Good chance at death. they only ever tell you the front and side crash ratings. From the looks of that thing, if you get rear ended, you better hope its not someone you care about, like a child, in that back seat.
all small cars are like that. And those crash ratings are bullshit. The real world is a lot different than those stupid ass lab tests. I keep hearing how these small cars get 5 stars, but what if a f350 superduty hits you? They need a more realistic way of rating cars.
oh i totally hear you on that. 5 star rating comapred to what is what i ask. My moms 84 lesbre got broadsided by a maxima. the cops estimated that lady was going near 55. my mom had cuts and bruises and the lady had broken everything and was on life support for a long time. The maximas engine was sitting in the front seat!!! the lesbre got hit twice in the accident, first the max and then a dodge ram from behind and we still have the engine, tranny, all the interior, hood, bumpers and passenger side sheet metal. The full frame did was it was intended to do, it deflected the opposing car before it entered the cabin.
good gas milage and ecomical and even performance should come second to saftey for a daily driver.
I’ve had nothing but good experiences with our 1997 Sidekick. We’ve got over 140,000 on it and have had only a few minor problems with it (nothing drivetrain related-just stuff like a starter at 137,000 miles, a fan clutch at 87,000 and an endlink at 115,000). I even towed my formula racecar behind it quite a few times across the state. We went with the Suzuki because the Rav4 and CRV were not real trucks (no frame or tranfer case with a low range). We passed on the Tracker because it was a stripped down version of the Sidekick that lacked most of the good features/trim and didn’t offer a bigger motor option.
I also worked at a now dufunt Suzuki dealer as a service advisor and can say that as a whole they were as good as the Nissans we also delt with. On average, there were more small things that went wrong with Suzukis than I saw at the Honda dealer I previously worked at but I feel that they were better than the cars I saw when I worked for GM back in the mid 90s at a Pontiac/Olds/Caddy dealer.
Obviously Suzuki products cost less than other cars. By and large, that means people on a budget buy them. That also seems to mean that these “budget minded” people skip all the scheduled services and generally don’t treat their vehicles well. This lack of maintenance contributes greatly to the problems they have with their vehicles. I’ve heard a lot of people either praise or condem their vehicles and a quick check of their service history helps tell the tale. I’m not talking about oil changes at Iffy Lube either. You need to replace your coolant, tranny fluid, brake fluid, etc on a routine basis and do tune ups, adjustments and cleaning and inspections as well. Neglecting your car is an invitation for problems to occur.
the car sucks and go /yourself. :jerkit: i’ve been to every scheduled maintenance. how does a faulty control arm breaking, shitty plastic pieces, and lack of parts availability & customer service that required the atty general even come close to custmer irresponisibility. too bad budget minded me couldn’t blow the wad on a rebadged tracker like you did big hitter. :blah:
