Forgotten Cars: Suzuki Verona

"LJ909" (lj909) 05/13/2019 at 11:07 • Filed to: Suzuki

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Only produced for 2 measly model years, the Suzuki Verona was an oddity of sorts. Born of the aftermath of the bankruptcy of Daewood going under because of over $10 billion dollars in debt, it was born of GM forming a new company over the remains called GMDAT (GM Daewoo Auto & Technology). It was supposed to be a successor to the Daewoo Leganza, itself a forgettable non starter in the midsize segment.

Internally named V200, it was sized to compete in the midsize segment. It had a wheelbase longer than a Mazda 6, and was as tall as a Honda Accord, riding on a wheelbase with more interior room as well. The exterior designed was penned by Italdesign, and was honestly handsome for the time.

Many automotive publications at the time also praised the fit and quality finish of the interior, citing its panel gaps and look of quality.

The engine was even more odd, but in a good way, especially looking back at it now with the return of straight 6 engines. Surprisingly co developed with Porsche, the Verona was powered by a 2.5 I6. Sounds good right? Until you look closely at the specs. It only put out 155 horses and 177 lb/ft of torque through a soul sucking 4 speed auto. While it sounded sorta good under hard acceleration , its performance was back of the pack to any of its competitors. It needed nearly 11 seconds to reach 60 .

Where it shined though was its Hyundai like value with its equipment offering. With a price starting at about $17 grand at the time, and fully loaded models topping just under $20k, it came standard with features competitors either didn’ t offer or required options or packages to add like leather, heated seats, a sunroof etc. In typical GM fashion through the car was sold under different name plates around the world. Here in the US we got the Verona; Korea it was known as the Daewoo Magnus; Western Europe got the Daewood Evanda; Eastern Europe got it as the Chevy Evanda due to Daewoo not being a thing there; It was the Chevy Epica in South America, the Middle East, Canada (where weirdly it replaced the Oldsmobile Alero due to Olds getting the axe) and China. It also got a decent powertrain warranty of 7 years/ 100,000 miles.

Sadly though it was killed off in just 2 years like I mentioned due to slow sales. Its last full year on the market, ‘05, it sold 8,411 which is bad enough, but gets worse when you find out that was down nearly 35% from ‘04. It just couldn’t keep up with competitors, who by this time were getting better and faster. The Altima got Nissan’s 3.5 270 horse V6 around this time. Long term reliability doesn’ t seem to be too good from what I saw as well. So if you can find one, good for you? The Verona really is forgettable.  

HondoyotaE38: A Japanese and German Collab...wait a minute > LJ909 05/13/2019 at 11:47

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this car is not forgotten I dream of it every night

B/Xmrrmvr > LJ909 05/13/2019 at 11:58

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Many automotive publications at the time also praised the fit and quality finish of the interior, citing its panel gaps and look of quality.

Reminds me of Bob Lutz’s R&T article  where he talks about how how the Daewoo acquisition improved GM’s overall quality, despite the fact that GM fanbois love to shit on GM Korea/Daewoo.

That’s so weird though, a Korean car rebadged as a Japanese car... are there any other models like that?

LJ909 > B/Xmrrmvr 05/13/2019 at 12:05

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Kind of ironic. But I can’t think of any car as unique as this. Korean rebadged as a Japanese car development after an American company takes over  with an Italian exterior design and a German co developed engine. Truly a world car. 

LJ909 > HondoyotaE38: A Japanese and German Collab...wait a minute 05/13/2019 at 12:05

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In a good way?

punkgoose17 > B/Xmrrmvr 05/13/2019 at 13:04

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The Suzuki Reno and Suzuki Forenza were also rebadged Daewoos, also GMDAT cars . From what I understand they were not very durable cars and were more bland than white bread dipped in water.

punkgoose17 > LJ909 05/13/2019 at 13:11

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That engine seems to be super understressed. I was going to compare it to the VR6 and say it is missing 20 hp, but then I looked at GM engines of the time it is only missing 10 hp.

LJ909 > punkgoose17 05/13/2019 at 13:21

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Right. Engines like the big ass 3800 were super underpowered but had a lot of torque. Even as recently as 08-09, a big ass Buick Lucerne for instance had the anemic 3.8 with just 190 horses as standard. 

CompactLuxuryFan > LJ909 05/13/2019 at 13:51

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The Suzuki version looks terrible, especially with wheel covers. The Epica was kind of an upscale barge down in South America, and it was pretty handsome with the bowtie. The facelift looks decent if you compare it to a Lexus ES or something. Would’ve been a sweet ride back in the day.

The NA I-6 kinda reminds me of Mazda’s 2.5 V6 from the early 2000s. Good sound with mediocre shove. Good times.

Looking back, Suzuki actually had pretty decent product all around in the US. Hope we’re not looking back at Mazda that way soon.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > LJ909 05/13/2019 at 14:12

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That engine doesn’t seem so bad. Sure it’s only 155ho but it’s TINY. If you compare the hp/p with other cars from 2004/5 it stacks up okay. It made 62 hp/l. Recently refreshed models like the Camry weren’t making much more (3.0, 210hp, 70hp/l) and the Suzuki had much better power density than many American cars of the time.

Think of it this way: it makes better power than many large I4s (like Chrysler’s 2.4) without being much bigger, and you get I6 smoothness.

LJ909 > CompactLuxuryFan 05/13/2019 at 14:18

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You’re right it was handsome preface lift. Somehow it worked with the bow tie and not the Suzuki S:

I don’ t understand how you co- develop a engine with one of the worlds premier performance marques and have it be mediocre .

The face lift Epica bears a resemblance to the 8th gen pre refresh Malibu weirdly:

LJ909 > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 05/13/2019 at 14:22

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Yea you have a point. I think people just expected more from since it was a I6. And year compared to many other models at the time, it stood out. Especially considering it was offering 6 cylinder power a 4 cylinder prices or against other models that came standard with trash engines. Like Chrysler’ s horrible, horrible 2.7 liter V6 that used to come standard in the LX cars.

AMC/Renauledge > B/Xmrrmvr 05/13/2019 at 14:56

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Say hello to the Suzuki Forenza and Reno, which were also rebadged Daewoos.

AMC/Renauledge > AMC/Renauledge 05/13/2019 at 14:59

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And Canada got a Suzuki version of the Aveo, called the Swift +. Given the existence of the real Suzuki-engineered, critically acclaimed European Swift, the Canadian version was more like a Swift-.

AMC/Renauledge > LJ909 05/13/2019 at 15:03

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A mediocre engine codeveloped with Porsche in a mediocre-looking car penned by ItalDesign Giugiaro.

My guess is that the pennywise/pound-foolish culture at GM at the time sucked all the potential for greatness out of this program because they either didn’t want to polarize people with a final product that meant anything to anyone , or because they didn’t want the car to actually be better than their homegrown mediocre models.

LJ909 > AMC/Renauledge 05/13/2019 at 15:27

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I suspect it was both of these reasons. Just off the description alone the car could have been fantastic . But I’ m sure they were told to hold back/be conservative as possible.

punkgoose17 > LJ909 05/13/2019 at 16:26

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Yeah, the Opel and Saturn 3.0L used in the Saturn L made 170hp to 208 hp and the GM 3.4L used in the Pontiac Grand AM made 170hp to 185hp.

The 3800 engines are really lazy engines the redlines are so low, I suppose it helped with using tall gearing and 4 speed automatics. 3800 supercharged gets surprisingly good mpg.

ranwhenparked > AMC/Renauledge 05/13/2019 at 18:57

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Particularly since GM didn’t own anywhere near enough of Suzuki to be able to consolidate their results into their own financial statements (though they did with Daewoo) - basically, selling a Malibu  was of more benefit to them than selling a Verona, though obviously if someone bought a Verona over a Camry or Accord, they were OK with that. 

ranwhenparked > LJ909 05/13/2019 at 19:00

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Honestly, I’d much rather have the refinement and smoothness of a straight six over an I4, even if the power figures are comparable. For something that was aiming for pseudo - upscale pretensions on an entry level price tag , that engine choice made complete sense. When you think about it, what they were going for with the Leganza and Verona was basically the 2000s equivalent of the 1960s/70s Brougham/VIP/LTD models - a veneer of luxury-seeming touches at a cheap price.

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 05/15/2019 at 20:17

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....No. The Hyundai Beta 2.0, which is the epitome of thrifty inline 4s, made 150 HP at the crank in 2001. Based on that specific output, were it a 2.5L, it would make 187.5. And it was reliable, which could not be said for the XK6 motor.