Suzuki bows its first ever pickup truck for the U.S. market. Called the Equator, it's designed to get people thinking about the small Asian car company as something more than a concern that makes motorcycles and also cars.
With so many cycle owners parking a pickup truck in their driveways, Suzuki is looking to cash in on that instant connection. The fastest way to do that, and save some money doing it, is to partner with someone who has already swallowed the significant development costs; so Suzuki has teamed up with Nissan and is using the Frontier as its entry in to the market.
It's showing three Equators, each focused on a different aspect of the Suzuki brand. The Equator Quad has an ATV theme. The Equator RMZ-4 has a crotch-rocket in the bed. And the Equator Quay (pronounced key) has a 4000-pound boat behind it, sporting a Suzuki outboard motor. The vehicles will go on sale in fall 2009 and offer two engines (I-4 and V-6), as well as two cab configurations (Crew Cab and Extended Cab). Look for more when we get one to run through our testing procedure, but don't expect much change. We've seen the same thing from the Mazda B-Series as well as the Mitsubishi Raider and neither of those sold in any significant numbers. Still, there seems to be more synergy here. We'll reserve judgment until we see what Suzuki has in store. Stay tuned.