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Suzuki


Suzuki
Vehicle Marque

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Official Site: SuzukiAuto.com
Official Site: SuzukiCycles.com
Wikipedia: Suzuki

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Unidentified Photographs
A manufacturer of cars and motorcycles. Started in 1937 and based in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan.

Vehicle names used by Suzuki currently and throughout history include:  Aerio, DRZ400, Equator, Esteem, Forenza, Gemma, Gladius, Grand Vitara, GS 1000, GSX-R/4, GSX1300R, GSX-S1000, Ionis, iV-4, Jimny, KingQuad, Kizashi, Makai, Reno, RV-125K, Samurai, Swift, SX4, Verona, Vitara, and XL-7.

History

The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's Suzuki page on 21 August 2019, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Suzuki Motor Corporation (Japanese: スズキ株式会社 Hepburn: Suzuki Kabushiki-Kaisha) is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Minami-ku, Hamamatsu. Suzuki manufactures automobiles, four-wheel drive vehicles, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), outboard marine engines, wheelchairs and a variety of other small internal combustion engines. In 2016, Suzuki was the eleventh biggest automaker by production worldwide. Suzuki has over 45,000 employees and has 35 production facilities in 23 countries, and 133 distributors in 192 countries. The worldwide sales volume of automobiles is the world's tenth largest, while domestic sales volume is the third largest in the country.

In 1909, Michio Suzuki (1887–1982) founded the Suzuki Loom Works in the small seacoast village of Hamamatsu, Japan. Business boomed as Suzuki built weaving looms for Japan's giant silk industry. In 1929, Michio Suzuki invented a new type of weaving machine, which was exported overseas. The company's first 30 years focused on the development and production of these machines.

Despite the success of his looms, Suzuki believed that his company would benefit from diversification and he began to look at other products. Based on consumer demand, he decided that building a small car would be the most practical new venture. The project began in 1937, and within two years Suzuki had completed several compact prototype cars. These first Suzuki motor vehicles were powered by a then-innovative, liquid-cooled, four-stroke, four-cylinder engine. It had a cast aluminum crankcase and gearbox and generated 13 horsepower (9.7 kW) from a displacement of less than 800cc.

With the onset of World War II, production plans for Suzuki's new vehicles were halted when the government declared civilian passenger cars a "non-essential commodity." At the conclusion of the war, Suzuki went back to producing looms. Loom production was given a boost when the U.S. government approved the shipping of cotton to Japan. Suzuki's fortunes brightened as orders began to increase from domestic textile manufacturers. But the joy was short-lived as the cotton market collapsed in 1951.

Faced with this colossal challenge, Suzuki returned to the production of motor vehicles. After the war, the Japanese had a great need for affordable, reliable personal transportation. A number of firms began offering "clip-on" gas-powered engines that could be attached to the typical bicycle. Suzuki's first two-wheeled vehicle was a bicycle fitted with a motor called, the "Power Free." Designed to be inexpensive and simple to build and maintain, the 1952 Power Free had a 36 cc, one horsepower, two-stroke engine. The new double-sprocket gear system enabled the rider to either pedal with the engine assisting, pedal without engine assist, or simply disconnect the pedals and run on engine power alone. The patent office of the new democratic government granted Suzuki a financial subsidy to continue research in motorcycle engineering.

By 1954, Suzuki was producing 6,000 motorcycles per month and had officially changed its name to Suzuki Motor Co., Ltd. Following the success of its first motorcycles, Suzuki created an even more successful automobile: the 1955 Suzuki Suzulight. The Suzulight sold with front-wheel drive, four-wheel independent suspension and rack-and-pinion steering, which were not common on cars until three decades later.

Volkswagen held a 19.9% non-controlling shareholding in Suzuki between 2009 and 2015. An international arbitration court ordered Volkswagen to sell the stake back to Suzuki. Suzuki paid $3.8bn to complete the stock buy-back in September 2015.


Article Index

DateArticleAuthor/Source
14 March 2004Suzuki Unveils Big Plans for US Market John Birchard, VOA News
7 January 2006Fantasy Racer Partners with Clear Channel Entertainment and American Suzuki to Bring Supercross Fans Their Own Fantasy LeagueFantasy Racer
2 June 2006Why choose OEM parts for your Suzuki motorcycle?Karen Nodalo
8 July 2008Suzuki stellt Wasserstoffauto auf G8-Gipfel vor Wikinews
7 January 2010Suzuki Launches In-Store Pickup With National Dealer NetworkShopatron, Inc.
26 December 2012Foreign-Trade Zone 26 -- Atlanta, Georgia Notification of Proposed Production Activity Suzuki Mfg. of America Corp. (All-Terrain Vehicles) Rome, Jonesboro and Cartersville, GeorgiaFederal Register: Foreign-Trade Zones Board (Andrew McGilvray)
12 June 2014Notification of Proposed Production Activity; Suzuki Manufacturing of America Corporation, Subzone 26L (All-Terrain Vehicles), Rome, Jonesboro and Cartersville, GeorgiaFederal Register: Foreign-Trade Zones Board (Andrew McGilvray)
26 September 2014Authorization of Production Activity; Foreign-Trade Subzone 26L, Suzuki Manufacturing of America Corporation, (All-Terrain Vehicles), Rome, Jonesboro and Cartersville, GeorgiaFederal Register: Foreign-Trade Zones Board (Elizabeth Whiteman)
18 May 2016Suzuki Says Used Wrong Fuel Economy Tests in JapanVOA News


Unidentified Photographs

The following photographs cannot be identified.  If you know any details about these images, please e-mail admin@carsandracingstuff.com.

Suzuki Motorcycle in Cuba Subject:  Suzuki Motorcycle
Photographer:  Chandler Cruttenden
Location:  Camaguey, Cuba
View photo of Suzuki Motorcycle in Cuba - 3.0MB
Suzuki Concept Motorcycle Subject:  Suzuki Concept Motorcycle
Source:  Image*After
View photo of Suzuki concept motorcycle - 1,116KB





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