2004 Suzuki Verona EX review from North America

I took delivery of my 2004 Suzuki Verona EX with 11 miles on the odometer on May 19th 2004 from Suzuki of Huntsville (Driving2000) in Alabama. The dealership and its staff were top-notch, and I have no complaints with them. My new car stalled many times on the first day of ownership and nearly every day after. The digital climate control display also scrambled, and it has a rough cold (Ohio summer) idle.

It was sent to Castrucci Suzuki in Cincinnati Ohio, they had it for 3 days, and was returned to me as NO PROBLEM FOUND!

I brought it back again, after it had stalled about 30 times. I still had a rough and low idle, and I was armed with a DVD Video of the climate control malfunctioning. This time, they had other Verona's with the same stalling issue and took me more seriously. The second time I gave them the car on July 6th and I did not get it back until AUGUST 17TH! LEMON!

FIRST REPAIR ATTEMPT: 3 DAYS.

SECOND REPAIR ATTEMPT: 42 DAYS!!

I currently have a lemon law attorney on the case and Suzuki is refusing to pay me legal fees, I put up a Suzuki Verona Sucks website (that is the domain name with no spaces and dot com at the end) and Suzuki is threatening my with possible legal action against me if I file a lemon law case in court; they will refund my money, if I pull the site down, BUT WILL NOT PAY MY LEGAL FEES. NO WAY SUZUKI!

I was told by dealership service personnel that Suzuki did not train their mechanics on how to work on these cars properly. Both my selling and servicing dealership have told me "off the record" that Suzuki has bought back Verona's for this problem. Salesmen said they were not to sell these cars until they were fixed, and that they were not to tell the consumer they really were Daewoo's, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Yes, Suzuki has a great warranty, and you WILL NEED IT. I drove my gas hog Ford F-150 rental more than I drove my Daewoo, er, um Suzuki.

Before I bought the car, I did much research. I was aware that is was a Daewoo. BUT... It really is a shame. If Suzuki had waited and properly programmed the car for the American market, had a decent parts supply and properly trained their mechanics, the addition of the Daewoo lineup would have been a great benefit to Suzuki. Instead, they shipped the cars to the US, not properly tested for the US market, having a very limited parts supply (2 months and counting for door moulding!), AND NOT PROPERLY TRAINED THEIR SERVICE PERSONNEL!