Five long years after Suzuki left the Malaysian market, the plucky Japanese carmaker is back, this time under a new custodian. That’s right – after selling off its Peugeot and Kia franchises, Naza is back in the mainstream automotive sector, representing the brand under subsidiary Naza Eastern Motors. Suzuki will be the Malaysian conglomerate’s first Japanese brand.
The company will launch the first of its two initial models as soon as this month, and while it hasn’t confirmed the identities of the cars it will be bringing in, we have been told that they will be the latest Swift Sport and Jimny. Both of them are currently being brought in from Japan by grey importers at inflated prices and it remains to be seen if Naza can offer them at more reasonable rates.
Suzuki’s first flagship 3S showroom will be located in Naza Automall PJ, utilising over 3,000 sq ft of space and featuring a “bright and vibrant environment along with some interactive points.” The new dealer will only be authorised to service new-generation models, likely meaning that those who own older Suzukis will continue to be handled by Proton dealers, as per the arrangement after the previous exit.
“It brings us great honour to be able to work with a Japanese automotive giant that successfully captured the hearts of Malaysian consumers during its years in the Malaysian market,” said Naza group executive chairman and CEO SM Nasarudin SM Nasimuddin. “The team at Naza Eastern Motors is committed to ensure we build on the strong reputation Suzuki has established by providing quality products that are reliable, desirable and cheerful.”
Suzuki senior managing officer and executive general manager of global automobile marketing Kinji Saito added, “We are delighted to return to the Malaysian market with the Naza Group as our distributor. Our experience with the Malaysian market has been delightful due to the huge acceptance from our customers, and we greatly appreciate the continued trust for Suzuki. We are looking forward to introducing our latest award winning cars to these loyal Suzuki fans.”
The previous distributor was Suzuki Malaysia Automobile, a subsidiary of DRB-Hicom. Suzuki left the market as a result of a now-lapsed collaboration with Proton, which gave us the Ertiga MPV.
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Welcome back, thats a car thats much much better than a Kia Picanto
A segment Turbo, Swift Sport
No need for expensive second handed reCON
Swift vs Myvi.
Jimny vs Ativa
Hopefully they sell Jimny at Rm80k, not RM168K by some AP dudes
ya those 160+k for a jimny will never fly.
Used to have an old jimny as the family car, missed it, a very capable little car.
Jimny for 200k.
https://paultan.org/2019/03/29/bangkok-2019-suzuki-jimny-launched-from-rm199k/
Swift its a b segment upper then picanto
Anything Naza touches … Will be Nazak
Gempak la Naza ..Swift Sport RM64k & Suzuki Jimny RM72k.
haha 80k off broo..do you think naza will sell cheaply ka? hahaha
Best News of the Year , for sure.
cringeworthy news of the year for sure.
happy that suzuki is returning… but nobody would want to be abandoned after buying a suzuki by the legendary bad aftersales service of NAZA nasarudin tenure.
nasarudin is incompetent in running the business, unlike his father.
Good brand you sell off then you go buy another brand. Not wanting to improve your own marketing and after sales service. How you gonna get profit?
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”
The problem with KIA and Hyundai is actually the distributorship here.Naza and Sime darby are in the same boat of mediocrity.
In USA,the two Korean marques are volume sellers.
If u have bought peugeot,Chevrolet,Kia from Naza before,do you want to risk the same ‘left in the lurch”feeling,by buying Suzuki now?If I want nothing else but Japanese cars,I can go for Toyota,honda,Nissan,mazda..plenty of well tested distributorship.Does this makes sense or u need rocket science to comprehend?
No need to look far. In SG, Hyundai and Kias are very common on the roads there. The Toyota Altis is no longer a common car there and the Avante (aka Elantra elsewhere in the world) and Cerato are the most common C segment sedans there. The Civic is somewhat common, the base model with 2 airbags.
The only Hondas and Toyotas that are common are the JDM models like the Vezels
Naza probably knows their after sales service is a joke so they bought one of the most reliable brands in the hopes less people would notice, very sneaky.
Naza is good at killing car brands
This is probably just a condition to continue getting the AP. You must show you are doing something with all the money you made.
Who dare to buy if under Naza again? Naza, please do not spoil any car brand anymore!
Buy Real estate..consider Naza dude.
Buy cars….please run faster than Usain Bolt.
Even for the real estate, run faster than Usain Bolt.
So many projects are now mothballed and only a hole in the ground to show for it. Buyers are unhappy with the lack of progress. Rumours of sub contractors stopped work due to financial issue from NAZA side.
Yup spot on. Very much looking forward to owning the latest SSS but main concern remains to be NAZA’s stewardship.
Under Naza, confirm fail.
Agree. Should be under DRB.
DRB is shitty as well
Seriously?!! After abandoning their Kia and Peugeot customers and leaving them high and dry with no confirmation on service and warranty coverage, why would anyone want to support their Suzuki venture?
Keong kan under Naza again, GG wasting another good brand…
i wonder if many will dare to buy a suzuki after knowing naza’s disastrous handling of peugeot & kia
nice car but under Naza, service level = ?
Sell away Peugeot n Kia, now buy Suzuki ???
Hmmm if their experience was that great in Malaysia they wouldn’t have exited the market in the first place and now they are coming back with Naza of all people.
As for grey imports, all the best in selling those crazily priced Jimnys.
I don’t think any car manufactures can set up and distribute their product directly in Malaysia, some other countries allow it so they operate independently.
The ones who always spoils the brand are the local distributor. Most of them are select few with good connections with the government.
If the car manufacturers allowed, they would just handle everything themself to protect their brand image and serve their customers with high quality.
Bring in kazashi please
there hasnt been any new kizashi out since they discontinue it back in 2013 lol
Hi caveman, its been discontinue since decade ago.
Suzukis are fantastic vehicles but NAZA is a terrible dealer. After what they had done to their previous Kia and Peugeot customers, stay away from NAZA. You have been warned.
…….the tear from neglected Kia and Peugeot customers had not dry yet due to NAZA negligence of their service and support…..and eventually “bungkus”
Will new Suzuki owners suffer the same fate?
the brand principal surely do some homework before they award the license. if Naza really that bad nobody will want to deal with them
nice, suzuki back….*naza is representing*….fugggghhhhhhh
I will bjy. Naza will sell cheap. I buy jimmy yellow green color and swift blue color
New starting suzuki malaysia with this two model, err sure 90k or upper for this two model
Own and love my 13 yrs old suzuki swiftt sport to bits, Great Car Brand. Was considering to buy the latest version, but my experience of owning a peugeot with Naza totally puts me off, however much i desire the car. Naza will kill off any brand, with their terrible service and ineptitude
Under distributionship of Naza basically no hope. They are not improving their after sales service at all. 1 part gonna wait for 6 months for claim. Luckily Kia and Peugeot are not changed to Bermaz. God bless Suzuki.
Naza is the worst! They basically abandoned their Peugeot and Kia customers! All service records were not handed to the new franchise holder, so if you don’t have the service book (who keeps service book when everything is suppose to be computerized!), you will have a lot of difficulty when it comes to warranty claim when the new franchise holder takes over.
The only reason why they were ever successful is because of cronyism!!
the best years of suzuki in malaysia was in the 80s and 90s when both suzuki motorcycle and auto operations was under 1 roof of lion group.
the vitara, jimny and swift was goodsellers then.
ps. hopefully those historical rally suzuki swift GTis of Silverstone rally team got to a good home after silverstone tyres is now closed down.
under Naza the brand is DOA (Dead on Arrival)
Oh dear. How does one take this news? Suzuki makes great cars, Naza makes everything silly. Oh well….
Hope they get the lesson. Never simply trust 3 suku company. Kononnya JV closing all sales and service centre.
The Jimny is one of my most favourite and desirable car, but wrong move for Suzuki to select Naza as their partner…don’t know what the Naza guys says in suceeding kelentong Suzuki Japan…my previous experience with the latest Kia Picanto proved it all…A very good car managend by a bunch of liars and oppurtunists….If the late father is still alive, this will surely not happened….:(
aiyooooooooooooooooooooooo still with naza
Grey importers selling Jimny for RM150K.. haha..
one who experience Naza after sales service, one would never wanna endure that again.
trying to kill another brand again? Then few years later sell to berjaya.
until world end lah only these peoples get them.
if kerja bagus tak apa , bye bye Suzuki. DOA
stuoid idiots cant even handle one car,now want to handle suzuki
WASTE OF TIME