Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Report: Struggling Suzuki cuts 50 U.S. dealers

Any hopes that Suzuki might have had a year ago that the Kizashi would revive its U.S. sales prospects were quickly dashed once the car went on sale in late 2009. The attractively style Kizashi has not made any noticeable dent in the hyper-competitive mid-size segment, however, and Suzuki's sales through July are down by 48 percent compared to its already terrible first half of 2009. After peaking at 101,884 units in 2007, Suzuki has only moved 13,501 vehicles through July of this year.

As a result, Suzuki reportedly sent out buyout offers to 150 of the 354 U.S. dealers it had earlier this year and about 50 of them accepted. One of the closing dealers is Gene Butman Suzuki of Ypsilanti, MI (pictured above) which in recent months only had a handful of new Suzuki models in stock. The former Suzuki store is now peddling used cars for the adjacent Ford outlet, although the signs are still in place as of today. Suzuki agreed to cash payments for franchises as well as buying back tools, inventory and signs. By eliminated dealers, Suzuki hopes to raise per-store sales for its remaining outlets, and according to Automotive News, no further network reductions are planned.

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/08/16/r...0-u-s-dealers/

mmarshall

What is the matter with these people? Suzuki is critically short of dealerships NOW. It is far and away their #1 problem in the U.S. market, and probably the main reason they are not selling more vehicles. If they do something as dumb as eliminating part of the few they have now, they will, IMO, deserve what they get.

Like I've said before, not only can't you sell vehicles if you don't produce them, but you can't do so without outlets, either.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

^^ Agreed. I'm not sure how they're still around (at least here in the US) looking at the peak in 2007 for sales vs July of this year... wow. How are the how the SX4 and Kizashi doing in terms of sales? I imagine those models are their bread and butter. Cutting those 50 dealers, I think is really going to hurt them IMO. Yes there is cost savings in this, but with only 300ish dealers, Suzuki is not really a household name, and it seems they'll keep losing out to the competition

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

Anyone know anyone that owns or leases a Suzuki?
I don't.

mmarshall

I do, but not many.

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

I know a lot of Suzuki motorcycle owners...

ABC

One of my good friends has a suzuki truck... i think x7... but ouside of that, i don't know anyone nor was it even on my list of dealers to check out when i was looking for cars, lol.

IS-SV

Zero here, with 1 dealership and only 1 competitive model, no surprise.

Yes, the m/c's are popular.

The reality is most people will never notice the closure of the 50 money-loser dealerships.

I8ABMR

Its like cutting your nose off to spite your face. I couldnt even tell you where there was a suzuki dealership, let alone to cut 50

LexBob2

With their dismal sales, can you imagine the volume those 50 money losing dealerships were doing? Virtually next to nothing.

IS-SV

The potted plants placed around the few cars were taking root.

Lexmex

Part of the problem I saw with the dealers are the locations. They never seemed to be put in places where a lot of people would notice them. Same thing I can say about Subaru (though there vehicles are a lot better). When Suzuki opened up in Mexico, I was amazed at the strange places these dealers were in and it was almost like finding a needle in the haystack. Subaru and Mazda did things very similarly and also struggled to gain ground due to poor location.

caddyowner

We have a small Suzuki dealership in the county and I've seen a number of the little SUV / wagons around. I'll have to drive by and see if they are still open. Our county's only Cadillac dealership (down the road from the Suzuki dealer) recently closed and is now a Mazda dealership.

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

So they've basically eliminated 94% of their dealerships?

mmarshall

Suzuki has a web-site dealer-locator, just like every other automaker. Just type in your zip code and search range.

http://suzukiauto.com/shopping_tools...FZJd5QodSyyAZA

The question is......how many of those shops are going to STAY open? That, of course, is the big issue in this thread.