From mills to motoring milestone

Suzuki Suzulight was one of the first Japanese cars to combine front-wheel drive and four-wheel independent suspension. Photo / Supplied

Tom Peck remembers driving one of the first Suzuki cars imported to New Zealand.

"It was the early 1970s from memory - I can't recall the model off the top of my head," he said. "There's been a few since then."

Peck was an apprentice mechanic working for the Coleman family, a Wanganui motorcycling dynasty and New Zealand agent for many of the great two-wheel breeds.

These days Peck is the marketing chief for Suzuki NZ, responsible for more than 25 model variants and the country's leading motorcycle brand.

He is also counting down to the parent company's 100th birthday in October, "when we might crack open a can of sake."

Peck says the company doesn't have any special birthday plans in place. "We have instead released special anniversary models through the year."

The Coleman family set up the Suzuki name in New Zealand in 1962 when it imported the Japanese company's first motorcycles. The cars and commercials came later.

The Suzuki Motor Corporation began business back in 1909 as the Suzuki Loom Company. Founder Michio Suzuki's looms produced the plain white fabric of the day - until he designed one that could weave patterned cloth from dyed yarn. Suzuki gained an international reputation and business boomed.

The Great Depression forced Suzuki to diversify and the company began to build prototype motorcycles and cars. The first car was powered by a then-innovative, liquid-cooled, four-stroke, four-cylinder engine. It featured a cast aluminum crankcase and gearbox and generated almost 10kW from a displacement of less than 800cc. But production plans were halted as World War II loomed. The Japanese Government declared civilian passenger cars a "non-essential commodity". After the war, Suzuki went back to producing looms. The United States approved shipments of cotton to war-torn Japan and Suzuki's fortunes brightened. Orders from textile manufacturers rolled in. But the joy was short-lived as the cotton market collapsed in 1951.

Suzuki resurrected its motorcycle division and in 1952 came out with the first production model, the Power Free. A year later, Suzuki was building 6000 motorcycles a month.

The first Suzuki car appeared in 1955. The Suzulight ran a two-stroke 360cc engine and was one of the first Japanese cars to combine front-wheel drive, four-wheel independent suspension and rack and pinion steering. Suzuki's off-road vehicle heritage began in 1970 with the LJ series, a lightweight four-wheel-drive sometimes referred to as the "first Jimny".

The first ATV farm bike appeared in 1982. The lifestyle Vitara range arrived in 1988.

Last year, Suzuki sold 2.3 million cars and commercials and 3.4 million motorcycles worldwide. Its small Swift hatchback is the second best-selling car in New Zealand this year.