Back in 1954, Suzuki Motor Co, Limited was formed and Michio Suzuki designed and developed his first Automobile together with Son in law Shunzo who headed up the young engineering team, many of whom were in their twenties.
 
Using Suzuki’s ‘Yaramaika’ principal (translated as ‘Let’s do it’) and his determination to drive forward, Shunzo quickly began researching vehicles produced overseas, gaining a wealth of knowledge to build the first Suzuki car, known as the Suzulight.
 
Shunzo Suzuki used several European models for benchmarking as well as an Austin 7 from the UK, a popular car of the era and available at a very reasonable cost. The Suzulight was a compact and light vehicle weighing less than 500kg, it was designed to be easy to drive and maintain as well as inexpensive to buy. Powered by a 360cc, 16PS two cylinder, two-stroke engine it was way ahead of its time with independent coil spring suspension and rack and pinion steering.
 
Measuring just 2,990mm long, 1,295mm wide and 1,400mm high the Suzulight easily met the Japanese ‘Keijidosha’ or Kei light car legislation and Shunzo Suzuki and his team quickly began their first development road testing of it.
 
As a prototype car, its most memorable early drive was a long trip across the Hakone mountainous region between Hamamatsu and Tokyo which proved to be a real challenge as no paved roads existed at the time. Although arriving in Tokyo very late in the evening, the team arrived to present the car to the President of ‘Yanase’ or Government Automotive office. The President stayed on late to personally greet the team and made his way out to thoroughly test the car.
 
He returned very impressed some time later and immediately gave Shunzo and his team full approval to put the car into production. This commenced in October 1955 and Shunzo made his first two deliveries to doctors who used the small and lightweight car on their daily rounds. Initial production was 3-4 cars per month but by early 1956 monthly volume had climbed to 30 units. The Suzuki success story had begun and in 1957, Shunzo Suzuki became the 2nd President of Suzuki Motor Co, Limited.
 
It’s rumoured that only one or two of the original Suzulight cars exist now, one of which is in the Suzuki Plaza Museum in Hamamatsu City, Japan.
 
64 years later, Suzuki remains globally renowned as the ‘small car experts’ and produces over three million cars per year. Shunzo Suzuki’s original strategy of the design and production of lightweight vehicles lives on with the latest platforms introduced for Ignis, Swift and Baleno. The next light new model to arrive from Suzuki will be the Swift Sport in June 2018, weighing in at just 970kg.

Suzuki celebrated some really good news at the 40th Anniversary of the What Car? awards last night with Ignis picking up the ‘True MPG’ Award as the most economical new car tested by the editorial team over the last year. The winning Ignis model was the two wheel drive SZ5 with SHVS (Smart Hybrid Vehicle by Suzuki) which recorded 59.6mpg in True MPG testing. The SZ5 ALLGRIP 4WD model was not far behind either recording 53.3mpg.

Steve Huntingford, Editor of What Car? comments: “Nothing has surpassed its stellar average True MPG figure of 59.6mpg. Given the wide selection of hybrids, downsized turbocharged petrol engines and diesels we’ve tested this year that’s quite some achievement. Not only does the Ignis sip fuel but it doesn’t chuck out much Nox (Nitrous Oxide emissions), either. Considering Nox contributes to the formation of smog and acid rain, that’s worth celebrating”.

Suzuki celebrated two further ‘Best Buy’ category wins at the awards too with Vitara awarded a ‘Best Buy’ accolade for the third consecutive year in the small SUV class. The 1.6-litre SZ4 model was comprehensively judged by the editorial team and announced again as the best overall model in its price bracket of less than £16,000.

Commenting further, Steve Huntingford said: “Despite the arrival of competition from a number of manufacturers as well as Suzuki’s own Ignis, the Vitara remains our favourite budget SUV. In everyday driving, this version is capable of diesel beating economy and managed an inpressive 47.7mpg in our True MPG test. All in all, the Vitara makes for a very compelling small SUV”.

Vitara remains very popular with customers in the UK with 11,900 sold in 2017 and is the best selling car in the range. Suzuki’s ALLGRIP four wheel drive technology is available as an option on SZ-T and SZ5 models and is standard equipment on the 1.4-litre Boosterjet S model.

Celerio SZ2 was awarded a ‘Best Buy’ accolade for the second year running, this time it was recommended in the category at less than £9,500 with What Car? commenting: “All things considered, the Celerio is a serious amount of car for the cash, Suzuki throws in everything you would realistically need – even on entry level SZ2 trim – and it makes a well rounded City Car choice”,

Suzuki is well established as the ‘Small Car Experts’ and is pleased to announce that it has won two category awards for its Ignis and Swift models at the Scottish Car of The Year ceremony held in Edinburgh by the Association of Scottish Motoring Writers.

Ignis was voted as the Compact Car of The Year and Swift with 1.0-litre Boosterjet engine was announced as the winner of the Eco category following an intensive test programme over the last 12 months with the 15 members of the Association recently assembling to cast their votes for the best new cars on the market.

Stephen Park, President of the Association of Scottish Motoring Writers, said: “Value for money is hugely important to Scottish new car buyers spending their own hard earned cash and the ASMW recognised immediately that both the Ignis and Swift are priced and equipped to deliver. Never has the demand for compact cars been greater and our top choice is the Ignis as a vehicle with a real sense of character. Distinctive, spacious and quirky, it proves that you don’t need a big budget to stand out from the crowd”.

For the Swift award, Stephen Park continued “This year’s Eco front runners show how the petrol engine still very much has a part to play in clean, green motoring. The new Swift with 1.0-litre Boosterjet is the title taker for 2017 and it won praise due to the fact that it proved genuinely capable of achieving the exceptional real world fuel economy claimed by its maker coupled with lively performance.

Swift is good to drive too with the incredible Boostersterjet engine delivering strong performance. Well packaged, generously kitted out and combining strong performance with exceptional eco credentials, our winner performs strongly across these key areas”.

Dale Wyatt, Director of Automobile at Suzuki GB PLC comments: “We have 23 dealers in the Scottish Region and these awards are really positive news for us. The launch of both Ignis and third generation Swift this year has opened up further opportunities to win new buyers in the very crowded small car segment. Our Boosterjet engine technology in new Swift certainly proves the point that exceptional fuel economy can be achieved by media and our customers alike with no downside on driving performance”.