All Cars, All the Time

Swift to Arrive Back in the USA Around 2010?

A new Automotive News article is saying that the Swift is coming back for an encore. Since we've last seen the Swift she's grown into quite a fetching lady. Given the Fit/Versa/Yaris presence, it totally makes sense for Suzuki to bring this car to our market. Until the Swift gets a refresh, we'll have to live with its cousin the SX4 (not a bad car, but not as sporty). I look forward to seeing the Swift on the streets!

Update: Over at Edmund's blog Suzuki's president of automotive operations, Koichi Suzuki, is quoted as saying that not bringing the current generation Swift to the USA may have been a miscalculation. According to Suzuki when focus groups were shown the car, they deemed it too small. This article also confirms that the next generation Swift will make it to the USA in 2010.

It's a shame that we are deprived of such a great little car, but heartening to hear that we will get the next model. Hopefully it will be as attractive as the current one. This also brings up the questionable value of focus groups. My experience has been that there are "focus group junkies": people who are addicted to the cash and "importance" of being in a focus group. This process is self fulfilling because market research companies don't want to search high and low for people to fill the groups. I've had several encounters w/ market research firms where I was asked if my answer was "correct" or maybe I wanted to change an answer while going through the screening process. I'm not saying that all market research is worthless, certainly it is not, but sometimes I've sat in these groups wondering "who the hell are these people?" I'm sure that someone was thinking the same thing about me.