Have You Already Driven A Suzuki?

With almost a decade and a half of experience in new Suzuki vehicles and used car sales in the Peterborough, Ontario area, Del Mastro Motors has long experience educating the general public about Suzuki. People looking into buying Suzuki for the first time are occasionally a bit unsure of what the ownership experience will be like. Prospective customers can be put at ease with a simple fact: Unbeknownst to them, they may have driven a Suzuki before. Suzuki has a long history of designing cars for other companies. In fact, some of the most popular cares of the last few decades have been rebranded Suzukis.

General Motors is the largest, best-known Suzuki client in North America. Suzuki has produced 18 different cars for GM’s markets around the world. The first Suzuki-made GM vehicle was 1985’s Chevrolet Sprint economy hatchback. This car was actually a rebadged Suzuki Cultus. GM would continue to sell its own Cultus variations until 2001, under the names Pontiac Firefly and Geo Metro. Canadians should know that after 1990, most of these cars were actually made in Canada at the joint Suzuki-GM CAMI Automotive plant in Ingersoll, Ontario.

Similarly, Suzuki designs spearheaded the mini/crossover SUV market. The Geo Tracker line consisted of Ingersoll-manufactured Suzuki designs – the same designs used in the Sidekick and later, the Grand Vitara, with some minor features and styling added to maintain a distinctive feel for each brand. Like the rebranded Cultus, these vehicles relied on a mix of import quality standards and domestic style and branding, and tradition that the CAMI plant carried on even with newer models such as the Chevy Equinox.

Many customers are surprised to learn that they’ve already driven a Suzuki-designed and manufactured vehicle. At authorized new Suzuki dealerships like Del Mastro Motors, representatives are increasingly showing customers that hey already know about Suzuki’s signature design characteristics, and can better help them identify what they like about them to get them into the right vehicle, straight from the source.

Fuel efficiency and the uncertain future of the North American auto industry have brought more customers to Del Mastro and other Suzuki dealers. In many cases, consumers aren’t sure whether their domestically branded car is going to get reliable service when the manufacturers themselves are on the brink of bankruptcy. Suzuki Motors looks better able to weather the storm than some of its Detroit-headquartered counterparts. The company owed much of its stability to a diverse presence in worldwide markets, including a presence in the rapidly growing Indian automotive market. But Canadians interested in buying domestically no longer need to be wary of the Suzuki brand, which has made a home for itself in the country, where it sources quality parts from Canadian companies. Even in the midst of a recession, consumers can be confident that Suzuki will be there to support their vehicles into the foreseeable future. Authorized dealers like Del Mastro Motors look forward to introducing Suzuki cars to buyers – or reintroducing them to the quality they already know.