Junkyard Jewel: 2013 Suzuki SX4 Crossover

One of the last new Suzuki automobiles sold in the United States.

The 21st-century culling of GM and GM-affiliated brands in the United States got its prologue with Geo in 1997, kicked off with Daewoo in 2002, then continued with Oldsmobile (2004), Isuzu (2009), Pontiac (2010), Hummer (2010), Saturn (2010), and Saab (2011). It seemed possible that Suzuki might be spared, but the final year here for new Suzuki cars and trucks was 2013.

I’m always scouring car graveyards for last-model-year examples of marques, a task made difficult due to the reluctance of car shoppers to buy a car from a brand they know will be gone in weeks or months (horror stories from, say, owners of year-old Daewoos who had to get warranty service from Manny, Moe and Jack take a while to be forgotten).

This is especially tough with Suzuki, because the executions of Isuzu, Pontiac, Hummer, Saturn, and Saab had come in rapid succession and Suzuki dealerships had been shadowed by circling vultures for years by the time the '13s crept ashamedly onto showroom floors. The American Suzuki Motor Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early November of 2012.

Prior to that, ASMC had given up on the Aerio, Forenza, Reno, and Verona cars (two of which were rebadged Daewoos) then took a stab at selling rebadged Nissan Frontiers in the United States. The Kizashi was a pretty good car, but Americans didn’t want non-truck-shaped vehicles by 2010 and it didn’t matter.

At the end in 2013, the SX4, Kizashi, and Grand Vitara were the only models remaining. All this means that the '13s are nearly nonexistent at your local Ewe Pullet (at the time of this writing, a search of the online inventory for 2013 Suzukis at the vast Pick-n-Pull chain shows just a single SX4 in stock nationwide).

That made this car, found at the Aurora U-Pull-&-Pay, an exciting junkyard discovery for me. It ranks up there with my find of one of the very first Kia-badged vehicles sold in the United States.

Suzuki began selling motorcycles in the United States in 1963. Suzuki’s first highway-legal four-wheeled vehicles sold in the United States were 1985 Cultuses, badged as Chevrolet Sprints.

Suzuki began selling cars with its own badging here in the 1986 model year, when the Jimny showed up with Samurai badges.

When GM created the Geo brand to sell vehicles built and/or designed by Japanese manufacturers, Suzuki provided the Metro (second-generation Cultus aka Swift) and Tracker (Sidekick aka first-gen Vitara). The Grand Vitara and XL-7 arrived around the turn of the century, just in time for the SUV craze, and the big S badge became a common sight on American roads.

This SX4 Crossover was built just before the ASMC bankruptcy announcement, so perhaps it reached our shores in time to avoid the humiliation of a panicky EVERYTHING MUST GO sale price.

Of course, Suzuki still does good business selling motorcycles, ATVs, and boat motors in the United States (just as you can still buy new Isuzu commercial trucks here). By the way, Suzuki musical instruments are made by an unrelated company; Suzuki is the second-most-common family name in Japan, which is why Ichiro used his given name on his jerseys.

The first-generation SX4 first appeared in the United States as a 2008 model, just in time for the Great Recession. It was available in sedan (SX4 Sport) and hatchback (SX4 Crossover) versions.

The second-generation SX4 was never available here, but Suzuki buyers in Mexico could buy it. The photo above is of a Mexican-market 2014 SX4 S-Cross that got stuck north of the border and ended up in the tentacles of El Pulpo near Denver.

One of the late SX4’s main selling points was its engine: a 2.0-liter four-banger with 150 horsepower and 140 pound-feet. This was a beefier mill than what you got with other subcompacts in the SX4’s price neighborhood.

The US-market SX4 Crossover was available with a six-speed manual or CVT transmission. This one has the CVT.

I like to use late-2000s/early-2010s Suzuki radios for my junkyard boombox projects, because they have AUX inputs yet don’t require a CAN Bus signal from a car ECU to operate (unless you pull one from a Daewoo-built Suzuki, which will have a CAN-dependent Delco radio). I didn’t buy this one, because I already have a pretty good stockpile.

This car looked fairly non-trashed for a 13-year-old junkyard inhabitant, so why is it here?

It got red-tagged and towed. My guess is that it was a victim of the old “park your extra cars in guest spots at an apartment complex, they’ll never notice” gambit.

You see a lot of these stickers in urban Colorado.

Just because there’s a gas crisis doesn’t mean there has to be a fun crisis. Live large, drive small.

The SX4 Crossover’s advertising emphasized rooftop storage of outdoorsy items.

For more Junkyard Jewels, go HERE.