100 years of excellence

In its 100 year history, Suzuki has developed an outstanding reputation for manufacturing a range of cars, 4WDs, motorcycles and marine products offering excellent value for money and exceptional reliability.

Continually striving to improve the breed through competition motorsport, Suzuki has racked up a string of world titles on two and four wheels and is now one of the ten largest automotive manufacturers on the planet.

Worldwide, Suzuki sells more than two million vehicles a year to surpass the sales of such renowned marques as BMW, Mercedes and Mazda, Suzuki motorcycles are the first choice of almpst 2 million riders every year and the company employs over 50,000 people and creates and distribute products in more than 190 nations.

However, like most great companies, Suzuki’s genesis was humble in both size and operation.

In 1909, Michio Suzuki founded the Suzuki Loom Company in the small seacoast village of Hamamatsu, Japan. Business boomed as Suzuki built weaving looms for Japan's giant silk industry. Suzuki's only desire was to build better, more user-friendly looms and, for the first 30 years of the company's existence, its focus was on the development and production of these exceptionally complex machines.

Despite the success of his looms, Michio realised his company had to diversify and he began to look at other products. Based on consumer demand, he decided that building a small car would be the most practical new venture. The project began in 1937, and within two years Suzuki had completed several compact prototype cars.

With the onset of World War II, production plans for Suzuki's new vehicles were temporarily halted when the government declared civilian passenger cars a "non-essential commodity."