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SUVs Suzuki Grand Vitara/Vitara Suzuki Grand Vitara 2006 through 2008
1006 messages, Last post on Oct 11, 2009 at 9:29 PM
You are in the Suzuki Grand Vitara/Vitara Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & tidester
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Replying to: dlcorbin (Sep 04, 2009 5:09 pm) I didn't hire an attorney. Should have. I had my GV in for at least 3 alignments. They said i wasn't rotating my tires enough. Geez, what was i supposed to do, bring my floor jack with me and rotate tires every week? Who replaces tires at 16,000 miles in the first year and for 17" wheels it was almost $600. Suzuki flat out denied my claim. Said it was normal.  You're better off buying real estate in Vegas and taking the loss. At least you'll have a place to stay. 
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Ah yes, brings back painful memories - my "new" vehicle with bald tires at 22,000 km. Both the dealer and a Kal Tire claimed that it was typical for OEM tires (Geolander) to wear quickly (soft rubber, better ride, and less money for the manufacturer who is buying these tires in bulk). Reluctantly, I bought new rubber (Toyo H/T Open Country) and at around 60,000 km, they are holding up well. Sounds like dlcorbin may have an incompetent dealer on his hands, or at least a suspect alignment machine at the dealership. Getting a second opinion was smart. I'm one of the fortunate ones ... even after being rear ended big time 2 years ago, alignment issues haven't plagued my GV, nor any other satisfied owners of GV's I know locally. Then... there's that "characteristic" (as my dealer says) hummmm at about 110 km/h under slight load. No vibration on the steering wheel, but you can hear it and sense it in your seat. Transmission, transfer case? I don't commute, and I rarely go that fast anyway ! If I did a lot of freeway driving, I think this would start to get annoying. I was able to purchase a 3 year extension on the manufacturer's original 3 year warranty just in case it gets worse, or something snaps !! |
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Replying to: budman3 (Sep 04, 2009 5:40 pm)  From what I have been told, if you put a 50,000, 25,000, etc., mile tire on a vehicle, the tires under normal driving conditions specified for that tire by the manufacture, should last up to the 50,000, 25,000, etc. limit. Rotating my tires was not an option for me because the wear had begun way before my tires were do for rotating. So, I had to have new ones put on. It has been only 2 months since the new ones were put on and now they are completely bald. Still way before recommended rotation. I don't even get a chance to rotate. Now, it is really scary to find out that my GV can not be brought back into spec or properly alignment at all. NTB tried however, after they tried to align my GV, did another spec report and showed me were they were not able to bring it back into spec. So, my tires will always wear at a very fast rate, I will always have stability and handling problems. After speaking with my attorney, it was indicated to me that there are more cases like mine that have been filed against Suzuki. Gosh, one would think that Suzuki would recall the SUV. 
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This problem was mostly reported for 2006 GV's, and it may be the first 2008 I've heard of with the problem. I've heard that Suzuki very quietly bought back some of the earlier ones with this problem, which would suggest they had something wrong with them that Suzuki could not fix. I have not heard what happened to the buybacks, and suspect they may have ended up back on the market. Anyway, this is not just a costly hassle and a ripoff. It's a serious safety hazard. GV's with fast treadwear means they are always in a bit of a skid. It means you will cross the threshold into loss of control very easily. Cases of this should therefore be reported to the NHTSA/carsafe website. And I would drive the thing only very cautiously until it's sorted out. Or not at all if you can afford it. You might try sending a registered letter to Suzuki America about it as a last resort before calling in the lawyers. Our '06GV has 40,000km on it. The original Geolander tires have 35,000km on them, and are less than half worn out. Tracking and stability are perfect. Only Suzuki knows for sure how common this problem was, but it's ridiculous that so many people who ran into it had bad customer treatment added to the harm they already suffered. I'd estimate that half the people with the defect could not get Suzuki to fix it. And obviously they were never compensated for the effort they put into it. Enough reports on the NHTSA site should eventually trigger a recall. Good luck with it. |
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Hey everyone, Looking to import a 2008 Grand Vitara in to Canada from the USA. Does anyone know if the 2008 Grand Vitara is fitted standard with an immobilizer in the USA? |
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Replying to: dlcorbin (Sep 04, 2009 5:09 pm)
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Replying to: fishwar (Oct 09, 2009 9:26 am) We have about 35,000km on our original tires, and they have about half the original tread depth. It seems most of the GV's didn't have this tire wear/alignment problem. Of the ones that did, some were fixed on the first try, some took many efforts, and some were never fixed no matter how hard the owners tried. |
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