Suzuki Motors Pakistan: A disgrace to Japanese automobiles

Japanese cars all over the world are known for their sleek designs, magnificent engine technology and superior durability. Suzuki is a well known car manufacturing brand of Japan which is known or rather popular for all the qualities mentioned above. Unfortunately Suzuki decided to handover its assembling to Awami autos in 1978 for its Pakistani market.Pak Suzuki started its commercial operations in 1984 with its first locally assembled car called Suzuki 800cc (FX).

That was a decent car for the 80's when technology was not yet that advanced and there was a possibility to drive without disc brakes or power windows/steering. But time froze for Pak Suzuki after the 80's and didn’t change even after the 21st century. In 1988 the Suzuki mehran was launched with almost the same design as the fx but somehow broader backlights. Wow how can someone come up with that? Changing a box shape backlight into a bigger box shaped backlight. The irony doesn’t end here but it worsens when you known that the same design is kept for the next 26 years? And is still the same in 2014 with almost the same specifications for a price of 0.5 million. Not to mention the efi engine model which costs you even higher.

0.5 Million for cheap quality steel, plastic bumpers, manual window and rear drum brakes with 0% of accidental safety. I don’t even think any country in the west would even allow this car on their roads.

Let go mehran for a second and let’s talk about the Pak Suzuki's latest assembled car called the Wagon-R which is supposedly a replica of the Japanese wagon R which got popularity in the Pakistani market due to high imports. The Pakistani assembled Wagon-R costs you a whooping 0.9 million for the base model which is not a small amount yet you get much similarspecifications which are in a mehran for the past 2 decades.

The fully loaded model called the Wagon-R VXL,which costs you more than a million rupees just gives you power windows and a power steering which is nowadays a basic need for a decent drive, forget the concept of ABS(Anti-lock braking system) in small cars because that is too much to ask for in a small car from Pak Suzuki motors.

To sum all this up I think Pak Suzuki motors need to pull up their socks and get out of the 80's; launching a fancier looking version of mehran won’t help now, living standard or driving pleasure should be raised by the Local automobile assemblers in Pakistan.

Japanese cars are still being preferred although they have expensive imported spare parts, but still there is some time left or you won’t see a single local assembled car on Pakistani roads which can be disastrous for the Pakistani economy.