#suzuki

More bad news for Suzuki fans; the marque won’t have any new product for the Untied States until at least 2015.

The Nikkei’s good contacts to Suzuki ( CEO Osamu Suzuki occasionally blogs for The Nikkei) did not fail the Tokyo wire. Yesterday it was reported on a rumor basis, today, it is officially confirmed that Maruti Suzuki will restart production at its Manesar factory on August 21, about a month after a mob killed the firm’s human resources manager and burned down parts of the factory. The factory makes the Swift hatchback.

Maruti Suzuki “ will likely resume partial production at its violence-hit factory in Manesar, in the northern state of Haryana, by Aug. 21,” says The Nikkei [sub]. The plant remains closed since a mob killed the firm’s human resources manager and burned down parts of the factory. Fifty management personnel and 9 police officers were injured during the clashes. Mass arrests were made. Maruti Suzuki declared an indefinite lockout at the plant on July 21.

A month after the deadly riots at Suzuki’s Manesar factory in India, Maoist extremists are being blamed for the insurrection. Maruti Suzuki Chairman R.C. Bhargava told The Nikkei [sub] that “left-wing extremists pushed the factory workers to riot.”

What you see above is the S-Cross concept from Suzuki, set to bow at the Paris Auto Show in September. But, this C-segment concept isn’t a new model, instead a replacement for the Suzuki SX4.

Mark Stevenson steadfastly remains on his Suzuki Death Watch. “Pfft,” says the company run by the world’s youngest octogenarian Osamu Suzuki, and brings out yet another car Americans can’t have. .

Suzuki will bring out a new version of its best selling kei car, the Wagon R. According to The Nikkei [sub], Suzuki’s new midgetmobile will upset the other midgetmobiles with a “best-in-class 28.8km per liter, up around 22% from the current version of the wagon-type minivehicle.”

The grim reaper may not be at American Suzuki’s door step after all. We’ve learned ASMC is healthier, at least financially, than we thought. But, in order to be profitable last year, ASMC had to completely cut almost every non-essential (and some essential) function of their business.

While a number of automakers have been complicit (and still are) when it comes to badge engineering, Suzuki in North America has been on the forefront of whoring out or johning platforms since its introduction in the 80s. The ‘Japanese brand that could’ has either slapped the stylized S on Daewoos and Nissans or let GM have their dirty ways with the grilles of small Suzuki cars and SUVs.

Yes, we at TTAC may be heralding the imminent departure of Suzuki in the United States, but figures compiled by industry stalwart Just-Auto show that Suzuki isn’t doing too badly in their home market of Japan – in fact, they may even eclipse Nissan.

We haven’t given up on Suzuki yet, and so I decided to photograph this Geo Metro sibling when I found it in a Denver-area self-service yard.

When the brightest news you share about your brand is a couple of facelifts and the inclusion of a factory-installed Garmin GPS unit in the next model year, things aren’t going all that well at your company. But, when we inquired with American Suzuki (and Suzuki Canada) about the future of the brand, we did get some interesting information that didn’t seem important enough in Brea, California to publish a press release.

The major Indian news operations are pretty much flooding the zone in covering the riot and lockdown at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant. Besides whatever labor unrest there was at play in the Manesar factory riot, internal politics within the state of Haryana or competition with Gujurat state may have had something to do with it, with accusations of conspiracies and outside influences. Here is a rundown of the news.

Maruti Suzuki locked out the entire workforce of its Manesar factory until authorities finished their investigation of the deadly riots earlier this week. Suzuki said reopening the plant would risk lives of its employees until the workers guilty of instigating a mob are identified.

Police in India is seeking to arrest the entire workforce of 3,000 at the Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar factory after a Wednesday riot left a manager killed, hundreds injured and the factory torched, Reuters says. Maruti Suzuki’s factory is closed. A lengthy shutdown that could cost $15 million a day is expected.

Workers at Maruti Suzuki’s factory in Maneshar, India, ransacked and burned the factory, leaving the personnel director dead and many injured, Reuters reports.