6th Jan 2007, 21:29

A lot of strange information on here at times LOL.

Anyhow the Aerio for North America is not from or built in China. It comes directly from Japan.

Same goes for the new SX4. Only the European version will be assembled in Hungary. The North American SX4 is Japanese built.

If there are some issues with the Hungarian built Suzuki's, it might have something to do with the record breaking sales of Suzuki's in Europe as well as world-wide. The Hungarian plant hasn't even been able to keep up with the demand for Suzuki cars in Europe. No surprise, considering the new Suzuki Swift and Swift Sport have taken "Best Car Of The Year" award in over 12 countries in the world now, and looks like will be getting many more awards soon. It's beaten everything else including Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and a myriad of Euro brands in the same class.

That being said, the other problem with the Hungarian production plant was labour issues dealing with worker pay and the such. After signing a deal with Suzuki, the workers representatives wanted to renege on the deal and demand huge increases in pay and compensation. This was after Suzuki had already invested half a BILLION dollars in that production facility.

Luckily, looks as if things have been worked out and production is back on course, although still not being able to meet demand. For late 2007 and 2008, production at the Hungarian plant will more than double to try to keep up with the demand for the Suzuki's.

As far as Fiat goes... the SX4 has almost nothing to do with Fiat from a design perspective. SX4 is all Japanese. The only Fiat part on the SX4 will be in Europe only, and that is the diesel engine. That Fiat engine in a real gem. Has been very reliable, and there are various versions of this engine. The Multijet 1248cc SDE version was chosen in 2005 as the "Engine of the Year".

Hopefully the diesel version of the SX4 will reach American shores too, but I'm rather doubtful of that.

On another note, I purchased a 2006 Suzuki Aerio SX Premium Package. When comparing prices, one thing to keep in mind is that Suzuki dealerships don't charge dealer fees like Honda etc... do. The list price for my car was $15'779. However, this list price doesn't take into account the great rebates that are available to anyone if you are AWARE of them.

If some people bought their Suzuki's and didn't take advantage of all the rebates, then shame on them for not doing the research before they bought their car. Can't blame depreciation on their own IGNORANCE.

I bought my car in October of 2005.

List price - $15'779

1st rebate - 1'500 (Suzuki cash back) applied to price

2nd rebate - 500 (Owner Loyalty) traded in my Swift GT

3rd rebate - 1'000 (dealership incentive)

Price paid - $13'779

That price I paid was without any haggling or nonsense. Was a straight forward deal.

One other thing I should mention here is that after arriving at this price, I then threw in my existing car at the time as part of the down-payment. It was a 1994 Suzuki Swift GT that I bought new back in 1994. The list price on that car at the time was $12'995,but I purchased it for just under $10'000. After driving that car for 10 years, I sold it to the dealership for $1500, which I think was a fair price considering that they would still have to sell it to someone else.

The interesting thing is that the salesman that sold me my 2006 Aerio, liked my GTi so much that he bought it himself from the dealership LOL. I later found out though that he ended up selling it on Craigslist because his wife wouldn't allow him to own it. She was sure he would do something crazy and get hurt LOL.

He ended up selling it for $3000 to a private party. Of course then I had wished that I had kept it and sold it on my own LOL.

I must say that having owned and driven that car for 10 years, not even one thing had gone wrong with that car. Even had all the same bulbs and everything. Had to change the clutch once, brake pads once, and tires once. That's it!

I did baby the thing though. Everyone who got in that car said that inside looked like it just rolled off the production plant. Changed oil ever 3000 miles, and did all scheduled maintenance.

So if we are talking about Suzuki resale value.. the moral of the story is, make sure you INFORM yourself before you purchase a car. Most Suzuki's can be obtained, even new, for well below the sticker price!

Would any of you say that $3000 for a 10 year old car that originally was purchased for $10'000 is poor resale???

As for my 2006 Aerio SX Premium Package..

Only thing I've done to the thing is put a sunroof on it.

Price I paid for it in 2005 was $13'779.

NADA book value for it now is $13'025 (January 6, 2007).

Depreciation after 1 year, 3 months = $754.

Is that supposed to be bad resale value?

Here's the thing. In 2005 and 2006, sales of new Aerio's went up by 65%!!!

This has greatly affected the resale value of them in REAL TERMS, not necessarily in book terms. For example... when I went to purchase my vehicle, the dealership couldn't find any Aerio SX 5-Speed Premium Package in the entire state of Washington. So they started searching other states. After another 2 or 3 weeks of searching, they informed me that there none to be found in the entire western United States! So finally, they had to go into the Suzuki database and found one due to be shipped from Japan, and they immediately reserved it for me!

According to the mail sales guy there at the dealership, they were getting phone calls every day from people looking for the exact same car. So you see, here is where market demand can go against what a book may say as far as resale goes.

I've already been offered what I paid for my car brand new from one guy that wanted to buy it.

When you own a niche type of car like the Aerio, or my former Swift GTi, it's not very hard to defy the predicted resale IF YOU TAKE CARE OF THE CAR! There will always be someone out there that wants to buy a well cared for niche car like the Aerio or Swift GTi, and will pay for all the care that you put into that car.

Bottom line??? Ignore reported book values, instead do your HOMEWORK on rebates, and don't forget when you are comparing to cars like Honda Fit, that you have to add all the extra options that the Aerio has stock to the price of cars like the Fit, and you also then have to add dealer costs/fees that those brands throw at you once you've decided to buy the car. Suzuki dealerships won't do that to you.

With those other brands... from the base price it's always ADD ADD ADD.. you will easily add $2500 to $3000 to a Honda Fit before you get out the door, if you get all the same options that the Aerio has and with dealer fee's.

With Suzuki it's always SUBTRACT SUBTRACT SUBTRACT! LOL. IF you know what you are doing.

And of course.. if I keep my car for 5 years, and then decide to sell it, the new buyer will still have a 2 year ORIGINAL manufacturer drivetrain warranty remaining on the car that will be passed on to him! A warranty that didn't cost me, nor him any additional money! (no transfer fee, and new buyer doesn't have to be family member).

Now do you see the value???

If you say yes, you get the light bulb of the year award LOL.

If you say no, I guess you will never get it, so quit reading and just go out and buy yourself a Honda LOL.

Best of luck to everyone and God Bless.