Hate to be the bearer of not great news.

Danbob · Mon May 21, 2012 4:14 pm

Listen Guys,

I am as die-hard a fan of our cars as anyone else on here but I am fearing the worst for American Suzuki. My dealer is definitely one of the most successful Suzuki dealers probably on the East Coast and I just got a letter in the mail from the owner saying he was letting go of his Suzuki franchise as of june "in order to expand his vw showroom". Now this is a guy who has been pushing for Suzuki and loves them to pieces since he started selling them like 15 years ago. When I tell you I see Suzukis galore around here from my dealer, I am not kidding. I honestly think they are leaving the U.S., even though this letter said they are not. The letter went on to say that none of the other local Suzuki dealerships or any dealerships for that matter, were willing to buy the leftover inventory or the franchise from them. It also went on to say that they would no longer even be servicing Suzuki cars as of June. The kicker of the letter was that he is offering 2000 dollars above the NADA good condition trade value of any Suzuki plus 1000 dollars below his cost on any new or pre owned audi or vw from his dealership. Because this is such a big deal, they are not even involving their salesman. All transactions for trades and new vehicles are going to be done by their general manager and sales manager. Kind of reminds me of when circuit city was liquidating all their inventory and people were just selling off stuff like crazy in their stores....Between my wife and I and my in-laws, we have bought 7 new suzukis from them in the past 12 years. The closest dealer to my house for warranty work and recalls will now be 1 hour away. This is not the middle of nowhere either. This the new york metro area. I think it's too late for the swift and a redesigned sx4 to save Suzuki in the U.S. I am not a trouble maker at all, in fact, I left Subaru because I love these cars so much, but I wanted to let you guys know whats going on on the east coast which is supposedly Suzuki's strongest market. I am betting that in the coming few weeks, you will see more dealers sending out letters like this. I have family who has owned dealerships, and they have said that something like this is the first in a series of steps for an automaker to pull out of a market. Sorry for the spelling and punctuation btw. iPad keyboards are not the most accurate.

Senegal · Mon May 21, 2012 4:36 pm

same situation here, loved the Kizashi, but discussing things with the Midwest dealer owner who i've come to be good friends with, I found out about the same disturbing news...this dealer though said he's "just gonna ride it out"

Still, Kizashi is moving 400-500 units a month and SX4 1300-1500 on a national level, not good but not totally bad either.

Mon May 21, 2012 4:56 pm

Thank you for the update.

Northernstar · Tue May 22, 2012 12:56 am

haven't heard anything form my local dealer here in canada, hope my local dealer isn't pulling out

chazyouwin · Tue May 22, 2012 2:06 am

Can you tell us who the dealer is? Since he sent you a letter, he is obviously not keeping this all confidential.

chazyouwin · Tue May 22, 2012 2:09 am

Also if I read this correctly, he can't get other dealers to accept inventory at a fair price, but he's paying extra to get more used Suzukis into his inventory? And he's selling VWs and Audis below his cost, also to get those same Suzukis into his inventory?

chazyouwin · Tue May 22, 2012 2:30 am

Judging by the combined VW-Audi-Suzuki branding, this looks to be Mohegan Lake Suzuki of Westchester County. 15 total Suzukis in inventory, with a few Kizashis. http://moheganlakesuzuki.com/inventory.do?type=new . While this is certainly a loss for the owners nearby, it does not by the inventory appear to be a major dealer.

Senegal · Tue May 22, 2012 3:37 am

I'm not sure which dealer OP is referring to, but 15 new suzuki's is probably average for a typical suzuki dealer.

the largest is Wichita Suzuki and they have over 200 new suzuki models

chazyouwin · Tue May 22, 2012 4:09 am

I don't know what is average, but there's presently 100 new 2012 Suzukis posted on the Green Brook NJ Suzuki web site, including 36 2012 Kizashis:

http://greenbrooksuzuki.com/inventory.do?type=new

That's where I would go looking for Kizashi deals, since they'll want to clear before the 2013s come out. I certainly would not go to any place that has only 3-4 Kizashis entering the summer.

Danbob · Tue May 22, 2012 4:18 am

Hey guys...it is MLM. They used to stock about 40 or more suzukis at once, but over the past year, they drastically reduced their inventory. Such a shame because I have nothing but fantastic things to say about them. they used to crank out suzukis as fast as they got them in stock. I don't really know why they are trying to buy back all of these suzukis, but my guess would be that they are going to ship them overseas where the market is stronger and Suzuki is going to reward them for doing so...

Anyway, had a talk with my wife and we decided we love our kizashi too much to part with it. Especially for a vw....we are going to keep it for a long time and even if I replace it as my daily driver In a couple of years when the payments are over, we're probably going to keep it as a third car if it still runs well, considering it probably won't be worth muchon a trade and I can do most of the work on it myself, it'd be a good car to just keep and run into the ground.