Susuki Samurai Lawsuit?

[cruiseroutfit]

Clipped from the SL Tribune re: the US Supreme Court;

* Declined to block a lawsuit over a magazine's critical safety reports about the Suzuki Samurai, a defeat for news organizations that wanted the court to clarify free-speech protections for journalists.

They can't still be in court over the faulty safety reviews give ten years ago?

Anyone know more about this?

 

[SAMI]

yeah i drive one

it's a piece of sh!t, and i won't let anyone drive because it's not safe at all!

 

[shmoesmith]

yeah apparently a testing agency cooked the books on the samurai's cornering and stability and said that it rolls over extremely easy and is unsafe to drive and recommended that it be taken off the market. Well, as those of us who drive a sammy know, unlifted, the samurai can scream around corners and sidehill like mad..I feel safer whipping around a corner in it than in my tracker..so anyway suzuki corp got wind of the falsified data and are sueing the agency for all backsales of samurai's in teh united states (the only place that this information was published)from 1990-1995 which is the years that the samurai continued in production outside of the US. The supreme court actually blocked the appeal several months ago (according to an article I had read) and said that there was an increasing ammount of substantial evidence of falisfications of the statistics....nice for suzuki if they win and can maybe clear the sammy's wrongly given bad name, but I doubt suzuki will ever bring it back into the US

 

[Andy]

yeah i drive one

it's a piece of sh!t, and i won't let anyone drive because it's not safe at all!

Sounds like you have inner issues!

Spence doesn't seem to have tip over problems,...oh wait, he uses his leg as a kick stand when it tips!

Samis are cool because you can easily tip them back over, maybe the testing company should mention that to save face.

 

[Mike]

hey i drive a tracker and it corners fine..just gota pop the clutch a little =) lol

 

[jp008]

Ya when I go to work I always have to put the sami back on it's wheels. Something about spontanious rollovers?

 

[SAMI]

Sounds like you have inner issues!

Samis are cool because you can easily tip them back over, maybe the testing company should mention that to save face.

good one! i'd like to see that.

i love my zuk, but in it's current state you just gotta know it really well to be able to drive it safely........that's all

 

[jeff cardall]

Spence doesn't seem to have tip over problems,...oh wait, he uses his leg as a kick stand when it tips!

i cant say much for my self i use my arm...i pulled that smooth move on rattle snake this past summer i thought i was going over when i was going thru the sqeeze so yeah i put my arm out.. smashed it against tthe wall
i'll never do that again

 

[SammiGrrl]

hey i drive a tracker and it corners fine..just gota pop the clutch a little =) lol

The tracker corners fine. The sammy just does it better.

 

[TigerStripe40]

falisfications of the statistics....nice for suzuki if they win and can maybe clear the sammy's wrongly given bad name, but I doubt suzuki will ever bring it back into the US

And if they do win? It would be that Suzuki would get a bunch of money. That's about it. The public opinion of the Samurai is still going to be bad.
It would be nice if they sold the 1990-1995 sammi's. Make for cheap parts. Oh wait...

To do it all over again, I think I would have built a sammi or minitruck rather than my Cruiser. Oh well, what's done is done.

 

[dieslcruserhead]

My dad had a Sammi when they first came out. We had driven all over central Africa in one and it was so badass that when they hit the American market he was all over it. A whopping $6G brand new I think

Anywhoo, the hardtops were tippy in tight manevering situations. After that report came out the News was all over it, and they had a video one one trying to do autocross style cone driving and it was not pretty. It had little bars for preventing rollovers and they were well used.

Suzuki is a huge comany though, I'm sure it didn't do much damage. I loved that truck though. My stepmom rear ended someone at 15 mph and, um, needless to say the whole body compacted inwards and the truck was totalled. From a 15 MPH accident

 

[OCNORB]

I hope they win! Then I can sue them, too. I bought mine brand new in 1987 for $7500. After CR came out with their rollover data the resale value dropped to almost nothing. Do you think they would award me the difference in resale value and back interest?

 

[SmokinCamel]

My stepmom rear ended someone at 15 mph and, um, needless to say the whole body compacted inwards and the truck was totalled. From a 15 MPH accident

Hmmm but from my experiences when they take a hit from the side they do well. Even in a almost roll to the top the windshield didn't budge. Kurt can back me up on this one

 

[TheBigSgt]

I remeber the days of selling them new in 95, the last year for them. I thought they where cool little rigs. I have one sitting at the house waiting for someone to build! I sold the last 2 new ones that anybody knew of.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Hmmm but from my experiences when they take a hit from the side they do well. Even in a almost roll to the top the windshield didn't budge. Kurt can back me up on this one

Yeah, it did hold up to an induced tip-over quite well