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The History of Suzuki

It is always interesting to see how big companies have evolved. Sometimes it is difficult to imagine how small and inconspicuous companies gradually formed the giants of the automobile industry. This is how the history of Suzuki brand began.

Tiny Japanese village Hamamatsu could remain unremarkable coastal settlement, if not a desperate step, which Michio Suzuki took. It was in 1909 that he decided to found his own company. However, his activity was not aimed at the creation of cars, but at the creation of convenient and modern looms. For a long time the Japanese was engaged in this business and achieved great success. The loom models were considerably superior to their British and Dutch competitors in all characteristics. The Japanese government even awarded Michio Suzuki the Blue Ribbon Medal for his achievements in national industry and his contribution to the economy of his native country.

Here the Japanese could rest easy and enjoy the quiet management of a steadily operating company, but he couldn't stop thinking about the need to comprehensively develop and introduce the firm to other industries. To do this, market research was conducted and consumer demand was carefully studied. The results showed that people needed compact and affordable cars. The decision of the head of the company was not long in coming and in 1937 the project to create a car was launched. In two years the work on the first examples was finished. These were prototypes with modern engines (four-stroke design, four cylinders, liquid cooling). The performance of these cars was impressive: 13 horses with a displacement that did not reach 800 cc.

Since 1963, Americans were able to purchase Japanese motorcycles, which were affordable and reliable. And the range was rapidly expanding, giving customers a great opportunity to choose. In the late seventies, the company Suzuki began equipping its new motorcycles with four-stroke power units. Thus, the history of Suzuki added another important achievement - the GS series, which can now be called legendary. In 1975, the company decided on an experiment, which was not very successful. The motorcycle was combined with a Wankel rotary engine. It was named Suzuki RE5, and it did not bring success to its creator, but it still added to the collection. Three years later, Osamu Suzuki became the head of the company, and a year later Alto entered the market, which proved the superiority of Japanese designers in creation of compact cars. Suzuki began to actively expand its production facilities. Plants were built in Indonesia and the Philippines.

After all-terrain vehicles, production of the Cultus has been launched - a passenger car, the engine of which has a volume of 1 liter. It came to the taste of Americans who appreciated its practicality and compactness with high cross-country ability.

Production of motorcycles was not abandoned, in fact, in 1986 came out GSX-R750, which promptly began to gain victories in the races. Two years later came the off-road Escudo (Vitara), which multiplied the success of the company on the international scene. Cars began to come out one after another, each new one was more successful than the previous one: Suzuki Wagon R+ had successfully designed saloon for five people, compact four-wheel drive Baleno and Wagon R Wide, Kei and Grand Vitara, which were created for foreign markets.

By early 1999, the company had produced 40 million motorcycles. The contract signed with Fuji Heavy Industries gives the impetus to begin work on the most powerful motorcycle, which is headed for mass production. This beast is called the GSX1300R Hayabusa.

The creation of compact machines did not stop for a minute and the Alto was shown at the motor show in the French capital in 2008. Suzuki does not stand aside when it comes to environmental protection and as the proof - production of compact car SX4-FCV with fuel cells. Do not forget to use Suzuki VIN decoder in order to avoid potential problems when buying a used car.




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