Curbside Classic Outtake: Suzuki X-90

Paul Niedermeyer
by Paul Niedermeyer

All the recent photo-shops and today’s shortened Vista-Coupe made me think of the car that most looks like it can’t have been designed to be the way it actually came out. The longer you stare at the Suzuki X-90, the more bizarre and surreal it becomes. It looks like what Micky and Minny Mouse would drive now days. Well, I’m mighty thankful for the little Suzuki’s existence, because it certainly breaks the monotonous waves of hand-me-down Camrys and Accords parked near the campus. Anyway, I have a thing for eccentric and short cars.

Let’s just say the smaller Japanese manufacturers were trying to find some tiny niches in the SUV market. Isuzu’s Vehicross comes to mind. From the rarity of both of them, it was an exercise in futility. And didn’t Jeep show several two-passenger concepts over the decades? Perhaps they did their market research a little more thoroughly.

Go ahead and laugh; I love this little puppy, and would be happy to give it a home.

Paul Niedermeyer
Paul Niedermeyer

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  • DRC DRC on Jan 30, 2012

    In 1998, I traded my gas pig mini van for a 1996 Silver Pearl X90. I had never seen a car like it before and I couldn't believe all the attention it was getting just on a test drive near the dealership. It was auto transmission w/the 4 wheel drive option and had 46,000 miles on it. LOVED that the t-tops came off and the trunk is roomy (could fit two bodies in there :-) I drove the car until May 18, 2006 when an a-hole in a big Suburban zoomed through a stop sign and totaled my car. Didn't quite total me. It took me 18 months to find another X90 worth buying. It was also a '96, red, with just 29,000 on it and in very good shape. I put a few thousand into it, changing all the window trim, added body side molding to help prevent door dings, had the A/C fixed, got new t-top shades, and a bunch of other things done. A couple of weeks ago I had body work done and a complete paint job. It looks brand new! It's great on gas, it handles really well in the snow here in upstate NY and it's fun to drive!!

  • X90Owner X90Owner on Sep 10, 2013

    Glad I cleaned out some of the candy wrappers before you took all those pictures! Yes, this is my car, and although I'm not thrilled to see my license plate all over the place, I appreciate (some) of the comments. Did you take these in Eugene? The tires are larger than the originals and the paint used to be black (I didn't paint it.) that's why the interior is red.

  • Rochester "better than Vinfast" is a pretty low bar.
  • TheMrFreeze That new Ferrari looks nice but other than that, nothing.And VW having to put an air-cooled Beetle in its display to try and make the ID.Buzz look cool makes this classic VW owner sad 😢
  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
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