Fire Hazard from Garmin Nuvi Prompts Recalls from Suzuki and Nissan

After Garmin announced a voluntary recall of 1.25 million units of its popular Nuvi GPS system at the end of August amidst concerns that the batteries could overheat and catch fire, Suzuki and Nissan followed with a recall on several vehicles equipped with the affected Garmin Nuvi navigation systems including the 750, 760, or 765 models for the same reason.

The recalled Garmin units can be found on certain Suzuki vehicles including the 2008-2010MY SX4 crossovers, 2010MY Grand Vitara SUVs, and 2009-2010MY Equator vehicles, and the 2008-2010MY Nissan Altima, Frontier, Pahtfinder, Rogue, Sentra, Versa and Xterra vehicles.

In both cases, the automakers will notify owners of the affected models, and the repairs will be performed by Garmin technicians who will replace the battery and insert a spacer on top of the battery free of charge.

Report: Suzuki's US Sales Nosediving into Oblivion

Remember yesterday when we said Suzuki got smacked by an average 68% sales drop compared to last August (and -52% from the beginning of the year) in the US? Well, we decided to take a deeper look at the company's sales figures and discovered some interesting facts.

All in all, Suzuki sold a mere 1,878 cars and SUVs in August, down from 5,751 units the same month a year ago. The Japanese automaker says it has around 300 dealers in the U.S. If you do the math, that comes to a little over 6 vehicles sold per dealer in August... Here are some more details on the company's sales broken down model by model:

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Suzuki's "best"-selling models, the Grand Vitara and Equator, took a 73% sales dive. Not far off that, the SX4's sales fell by 75% while the XL7 and and Forenza/Reno took 99% and 100% drops (granted, the Forenza/Reno was discontinued and only moved a laughable 12 units in 2010).

The all-new and much promising Kizashi, which hasn't officially dropped in sales because it wasn't available last August, has barely managed to bring in 478 buyers in August. For all the other scary Suzuki sales figures, scroll on down.

Looking at these depressing stats, it's no wonder they're holding off on debuting the Swift here.

By Phil Alex

European Suzuki Kizashi Sedan to Bow at Geneva Motor Show

At this year's International Motor Show in Geneva in the beginning of March, Suzuki will unveil the European market version of its new Kizashi saloon that's already on sale in North America and Japan. In Europe, Suzuki's mid-size sedan will play in the D-segment rivaling cars such as the Ford Mondeo, Citroen C5, Toyota Avensis, VW Passat and Opel Insignia.

The company said that it will offer the Kizashi with all-wheel drive as standard while power will be provided by the same 2.4-liter gasoline engine used on the N.A.-spec model.

The four-cylinder unit churns out 185 HP when linked to a six-speed manual gearbox and 178HP when mated to a CVT.

The Japanese maker is also planning to expand the Kizashi's range in the very near future with a more powerful V6 petrol engine as well as a hybrid version, though it is not clear if these variants will make it to Europe.

We don't know yet if it's technically feasible (and economically viable), but Suzuki's recent tie up with Volkswagen could see the Kizashi sedan being offered with a much-needed in Europe, diesel engine sourced from the German Group.

Together with the Kizashi, Suzuki will also display in Geneva the Swift Plug-in Hybrid that was first introduced at last fall's Tokyo Motor Show as well as new variants of the three-and five-door Grand Vitara with a redesigned rear hatch that does away with the spare tire box.