Twin cars are no longer strange in the automotive world. Toyota and Daihatsu often do this, such as the Toyota Avanza and Daihatsu Xenia in Indonesia. In the global market, Mitsubishi and Nissan also often make twin cars such as the new Nissan Outlander and the new Nissan X-Trail.
So, that’s the cooperation pattern that Toyota wants to implement with Suzuki. Drive reported, on Tuesday (2/1/2024), Toyota wants to make a twin car of the car that has been popular recently, the Suzuki Jimny.
Later the car just needs to change its logo from Suzuki to Toyota. This plan is legal because Toyota has a 5 percent stake in Suzuki.
The two of them have even often rebadged or twin cars such as the Toyota RAV4 with the Suzuki Across. Likewise with the Toyota Corolla and Suzuki Swace.
“It’s just that Toyota’s desire to rebadge the Suzuki Jim was so excessive that Suzuki immediately politely rejected it,” said Drive.
The reason is very logical because the Suzuki Jimny is a car that is synonymous with Suzuki. This compact SUV has a name that is very familiar to the public.
So rebadging the Suzuki Jimny is the same as hurting the feelings of many people, especially its fans. Suzuki saw this as absolutely impossible
“This is the same as asking Toyota so that we can rebadge the Toyota Land Cruiser,” said a Suzuki source quoted by Drive.
Fortunately, Toyota finally understood the rejection. They then plan to develop their new compact SUV which could later be like the Toyota Land Cruiser Mini. The car is planned to be developed from the Toyota Cruiser EV concept car.
It is estimated that the compact SUV made by Toyota will have the same dimensions as the Toyota Corolla Cros. This size will be much larger than the Suzuki Jimny but the smallest among the SUV family made by Toyota.
