Today brings us yet another specimen from the fresh trade row. It’s a 2001 Suzuki Grand Vitara equipped with 4x4 and a 2.5L V6 that‘s good for 155 HP and averaged high teens to low 20‘s for gas mileage.
This little SUV has definitely seen better days. If you’ve read a previous post involving a certain little yellow Aerio hatch, you’ll recall that Suzuki has pulled out of the US market for car sales. That certainly doesn’t help with the trade in value of this Grand Vitara (in the shape it‘s in, I‘d be surprised if its owner got even $1,000 in trade allowance for it). Of course, this vehicle has more than that counting against it. From the looks of things, this Suzuki’s driver never met a door ding or mail box post that wasn’t welcome to leave its mark on the poor little rig during the course of piling on the 160,000 miles that the intake tag indicates it has on its odometer.
Of greater interest and concern was this: the bullet hole in the passenger side door of the car. It’s a through and through shot, too. Check out the interior shot. You can see where it went through, right at the perfect level to hit the passenger in the upper leg. Interesting how there is a seat cover on the passenger side of this vehicle… Wonder if that’s there to cover a blood stain? I’m pretty sure it is.
I can relate to this on some level though, as my previous Mustang suffered a similar fate. That car took a bullet to the driver’s side door, though not when anybody was in the car, but rather, while it was parked in the street (this is why I garage my car now). I don’t think my car was the target in that case, but just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when some idiot with a gun and lousy aim decided to fire at God only knows what or who. The Mustang shot must have been from a far enough distance to keep the slug from hitting with enough force to completely penetrate, though it did leave quite the deep dimple on the door skin. This Suzuki though? No such luck, and it certainly seems as though this car is in fact a crime scene on four wheels.
If cars could talk, what a story this Grand Vitara would tell. The narrative would be the type of stuff that would come together as one of those dramatic, harrowing, and poorly acted Lifetime television movies; a woeful tale of neglect and abuse, violence, and betrayal, and ultimately abandonment in the fresh trade row. Think that Cars movie, but with an infusion of daytime television Soap Opera theatrics, some violence, and a big dose of tear-jerking melodrama. But what a little trooper this car is to survive through all these conditions…. Oh wait, a Trooper is an Isuzu. Scratch that. This Grand Vitara, no longer grand by any means, is headed to the auto auction without a doubt, where it will likely be purchased as a parts car or for scrap. A sad end to a rough life for this vehicle; but think of the weepy ending this fate provides for its automotive Lifetime movie: " Drive to Die For: the Secret Life of the Grand Vitara -A Tragic Loss of Resale Value" -Hollywood gold!
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