Ridiculous Rebadges: A Mazda Grand Vitara

"Amoore100" (amoore100) 06/06/2016 at 22:39 • Filed to: Ridiculous Rebadges, Suzuki, GM, Mazda

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Welcome to Ridiculous Rebadges, a series of articles in which I go through and examine the details and circumstances surrounding some of the more infamous and some of the more esoteric vehicular rebadges throughout automotive history.

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It’s been a while since we’ve done a Ridiculous Rebadge, so let’s get this party started again! This time we’re going back to Japan, in the late 1990s. GM has a 10% stake in Suzuki, but for the most part has left the brand alone, instead taking Suzukis to rebadge as Chevys instead of forcing Suzuki to sell Daewoos.

Since Suzuki still has a relative modicum of freedom, the company is able to develop the second generation Grand Vitara with little outside influence, instead building on its experience left over from the ‘90s with the Samurai and Jimny.

At the same time in history, Mazda was held by Ford with a 33.3% stake in the company. While Mazda had the Explorer-based Navajo to sell in the burgeoning US crossover market, the Japanese sector was still left without a proper SUV/crossover because the of the Navajo’s American based design.

Thus, Mazda contacted Suzuki, likely because of their offroad heritage, and secured a deal to sell second-gen Grand Vitaras as Mazda Proceed Levantes. The name originated from the previous moniker ‘Proceed’ which Mazda had used on its B-Series pickups in Japan, although ‘Levante’ is a bit of a puzzling suffix to add to the name.

This relationship continued for a second generation, by which time the Navajo in North America had been replaced by the Tribute, this signifying a shift towards more car-like crossovers from previously truck-based SUVs. That is likely why the deal fell through, with the Tribute fitting more practically into the Japanese market than the Navajo and the subsequent CX-7 putting the nail into the coffin of a Mazda badged body-on-frame SUV. Hey, at least there was never a Mazda version of the X-90!

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Nauraushaun > Amoore100 06/06/2016 at 22:55

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Wow. :D

Australia only got the Suzuki as far as I know

Shame about the X-90!

pjhusa > Amoore100 06/06/2016 at 22:57

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Levante you say?

Amoore100 > Nauraushaun 06/06/2016 at 22:58

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Hey! Haven’t seen you around for a while, but it could be that I haven’t been around for a while! We also only got the Suzuki Vitara and Grand Vitara here, but we did also get the X-90 (whether fortunately or unfortunately) and I do see them occasionally (when I was in middle school three or four years ago we would see a teal one every day parked by an apartment complex nearby).

Nauraushaun > Amoore100 06/06/2016 at 23:19

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Could be my bad. I read the Maserati post and I think about it occasionally. But I don’t think I commented. I see all.

I’ve seen one X-90, once. I’m a big targa/t-top fan, so an SUV with a targa was love at first sight. Apparently there are 484 in Australia, and they’re priced very affordably !

Amoore100 > Nauraushaun 06/06/2016 at 23:32

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Haha, no hard feelings! I’ve been super busy with school so I’ve been doing plenty of lurking myself ;)

I see of the X-90 kind of like the Murano Crosscab—I'm glad someone had the guts to make it but I would never have one myself!

Nauraushaun > Amoore100 06/07/2016 at 01:10

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Definitely. And I love seeing them around :D

RT > Amoore100 06/07/2016 at 08:23

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Well, that explains why all of Mazda’s modern kei cars are Suzukis.

Even the Autozam AZ-1 was designed and manufactured by Suzuki.

A slushbox can be fun, too! > Amoore100 06/07/2016 at 13:39

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What’s the reason behind all the badge engineering they do in Japan? It’s so extensive as can be seen by this example. Can’t they all just peacefully coexist and do their own niches? Like, Suzuki for all the small and capable SUVs, Mazda for all the nice handling cars, and Toyota for all the beigemobiles

Amoore100 > RT 06/07/2016 at 14:58

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Oh yeah, I forgot that the Autozam AZ-1 was a Suzuki design! That really fills in some of the gaps, thanks for the reminder!

Amoore100 > A slushbox can be fun, too! 06/07/2016 at 15:04

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Well you don’t see GM, FCA, and Ford doing that here, do you? Besides, badge engineering just gives the company something to sell with as minimal investment in R&D as possible. Like here, it gave Mazda a face in the SUV market since common consumers probably don’t care that it’s a Suzuki. Brand loyalty has a lot to do with it.