The automotive industry has a way of balancing
itself out. The Dodge Viper went out of production, for example, a few months
after the first Ford GTs started rolling off the line.
While Ferrari and Lamborghini were giving up on the
manual transmission, Porsche was doubling down. And just a week after Toyota
put the FJ Cruiser to pasture for good, Suzuki unveiled the Xbee.
Ostensibly based on the Hustler minivan, the Xbee
(pronounced "cross-bee") takes the form of a retro sport-ute – albeit
one that doesn't look like it'd be quite as capable as the discontinued Toyota
(and much smaller to boot). But such are the times we live in when off-road stalwarts
like the Ford Explorer and Nissan Pathfinder have switched from
body-on-ladder-frame construction to car-based unibodies.
The Xbee that first
appeared as a concept at the Tokyo Motor Show a few months ago is now going
into production – albeit just for the Japanese market (for the time being at
least).
Described as combining the “spacious cabin of a
wagon and the fun of an SUV,” the Xbee is being launched in Japan exclusively
with a hybrid powertrain, based around a 1.0-liter turbocharged engine, mated
to a six-speed automatic transmission and available with either two- or
four-wheel drive.
Two trim levels are available with either
drivetrains, prices ranging from ¥ 1,765,800 (US$ 16k) for the base, front-drive
Xbee MX to ¥ 2,145,960 (US$ 19k) for an all-wheel drive MZ. Suzuki's also packed a
whole raft of active safety systems in there, and figures it can sell about
2,000 of them every month in its home market.
