Suzuki Samurai was Re: [geeks] SPARC proprietary (waaaay off topic)

[James Rice]

I owned a Suzuki Samurai in 1988 when those tests were made.  By placing 
so much weight so far out to the sides of the natural roll center of the 
Samurai, it was a self fullfilling prophecy.  After that 60 minutes 
episode, a friend who was a mechanical  engineer and myself took my 
Samurai out to the closed airbase and we tried to roll it.  We only came 
close once and that was at a speed over three times what Consumer 
Reports used.  My friend did calculations to prove his point that the 
Consumer Reports tests were technically flawed.  I've always suspected 
Consumer Reports of having an agenda to push.  Kind of like CBS did with 
the Audi unintended acceleration episode of the early 80's.  When the 
car wouldn't perform on cue, they internaly altered the transmission by 
removing detent springs from the valve body to make it jump out of park.

I drove the Suzuki for 5 years.  If anyone would find the weak point of 
the Samurai it would have been me.  Driving slow has never been my 
problem.  Last year, I was on deferred adjudication in three counties at 
the same time.  I'll probably be the poster child for the new Texas 
points system for traffic tickets.

James

-- 

>I disagree.  Before I even heard about the Consumer
>Reports' tests, I saw that show on PBS that does
>testing...Auto Week I think it's called.  You didn't
>have to *try* to roll over the Samurai, that was the
>whole point.
>
>Auto Week did their standard "avoidance test", and had
>to put skid plates on the Samurai--if they hadn't, the
>dog-leg was so bad it would have went over on it's
>side.  That's not *trying* to roll it over--at least,
>not on the part of the testers.
>
>Now, many small cars have dog-legging problems, that's
>well known (which can generally be ameliorated with the
>right suspension 'hacks' and tires).  But the Samurai
>was ridiculous, and Suzuki deserved the smack that it
>got for designing such a POS.
>
>On the other hand, a few months back, I drove a Suzuki
>Aerio from the Bay Area to LA.  Now that's a nice little
>car.
>
>=Nadine=


http://webpages.charter.net/jrice54/classiccomp2.html