2004 Suzuki Forenza LX review from North America

Timing belt went up at 19,000 miles in June of '07. I don't put many miles on my car per year, so it was three months out of warranty when it happened. After much dickering and pulling some strings, the dealer rebuilt the cams, replaced the valves, etc. at their cost, but it took them a month to do the work.

In December of '07, I lost my heat. Dealer did diagnosis, and told me it was the thermostat. They wanted $468 to replace, and flush the system. I bought the part from them, and had an independent mechanic install it. I still did not have heat, and my mechanic told me it was the water pump.

I found out from an April post on THIS site, that there were water pump issues with this car. Armed with this information, I returned to the dealer today, and asked if they had replaced the water pump when they did the work in June. The answer was "no". I asked if they were aware of the water pump issues, and if so, WHY had they not replaced the pump when they did the cam work. They told me they had only become aware of this problem in the past several days, (Ha!) and that it was now, in fact, a factory recall.

I am certain that without the information from this site, I would have been bilked out of some big bucks.

It only *looks* good.