Toyota and Honda loved profitable American gross sales success with the RAV4 and CR-V compact crossovers, which went on sale right here for the 1996 and 1997 mannequin years, respectively. Suzuki provided its first-generation Escudo/Vitara right here (because the Sidekick, along with being bought by GM with Geo Tracker badging), however its Nineteen Eighties design had turn out to be embarrassingly dated by the center Nineteen Nineties. One thing needed to be executed; that turned out to be the second-generation Vitara, which appeared right here as a 1999 mannequin. Here is a first-year instance, present in a Colorado automotive graveyard just lately.
The primary Suzuki-made automotive mannequin bought new in america was the first-generation Cultus, bought right here by GM with Chevrolet Dash badges starting in 1985 (this after greater than 20 years of Suzuki bikes arriving at our shores). The Suzuki Jimny confirmed up the next 12 months (because the Suzuki Samurai), with increasingly Suzuki-badged fashions exhibiting up in the course of the Nineteen Nineties.
As an affiliate of the far-flung GM Empire, Suzuki merchandise bought in america grew to become extra Daewoo-ized in the course of the 2000s, however there have been all the time some real Suzukis accessible all through the ultimate Kizashis and Grand Vitaras.
The Vitara was accessible in america by the 2003 mannequin 12 months, whereas the extra highly effective and customarily grander Grand Vitara was bought right here all the way in which till American Suzuki Motors filed for chapter and gave up on highway-legal four-wheelers after 2013. You’ll be able to nonetheless purchase new Suzuki bikes and ATVs to at the present time, in fact.
This can be a top-trim-level four-door JX+ with four-wheel-drive, so its MSRP was $17,999 (about $34,406 in 2024 {dollars}). That compares favorably with the equally outfitted 1999 Honda CR-V ($20,450, or $39,091 in the present day) and 1999 Toyota RAV4 ($18,198 in the present day).
The Grand Vitara for ’99 got here with V6 energy beneath the hood, whereas the common Vitara made do with 1.6- and a pair of.0-liter straight-fours. That is the two.0-liter, rated at 127 horsepower and 134 pound-feet.
A five-speed guide transmission was base gear, however the authentic purchaser of this automotive purchased the automated. Not like the car-based CR-V and RAV4, the 1999-2003 Vitara had a truck-style body and true four-wheel-drive as an alternative of an idiot-proof all-wheel-drive system.
Collectible? In all probability not, however nonetheless an attention-grabbing piece of Suzuki automotive historical past.
American Suzuki Motors did not appear prepared to spend cash to do TV commercials for the not-so-grand common Vitara, so we’ll watch one for its JDM sibling as an alternative.
