2004 Suzuki Aero SX AWD

I bought one new for my son for his first car. It was great for the first 12,000 miles until a guy ran in to him an totaled it. I think it was $8,995 or $9,995 included power windows and an air conditioner/w manual transmission.. It was an "ad car" listed cheap by the dealer. So-when I received a check from the insurance company it was actually more than I paid for the car.
 
a cousin in rural connecticut is on his second, obviously loves them. his first was rear-ended and totaled by the other driver several years ago. his second came used, now 120k miles, no issues, still solid. both are manual trannies, hence i am only a passenger. he kept snow tires on year round, but even so it’s not terribly noisy and is still very zippy in spirited rural driving. he isn’t a car nut but keeps up with maintenance. from my years in asia i know that suzuki builds a solid vehicle, certainly up to toyota standards. it is too bad that suzuki never caught on in north america.
 
Anyone had any experience with these cars? This would be more of a winter beater car, I was intrigued by the AWD system. In general the consumer reviews I've read have been positive. Parts availability might be an issue.
I bought a new one with AWD in 2006. I kept it six years until I traded it for a 2012 Suzuki Kizashi. After almost 60K miles it was remarkably reliable and inexpensive to own. Only maintenance was oil changes at 6K miles and two sets of tires. Sometimes I wish I'd kept it. I've had two more Suzukis and several of their motorcycles. Never a problem with any. Suzukis generally are underrated cars. They are not innovators but build solid vehicles. They continue to be a large car company especially in Asia. I agree with what jstert already noted. They failed in the US because they had a sparse dealer network, poor marketing strategy and few models. If they had been rebadged Toyondas there would have been lots more on the road.

Pros;
Comfortable with lots of headroom.
Lots of useable space for cargo
Nimble as a goat in the snow with AWD. It is a FWD biased car with computer controlled power to the rear when needed. It is an always on system w/o driver control.
Pretty good on long drives. Mine went up and down US95 many times at 75/80 mph no problems
Good hvac system. Lots of heat for winter
Engine has a timing chain
Easy to work on

Cons;
Steep depreciation. Probably an advantage now.
Parts might be hard to come by
Marginal gas mileage. Mine averaged ~28/29 on long drives
Odd looking car, little cachet. Might not be an issue for a winter beater

Overall I think if you can get a good one it will serve your purpose well plus because it is a low volume Japanese model from a brand not sold in the US any longer there is a possibility it could appreciate in value. 🚗
 
I think the main issue is parts availability. I was thinking of these too, as some had a 2.3l and a manual and AWD, but a quick survey of rockauto seems to have most of the regular stuff available. I find most of these odd ball cars aren't priced low enough to choose them over the mainstream option, but there's not a whole lot of AWD cars that size available. We had a 2003 Tracker/Vitara and it was pretty solid really. Recall for a rusty subframe and it needed an update kit on the front axle to keeps the one seal alive.
 
I think the Aerio is really really cool :cool:

The hatchback is useful and versatile, and it has a really awesome digital dash too :D

When it was brand new, the AWD Aerio SX was the cheapest AWD car available at the time. It even came in some cool colors like yellow. The only downside is that it wasn't available with a sunroof.
 
My only input is that in 2004 I worked for a Ford dealer, along with a gentleman named "Larry", who came from the Suzuki dealer. He remarked that the service department at the Suzuki dealer only ever really did oil changes and alignments and tire rotations. Very boringly reliable was his assessment of the brand overall. At least compared to Ford.
 
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