Ah, Suzuki. The automaker is like the Japanese Hyundai of the late 1990s and early 2000s. It sells cheap but well-equipped cars with excellent warranties; The quality may not be as bad as Toyota and Honda, but it’s not bad. And also some unique offerings, from the wannabe sports car Kizashi to the Verona and the Porsche-designed I6. Another unique product is the Suzuki XL-7.
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Taking a compact SUV and turning it into a seven-seater doesn’t sound strange now, but in the late 1990s when the XL-7 was introduced, it was unique. The XL-7 originally started as a fork of the Grand Vitara SUV, which means it’s almost a stretched version of it. This means it can seat seven, but it also has some off-road features. It has a body-on-frame construction and can also be fitted with an all-wheel drive system that comes with a low range.
To get the third row of seats, Suzuki has extended the Grand Vitara’s wheelbase by 12.6 inches and increased the overall length by 19.1 inches. While that sounds impressive, the XL-7 is still small even as the size increases; it is 183.7 inches long. To visualize that size, imagine Honda dropping a third row of seats into the current CR-V.
That increased length and weight also comes with more power. Suzuki has increased the Grand Vitara’s V6 engine by 0.2 liters to 2.7 liters. That’s enough to give the engine 170 horsepower and 178 lb-ft of torque. You can choose between a four-speed automatic or a five-speed manual. When it all comes together, you’ve got the cheapest SUV for sale in the US that comes standard with seven seats.
And that is cheap. The starting price for the XL-7 in all-wheel drive basic versions is $21,499 in 2001. If you want to splurge a bit and add things like a sunroof, leather seats, CD player, and ABS, you’re still at $25,074. Today’s automakers would never make something with so many features for so cheap.
While the XL-7 seems like a solid value, not everything is great. Like most SUVs with third-row seats, cargo capacity has been affected. With the third row or more, there’s just over 6 cubic feet of cargo space between the third row of seats and the rear hatch; that space increases to 37 cubic feet when the second and third rows are folded. The rear suspension is slightly damped, helping to create a slightly smoother ride for the driver only on the XL-7.
But as the years passed, sales began to dwindle, most likely due to better SUVs and crossovers of the same size as the XL-7 coming to market. So a new XL-7 was introduced for the 2007 model.
This new XL-7 was developed with GM, so you know what that means: GM runs through the device. Besides the name change to XL7 – the hyphen has been dropped – this new XL7 runs on GM’s Theta platform, which also underpins the Chevy Equinox, Pontiac Torrent, and Saturn Vue. The XL7 is the only version of the seven-seat Theta-platform crossovers.
This new XL7 has evolved in every way compared to the old body-on-frame version. It increased by 10 inches, just over 2 inches in width and 1 inch in height. Strength also increased. One of the positives of the Suzuki/GM relationship is Suzuki’s access to GM’s engine technology. Under the hood of the XL7 is GM’s High Feature 3.6-liter V6 engine. It makes 252 hp and comes with a 5-speed automatic transmission. But the XL7’s new crossover platform means the loss of off-road capabilities. Its four-wheel drive, for example, has given way to front-wheel drive.
It’s still a pretty good value, though. Loading out, you get features like side-impact airbags, leather seats, wood trim, navigation, a sunroof and a rear DVD entertainment system for just over $32,000; base XL7s start at $24,884. But that partnership with GM came with negatives, mainly a decline in quality.
Several outlets have mentioned that the quality of some materials is actually worse than the Grand Vitara-based XL-7 it replaced. The Theta platform also produces a third row that is weirdly packed and hard to get into.
In the end, these things don’t matter, as not enough buyers go to Suzuki dealers to buy these. From 1998 to 2009, 170,588 XL7s found their owners. Sales have never reached 30,000 annually; 2002 was its best year with sales of 27,295. The demise of the XL7 coincided with the demise of Suzuki America in the late 2000s and the final retreat of the US market. With the XL7 ending production in 2009, it was the last car jointly developed between GM and Suzuki.
While the XL7 has never been a bad vehicle, it sucks to see it start out as something unique only to grow into another vehicle that blends into the crowd in pursuit of sales. We’ll never see anything like the original XL7 in the US again. An inexpensive body-on-frame SUV with four-wheel drive, low range and seven seats is available with a manual. It’s the stuff of dreams.
