

Didn’t Al Gore write that? It’s straight out of the Greenies night time stories for kids play book.

Until the introduce the product the ad really had me. The visual of the dinosaur shotgunning the oil drums is great. “Sorry the SUVasauruses drank all the vacation $”

Also: The cheapest local places around are in the mid $2.40’s for gas here in Chicago. I still see some stations around $3.00 for regular.

A commercial fails when it gives you all the reasons why you shouldn’t buy the very same type of vehicle that you’re trying to sell.

VW is letting their advertising agencies pull off the same type of stupid with the Routan.

On a small side note, I’m wondering why they aren’t trying to sell the Grand Vitara as a more fun alternative to the Mazda 5 and Kia Rondo. An SUV with the same mileage as the CUV with far more power, a better look, and a better warranty.

I could see that working…

certainly gas prices will go up again
the problem is knowing when

it must be hell to be a product planner these days

What, was Brooke Shields not available? How about Joe Isuzu?

Reminds me of the product idea I had for Ford 14 years ago: the T-Rexplorer. An SUV that could transform itself into a dinosaur and eat the cars in front of you if you were stuck in traffic.

Yeah, it was a dumb idea back then and it’s still a dumb idea.

Until someone tells me that we’ve discovered an unlimited fossil fuel supply somewhere, I’m going to assume that I haven’t seen the last of $4 gas.