New Suzuki Vehicles & Suzuki Merger?

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bmw&kizzyownr
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FYI on new Suzuki vehicles (this may have been posted previously) and prospective merger. Merger news (Fiat Chrysler) w/Suzuki is probably wishful thinking but if true (doubtful), 'might' lead to Suzuki's return to the NA market.



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LPSISRL
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Wow. I didn't realize that Suzuki was the 9th largest auto manufacturer in the world. Mazada checks in at 15th and Chrysler at 7th. Amazing that Suzuki couldn't make it work in the US market.
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KuroNekko
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I have strong doubts Suzuki wants to merge. They already left the North American market (I think they are still in Mexico though) meaning that FCA can't really offer anything substantial to them. Suzuki did seek FIAT in the past for their small diesel engines and the SX4 was a car co-developed with FIAT and even styled in Italy.
But now, I can't imagine how Suzuki would really benefit from this merger. They aren't struggling despite what many Americans think. They dominate in Asia being the #1 brand in India (a country with 1.2 billion people) and they are very successful in their homeland of Japan, even outselling Nissan there in 2012.

It made sense back in 2010 when Suzuki wanted to stay in North America and have a bigger presence with larger cars like the Kizashi. That's why they tried whatever it was with Volkswagen. That failed miserably.

That being said, Suzuki and even Mazda do have ties with FCA. Like I already wrote, Suzuki has history with them and even shared the SX4. Mazda collaborated with FCA on the new Miata and the FIAT version looks like it will be called the 124 Spider.
I personally think FCA is much more likely to merge with Mazda than Suzuki if any Japanese auto company was to go with FCA.
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sx4rocious
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A lot of Americans this Suzuki filed bankruptcy as a whole. It kinda makes sense since most Americans think they are the center of the universe. Murato Suzuki is doing very well. AMERICAN SUZUKI filed bankruptcy. It's a total seperate entity. I agree that Suzuki will most likely never attempt a comeback on this side of the pond. If it were that easy to do, Opel, Citreon, Alpha Romeo, Daewoo, Dihatsu and about 50 others would have done it by now. The big Detroit 3 bullied them all out of existence here and left a bad taste in their mouths. We're fortunate to get Fiat back, but they had to invest billions in a failing company no one else wanted in order to do it. I sincerely hope it works for them, but they seem to be struggling with reliability issues (something the failing company they invested in has struggled with for many years).

The Detriot 3 have been extremely successful in forcing huge gas guzzling beasts down the American throat for so long, most Americans think they have to have one. This has contributed to the demise of Suzuki in the US also. If you look at Fiat, they aren't very strong sellers in the US. Neither is Mini. It's mostly because they don't make cars big enough to catch the eye of the American public. We already know the Kizashi would have been a much better seller in the US if it were marketed correctly, but just about anything from the Fiat 500 line could be loosly considered a sales flop. Mini has just about given up... I don't see any type of merger. I think Fiat is making money off Chrysler, but they haven't gotten their own brand off the ground. (I blame the 500L, YUCK!) Once again, this is just my opinion tho, take it with a grain of salt...
KansasKid
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A merger with Suzuki could work, if Fiat would be allowed to sell the new Swifts/Altos under their banner maybe? Fiat would add more compact cars to their lineup in America, and Suzuki could start bringing their cars back to the US.

The problem is I don't know what they could do with the Kizashi. FCA already has the Dodge Dart and the Chrysler 200 to cover the market segments that the Kizashi was designed for.
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Moto
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I looked at this awhile ago, I have a feeling they will be going with another company.
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Woodie
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Fiat hardly needs help with their small car lineup, that's kinda what they do. With the 500, 500L, Panda, and the Punto, they've pretty much got things covered.
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