Suzuki & VW (possibly) reviving partnership

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Wizzbang
Posts: 52
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2012 4:03 am
Location: Perth, Western Australia

So word is Suzuki and VeeDub are trying to sort out their differences out of court after their nasty battle and possibly see some potential in reviving their partnership.

http://www.caradvice.com.au/243707/suzu ... ip-report/

I know this would mainly be so VW can get a leg up in developing countries where Suzuki is vastly successful, but could this mean we could see some of VW's tech in Suzuki's mainstream cars? i.e DSG transmissions, small displacement turbo petrol/diesel engines, etc
2011 Suzuki Kizashi XLS 6MT Premium Silver
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KuroNekko
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Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2012 5:08 pm
Location: California, USA

I've read about this before. Basically, it stemmed as a possible resolution to the arbitration going on between the brands.
However, VW brings almost nothing to Suzuki now. I can only see this as a one sided advantage for VW.

Suzuki already pulled out of North America, a huge market where midsize and compact cars are popular. VW's technology would have only been very useful here. In Asia (where Suzuki does very well), these VW technologies would not be that applicable because small car tech is different than midsize/compact tech. Suzuki has already got it down over there and their sales figures in India and Japan goes to show that. Turbocharged engines over 1.6 liters, DSGs, etc. all are not necessary or applicable to tiny, cheap cars with a displacement under 1.3 liters.
About the only advantage Suzuki could get out of VW is a small diesel engine. However, the whole fallout and arbitration came about because Suzuki tapped FIAT for those because VW was dragging their feet for so long. In addition, Suzuki is already working on hybrid kei's in Japan that get very good fuel economy.

VW would gain by getting Suzuki's expertise on these small car technologies. VW has yet to gain much popularity in India where small cars like the Suzuki Alto are among the best selling cars. Their sales presence in Japan is also low. VW aims to be the top selling brand globally and to do that, they need to have strong sales in markets where their presence is currently small.

Given that VW was so slow to offer their technology to Suzuki when it mattered for cars like the Kizashi and the Grand Vitara while they were sold in NA, there is very little Suzuki will get out of VW now.

I hope Suzuki ends up completely severing ties, leaving VW high and dry like VW did to them. VW is a massive company with a voracious appetite for buying up brands just to be king. While they have improved other brands like Lamborghini, they've junked out their own cheaper cars like the Jetta. VWs these days are inferior in durability and reliability compared to their competition and have been downgraded so they can lower prices and sell more of them. They've done just about every trick in the book to cheapen their cars: Build in Mexico, source parts from Mexico, lower the quality of their materials, lower the refinement of vehicles, etc.
So much for "German Engineering".

While small diesel engines are needed in places like India where diesel is significantly cheaper than gasoline, Suzuki should also focus on EVs and hybrids for markets like in Europe and Japan. China is also coming to realize the potential of EVs. China is also the most important auto market in the world.

Suzuki needs to stop taking the cheap road of having others do the work for them. They should have learned their lesson from what GM did to them. Having others do your work is also not how Honda (really, Suzuki's engineering and market offering arch rival) got to be where it is today, far surpassing Suzuki.
2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS 6MT (Black)
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