It was 2009 and my young family and I had been living in Calgary for four years. My wife Darlene was increasingly expressing her dislike for our high-mile 1999 Pontiac Montana, which, in her estimation, handled the Alberta snow poorly (in truth, this was mostly due to the cheapo MotoMaster tires it wore). She wanted our family vehicle to be a seven-seater 4×4, a type of vehicle that was out of our price range which was about five thousand bucks. As the principal driver, she really didn’t want a gargantuan full-sizer, nor could we afford the operating costs. What were our options? An Explorer maybe? I suggested an all-wheel-drive Chevy Astro. “It’s just looks like a box!” she said (and repeated shortly after when I approvingly pointed at a new Ford Flex).
Some work time Internet shopping resulted in a 2001 Suzuki XL7 catching my eye; a seven-seater 4×4 with 98,000 kilometers. The dealer was asking $9800, which was impossibly high for us, not to mention overpriced. Nevertheless, I knew this was the vehicle Darlene wanted, even not having showed her. Over the next few days, I found myself occasionally viewing the vehicle online, looking at the ancient-looking switch gear and floor-mounted transfer case lever, admiring the simplicity of it. So, this is what the old Samurai had evolved into.
Later, at work, I viewed that Suzuki online. Again, I looked at the price.
It was now $4900.
I blinked a few times and looked again. This was indeed the same vehicle I had been watching. I dialed the number on my BlackBerry Curve. The sales manager picked up on the other end.
“Hello, I’m calling about that Suzuki XL7. Do you still have it?”
“Let me check . . . yes, we still have it.”
“And it’s on for 4900 dollars?”
Long pause.
“This was actually a mistake. Somebody typed the price in wrong. Um . . . we’re willing to honor the price, though . . . “
“Great, can I make a deposit with my credit card?”
“No, we’ll want you to come and see it first. You’ll want to see the hail damage, etcetera.”
Hail damage, huh. The dealership was a fifteen-minute drive away. After garnering a promise not to sell before I arrived, I grabbed my things from my office and left for the dealership.
As I pulled into the dealership parking lot I saw the indifferent-looking sales manager standing by the office door, hands in his pockets. After a brief introduction he led me to a plum-colored Suzuki, which showed no signs of hail damage (nice try, I thought). The narrow interior was in perfect condition. The only noticeable visible issue with the vehicle was tires that clearly needed replacing. Apparently, he explained, an employee had meant to mark the car down to $9400 from $9900, but had mistakenly reversed the 4 and 9, resulting in $4900. Considering my meager finances, this was like striking gold, and I was thankful that the dealership didn’t simply refuse to sell it to me at this price. Without a test-drive, we went back to the office and made the transaction.
After returning and attaching my new license plate, I turned the key to start the car. The starter caused the engine to turn over three times with a loud, high-pitched, metallic sound before whooshing to life with the sound of a large fan. All good. I reflexively checked to see if the AC worked by listening for the clicking sound and holding my hand by the vent. It worked. Great. I put the car in gear and drove off as it started snowing. Snow? That’s fine, Darlene has a 4×4 now! As I drove down the highway, I looked for a cruise control lever or button. There was no cruise control. That’s okay. I admired the smooth handling and the feeling of build quality that seemed absent from the Montana I had been driving (and the Corsica before that).
“It’s sooo cute!” was Darlene’s reaction to seeing the vehicle when I got it home. We immediately went for a drive. Since the roads were now covered with snow, I wrestled the floor lever into 4H mode. A quick drive down our snowy suburban road made it clear that the tires needed replacing ASAP. I replaced them the next week with a set of all-season Goodyear Allegras from Canadian Tire, which lasted 80,000 kilometers and handled the snow with aplomb.
Darlene soon would deeply connect with this vehicle that we affectionately dubbed “Suzi”. “It seems to drive itself!” she would remark. “It seems to know where I’m going.” “It’s so easy to drive in the snow!” She sat up high, with large windows providing wonderful visibility in all directions. She looked forward to driving Suzi and often smiled when she entered the vehicle. She would turn and admire it after parking, a time-tested sign of car/owner love. This bond was rewarding and satisfying for me to see.
On one occasion that I’ll never understand, the shift interlock solenoid became stuck when Darlene was driving alone, causing the car to be stuck in park, in traffic. With incredible intuition, she reached into the glove compartment, took a screwdriver, deftly removed the shift handle, and manually activated the solenoid, which allowed the car to be shifted into gear. How could she possibly know the car this well? I subsequently removed the solenoid so hitting the brake was no longer required to shift from Park. I rather liked this new feature.
Over five years and many commutes and family trips, Suzi would be driven one hundred thousand kilometers with the only repairs required being the replacement of the front sway bar bushings and a front CV axle. However, it was showing its age with some worrisome engine noises (I worried about a timing chain issue) and rust was developing over the windshield and on the door bottoms. We decided it was time to say goodbye to Suzi.
Selling her was a surprisingly difficult for me to do, emotionally. It felt like putting down a beloved pet. Even in the ad picture, the old bug-eyed headlights seemed to stare at me sadly. In a show of shameless sentimentality, I verbally said goodbye to her and thanked her for her service. With misty eyes, I gently patted her steering wheel as I dropped her off at the home of the buyer who was obviously going to attempt to flip her for a profit. Fine.
The vehicles Darlene has owned since then, while technically better, faster, smoother, and shinier, have never quite held the same appeal for her. These include a Tiguan and an Escape Titanium; both undoubtedly fine vehicles that she likes. What was it about the Suzuki that meant so much to her? Aside from the obvious merits of the vehicle, perhaps connecting with a vehicle is like listening to your favorite music from the past. It’s not the just technical perfection of the music that we find meaningful; it’s the memories of our experiences during this time. A good family vehicle can enhance and enrich family memories while reliability problems, poor comfort, and a lousy driving experience can taint them. Automotive design, like music, is a form of art. Suzi helped enrich our family years, as a piece of art should.
I bought a 2003 model year some years back. They are relatively light, handle great, with that factory anti sway bar underneath the hood, etc. Women love these things, and often remind me of the one they had. Maybe because they feel smaller and lighter than they really are, as i love tossing mine around in the snow and definitely one of the best vehicles i have owned .They do love leaking from the valve gasket area though, and to change that you will have to remove the intake (2.7 liter V-6). A couple of years ago, deciding to do transmission oil change, and while looking for the pan gasket, the shops kept giving me the wrong part. I eventually gave them the transmission part number. They traced it back to the 2005 Toyota Tacoma. The later 5 speed autos in these are Toyota sourced. No wonder i have 240000 miles on mine, without any transmission issues.
It’s probably an Aisin transmission.
It did have a weeping valve cover gasket, which I snugged down. It seemed to help a bit, but a whiff of burning oil would sometimes enter the cabin.
They drive and handle more like a smaller vehicle. Later models used a Toyota sourced 5 speed auto.
I have always loved these, and if I found a clean one, I would snap it up in a heartbeat. Even if I had to rebuild the engine. (I can do that)
Very nice story!
It is wonderful to find a car you can live with for years and years, kilometers and kilometers. Unique color and personality made the car special. Nice.
I’m impressed the dealer honored his mistake in the pricing — though I bet the hapless employee who mis-typed the price had a pretty bad day. And wow, that was a great deal for you!
I know what you mean about having it be surprisingly difficult to sell a long-term car. When I sold my Ford Contour, which I’d owned for 10 years, I had similar analogy to putting down an old pet. I guess that’s the sign of a good car, though, since I’ve had little regret selling those cars that nickled and dimed me.
And finally, it occurred to me while reading this, that I’ve never ridden in any Suzuki vehicle. I guess at this point, that’s unlikely to change.
I’m pretty sure the original price was supposed to be 4900 and the typist mistakenly put in 9800.
ravenuer it really depends on the exact age and mileage at the time, they didn’t roll off the new dealer lot and drop to 5 Grand the next day LOL ——- I bought ours off the front row of the local BMW dealer and paid 12 or 13 Grand for it (and felt it was worth even more for how great it was).
It’s been a while, but I remembered this morning that the story that the price I paid was actually $3900, not $4900 (which wouldn’t actually be far from the true value).
I sold it for $2500 five years later.
GREAT trucklets! I had a 2001 Touring way back when, beautiful dark green and loaded with power roof, foglights, and yes even cruise control 🙂
I put taller, meatier BFG tires on it and it was unstoppable be it snow or actually offroad.
I felt the same way when we moved on, it felt ‘wrong’ to sell it. One way I know it was special is I still recall it fondly, while not being able to remember what the replacement for it was……
My parents had one of these when I was a kid. It remains the only car my Father ever bought that didn’t go on to get snatched up by enthusiasts.
He bought it for the same reason you did: as a family car which would be good in all weather. Just as you have, he compared it to the Samurai. The big difference is he bought ours new, and bought the most optioned one in the lot. I get the sense they were budget options when new.
However competent a car it was, every other person in my family came to hate it. My mother was the primary driver. She came to hate it because it was a magnet for accidents. Nobody seemed to see it, and it is the only car we have ever owned that has gone to the body shop more than once. My sister hated it because she was an angry teen and saw it as a mom-mobile. My brother hated it because it wasn’t in his eyes a real off roader like my father’s Samurai had been. I hated it because, being the youngest, I was always forced to sit in the third row. The third row was cramped and uncomfortable, even for a particularly small 8 year old.
Nonetheless, it faithfully served our family for five years. One day, on a whim, my father brought it to a BMW dealer and traded it in on a 2007 335i. None of us missed it. But I can see the appeal that my father saw, and that you saw. They are perfectly competent cars.
Our growing kids did start getting annoyed with the small seating space in both the second and third rows. When the mother-in-law travelled with us we really heard about it.
They were cheap as dirt when they were new. I think they should have sold better, but cars the like the Escape and CRV drove and handled better and were more economical (Suki liked to drink the gas).
Interestingly enough, we test drove an Escape prior to buying the Suzuki. My father has become quite defensive over his selection of the Suzuki over the years, and has always offered ample justification for why he didn’t pick another car.
The Escape, he reasoned, was too expensive and too small, and lacked a real four-wheel drive system. We also tested a Jeep Liberty, which he felt was too small, too expensive, and too unibody (a point I have repeatedly countered with “so is the Cherokee).
However much justification my father had for not buying a competing car, he didn’t have much justification for the Suzuki. He typically points to the third row and the frame, as well as its similarity to the Samurai, as evidence that he was right to choose it, despite that the third row didn’t fit his smallest child, he never did any serious off-roading in it, and he has never owned another body-on-frame car or SUV since.
I always found this generation of Vitara/GV/Tracker/XL-7 endearing. That has to be one of the five ugliest steering wheels ever produced, however.
I believe these 2.5/2.7s had a timing belt with a replacement schedule, no?
Alloys but no cruise. Must have been a Canadian special.
Yeah, the steering wheel reminds me of an early Saturn Ion.
The 2.7 had a problematic timing chain that was very expensive to fix. I can’t remember what goes wrong but I think the plastic guides break.
The alloys I got from a junk yard later in life and replaced the ugly steel rims. The Pick ‘n’ Pull here sold them for about two hundred bucks with full tread.
Nice, Wikipedia says it was a codeveloped engine with Mazda and Toyota, which seems interesting. And that all versions also had direct injection. If that’s true, combined with conventional oil, the guides may have worn through due to soot polluting the oil from that then-new tech. I’ve never heard of either of those claims, but I’m definitely no Suzuki engine encyclopedia.
The alloys definitely looked good!
The Ion pot pie steering wheel is absolutely the ugliest one ever.
My brother has the same color XL7, in a rare “Base” two row configuration with a 5spd manual (2.7L, 4WD). He’s owned it for years now and ran it up from I think around 85k to somewhere close to 180-190k. He put manual hubs on the front which is a nice little upgrade to pick up a few MPG, his gets up to 25mpg on the open road keeping highway speeds in check. It’s a really unique vehicle in that it has some very real offroad capability/durability (that he uses in full), but at the same time it has a relatively low center of gravity and reasonable curb weight, with the stick/rwd/V6, it truly is fun to throw around on a twisty back road. He’s had to put a decent amount of work into it over the years: timing chain/tensioner work, some driveline stuff, nothing too crazy but a Toyota 4Runner it is not. The biggest issue is parts supply these days. There just weren’t that many sold (in the US). Most recently I believe he bought a timing chain set or something from the Caribbean on Ebay, as these are much more prevalent over there.
I never knew there were 2-row-only XL7s. I figured the whole point of stretching the 4-door Vitara body (which had already been stretched from the 2-door) was to put the third row in.
In 2002 the third row became optional, making the name “XL7” a misnomer.
Well an Audi Q3 seats more than 3, so………’what’s in a name’, as they say 🙂
My Dad drove one of these for about the last 10 years all across Colorado. Never had a single issue. Then he got a burr up his butt and bought a 2000 Mercedes SUV earlier this year. He is happy (for now), but am waiting for the shit to hit the fan when he has to pay for maintenance and repairs as a deluded 87 yr old trying to survive on Social Security for an income. Glad I live 1500 miles away.
Interesting, your post made me think and write a blog entry about false ideas we have about luxury and how the poor can be suckered into buy luxury brands, causing them endless headaches.
I’ve submitted it, and we’ll see if it passes muster.
I just read; excellent!
It’ll be up this weekend.
You already know where I stand on this issue.
Cool, thanks Paul.
Where does one go to read this?
Where does one go to read this?
At CC. I did say “It’ll be up this weekend”. Coming soon.
Oh! Derp. 🤪