Review: The 2010 Suzuki SX4 SportBack

2010 Suzuki SportBack

Back in 2007, Suzuki was ready to make some changes in the American market. They were tired of being known for having Daewoo rebadged cars that were low-budget and low-income driven. At the same time, a little car being sold in Japan and across Europe had been winning praises and prizes. Suzuki was ready to develop a new car to compete in the World Rally Championship and to compete in the U.S. market. They developed the SX4 (Sports Crossover 4-Wheel Drive) beginning from the ground up using their gained knowledge from the Swift and other cars developed in Japan. This was truly a move in the right direction for Suzuki. The SX4 became the most affordable AWD vehicle sold in America, and is a great little car. Many people who bought these cars began to modify them along the lines of Suzuki’s WRC car, including us. In 2008, we helped build and design a Suzuki SX4 for a local dealer as a show car. We worked with a company named Road Race Motorsports (www.roadracemotorsports.com) for a lot of aftermarket parts for our SX4. Road Race is one of the only companies that make aftermarket parts for Suzuki and they have built many show cars and concept cars for Suzuki. This SX4 underwent many changes including a body kit, wheels, suspension, turbo, exhaust, and more! All in all, with the money we put into the car we ended up with a $30,000 machine. The SX4 was a good platform to start from as the chassis is set up for rally racing and the AWD system was top notch, but after spending the money we would much rather have had a Subaru STI or Mitsubishi Evo for the performance we saw. Don’t get me wrong, the car was fun, but not as great as these cars, yet owners loved the car we built and were ready to invest into making their Suzuki like ours. So many owners, in fact, that Suzuki decided to step up and build a more sporty SX4 themselves. › Continue reading

Tags: 2010, 2010 SportBack, 6-speed, autocross, awd, fiesta, Ford Fiesta, fwd, kizashi, mazda 2, rally, six speed, sport-back, sportback, suzuk wrc, Suzuki, suzuki sportback, suzuki sx4, SX4, world rally championship, wrc