By: Rob Beintema

TOKYO - This is Tokyo. Home of the heavyweights - Honda, Toyota and Nissan. And also home for one up-and-coming David among the Goliaths – Suzuki, a company aiming for a major impact at one of the industry’s most important auto shows with a collective showing themed “Small Cars For A Big Future”.

That’s called playing to your strengths. And although it may seem easy for Canadians to shrug off a company still striving for just a one percent market share in this country, Suzuki has become a major player in the rest of the world with its small car specialization a natural fit for developing countries and new world markets in India and the rest of Asia.

Even in Japan, Suzuki has led small car sales for the past six years, marketing its boxy WagonR at the rate of over 20,000 purchases per month with exports of the same model increasingly taking hold of European markets.

But while Suzuki success may be based on a broad offering of econo models and practicality, it doesn’t mean they can’t have bigger dreams, incorporating everything from flights of fancy to real world, near future models.

After wowing the car world with the Concept Kizashi at the recent 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show, Suzuki unveiled the Concept Kizashi 2 here at the Tokyo Motor Show. Suzuki labels this crossover sports wagon as a “premonition of dynamism and beauty” and while its ethereal qualities caught the eye of all automotive journalists, under the hood, a very real 3.6-litre V6 engine, the highest-displacement engine ever used by Suzuki, is mated to a six-speed automatic for gritty competitive performance. Suzuki is also looking into hybrid/diesel possibilities and we will continue to see this design evolve with a Kizashi 3 sedan concept slated for reveal in Detroit or New York next year. I would expect a production version of this vehicle sometime in 2010 or 2011.

Playing with a concept called Sustainable Mobility, Suzuki blends a very futuristic pair of one-person low-speed PIXY transport devices with the SSC (Suzuki Sharing Coach) base vehicle. Don’t hold your breath on this one but it should be noted that many of the manufacturers have turned their attention to one-person transportation technologies that can pay off with at least improved electric wheelchair solutions for aging societies.

The X-HEAD cross-utility vehicle offers big rig machismo with compact maneuverability, combined with the very real off-road abilities inherited from Jimmy and Grand Vitara (Escudo). Presented at the show in four load variations ranging from a camper box to rescue packaging complete with hydraulic claw/crane, the X-HEAD features forehead-slapping innovations such as fold-down pickup side shelving and storage. Other manufacturers will either adopt this feature or spend the next few years kicking themselves. I’ve seen some internet mocking of its Tonka toy looks but, hey, most pickup truck owners I know are just overgrown kids anyways. Ship over a boat load of X-HEADs as-is and they’d sell out in no time.

The PALETTE takes the basics of the squarish minicar concept to a further evolution but the Splash is the real world, Euro replacement for the popular WagonR cube wagon, to be built in Hungary and scheduled for a spring 2008 release.

We recently saw the SX4 sedan debut in Canada and at the Tokyo Motor Show, Suzuki unveiled the ultimate SX4 sedan derivative, the SX4 WRC rally car, ready for its debut in the Rallye de France, where it made its first run under real competition conditions. The SX4 WRC will also run in the Wales Rally GB later in the year, its last test before Suzuki begins its first full World Rally Championship season in January 2008.

With this range of six world premiere reveals, ranging from the fantastic to near future at one of the world’s most important automotive shows, and with a present lineup already slated towards the growing trends towards ecological and fuel economy concerns, Suzuki is well-positioned for future growth in sales and stature.

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