After the recent announcement that Volkswagen AG had bought some where near 20 percent of Suzuki this year, things started to change for the company in their product development strategy. One of the first and, for AllSmallCars.com, most disappointing was the news that the Suzuki Swift wouldn’t make its return to the United States for the 2011 model year. Current expectations are that it will come to our shores next year as a 2012 model year.

The debut date being pushed is because, according to AutoWeek, Suzuki in conjunction with VW is working on a new global product strategy. However, a spokesperson for Suzuki told AutoWeek that any delay in the Swift’s arrival in the U.S. market has more to do with the Yen-to-Dollar exchange rate than VW. We will let you be the judge of what seems more likely, but what we do know is that the redesigned Suzuki Swift debuted in Japan last week and for the moment will be sold there and in Europe. Then depending on how the car is received and how the Yen-to-Dollar ratio is, the car could be given a green light for the U.S. market by the end of summer or early autumn.

For the moment, like so many cars, we will have to wait and see if this one will make the leap across the pond. It is interesting though that Suzuki feels that in order to sell in the U.S. market and make any profit they would have to raise their prices to an obscene level due to the exchange rate. And we though our economy was bad.

 

[Source: AutoWeek]