Faults:

Air conditioner went out 2 weeks after the warranty ran out from the factory.

Belt squeals, and I am replacing the brakes for the second time in the past three years today.

I love the car, but it sure gets hot sitting at the stoplights. Also in the winter time, my feet freeze because there is no vent on the drivers side. I just pray for Spring and Fall.

I paid full price for a demonstrator. Much more than I wanted to, but it was the only car the dealership seemed to want to sell me. Recently the dealership closed. Wonder why?

General Comments:

From all the comments I have read, the air conditioning should be on recall. They should replace them without cost to the owner. They should redesign the vent system for heat and air.

Faults:

My boyfriend's mom gave me this car a little over a year ago - we gave her his Jeep Wrangler for trade. I love it, but since I got it the AC has not worked. Took it to a mechanic and he said the same thing - the air compressor was frozen and it would be a few grand to replace. Not worth it to me - I just roll with the windows down.

About a month ago we made a trip down south to visit family, and about half way there, the power steering belt broke. We drove the next 2 1/2 hours with out power steering. Luckily, it was a fairly simple fix.

For the past few weeks though the car has been making a very loud and annoying screaming noise - I have NO idea what is causing it. If it doesn't start up right when the car starts, it does it for the first few seconds after I press on the gas... Any ideas?

I have a slow oil leak, too - not too sure where it's coming from and it has been there for at least a year.

Lastly, there's a shortage in the wiring to the tail lights. Sometimes my right brake light won't work, sometimes it does. Hopefully it'll always work if a cop is behind me. =)

General Comments:

I really love this car. It is very spacious, comfortable, and stylish. The newer models aren't very appealing to me.

I wish the mechanics on it were built better, but what can you expect? All the companies itch for is money. After reading that probably more than 95% of the cars AC compressors went out so soon, I think Suzuki should have recalled it and replaced them.

Besides that, I really enjoy having this car. It makes a great first car for anyone - it is my first car because it's easy to handle, it's bigger but not too big to be scared to drive/park/etc... And a great travel/family car.

Faults:

A/C compressor locked at 40K miles (my brother has this same vehicle and his compressor went out at 65k). Suzuki is most unapologetic about the A/C compressor going out. In fact, they wanted me to pay them upwards of $2000.00 to fix the A/C. The A/C parts suppliers also know that this is flaw and have the parts marked up to the point where they are taking advantage of the customer.

General Comments:

The good: It still runs (surprisingly).

The Bad: It isn't very comfortable (it's narrow - kinda' like an old VW Beetle). Very little passenger room i.e. room for "very little passengers"... oompa loompas. Cheap brittle plastic interior and overly complicated procedure for sliding the seats forward to access the back seats. No cargo room (even with no one else in the vehicle and the seats down). Anti-sway bars that give you whip-lash every time you enter/exit a drive... yet the vehicle is a "sail," on the highway in a cross-wind.

The Ugly: Poorly designed inefficient drive-train that pins the fuel economy just below 18 mpg whether in the city or on the highway. In my opinion... very bad support. I made several appeals to Suzuki and their attitude was: "You bought it... it's all your problem now. If you want A/C you can buy our parts at five times the markup." Re-sale on these is horrible... which is why I still own it (and why there are only 60k miles on a 2002).