# American Suzuki gone bankrupt



## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Looks like the small Japanese automaker has gone bankrupt. While they seemed to make
inroads into the SUV markets for a while, looks like the sales in the US were not enough
to keep the cash flow going for Suzuki... with the other Japanese manufacturers Toyota and Honda
pretty much dominating the Asian car market in the US, along with Kia and Hyundai.

Kia and Hyundai are so concerned about their future sales that they gave anyone that
bought their model year vehicles a gas card rebate because of misleading advertising
on gas mileage to maintain customer loyalty.


----------



## ddkay (Nov 20, 2010)

Sharp Electronics is bankrupt too


----------



## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

^ Interesting because Sharp is one of Apple's alternatives for screens if not Samsung. There are not that many companies that can make quality screens in volume, and the biggest one has a (shall we say) rocky relationship with Apple.


----------



## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

andrewf said:


> ^ Interesting because Sharp is one of Apple's alternatives for screens if not Samsung. There are not that many companies that can make quality screens in volume, and the biggest one has a (shall we say) rocky relationship with Apple.


"Too big to fail"..where have we heard that before? (Nortel)

Apparently Sharp have been given a lifeline from a Japanese financial group of $2.7Billion US..so they may be able to restructure for a while next year with layoffs to keep going.
Hard to say about their long term situation. They could be bought out by some other company too.

http://japandailypress.com/too-big-...7-billion-mizuho-financial-group-loan-2713558


----------



## brad (May 22, 2009)

That's too bad about Sharp, I was always impressed with their quality. I have a vacuum cleaner by Sharp that I bought in 1992 and here we are still using it 20 years later...it won't die. Similarly I have a Sharp minidisc recorder/player that I bought in the mid 1990s; you can't even buy minidiscs anymore because it's an extinct technology (I have a lifetime supply of blank minidiscs) but this thing won't die.


----------



## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

I have a Sharp Camcorder that I bought in the late 90s. It was one of those neat big display handheld units that you could tilt the display in any position while you filmed.
Great little analog camcorder, still works but the mini video cassettes for it are hard to find these days. In it's day, you could get any second sourced video cassette or rechargable
battery for it, but now being 18 years old, it has been replaced by digital camcorders.


----------



## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Thank goodness, too. magnetic tape is a terrible storage medium. Whenever I watch an old VHS tape, I am reminded of how terrible VHS was compared to digital, like DVD.


----------



## Eder (Feb 16, 2011)

The Suzuki Samurai was one of only 3 real out of the box off road vehicles for sale in N America ...we still have Toyota FJ & the Wranglers. RIP.


----------



## jamesbe (May 8, 2010)

Ah i just bought a 70" sharp tv! Lucky i bought it at costco


----------



## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

andrewf said:


> Thank goodness, too. magnetic tape is a terrible storage medium. Whenever I watch an old VHS tape, I am reminded of how terrible VHS was compared to digital, like DVD.


Well 25 years ago, analog video tape was the only medium you had for storing prerecorded video programs or ones that you recorded. 

I remember back in the 70s, the first video players (Sony and Hitachi) had these HUGE video cassettes, then Sony and Panasonic came out with their own non interchangable recording formats, so you couldn't play a beta recorded tape (Sony) on a VHS player (Panasonic and all the others that were VHS)..video rental stores had to have both versions. 
Finally after a few years, it was settled, and VHS dominated the market.

When the first camcorders came out they were heavy bulky shoulder supported units with VHS tapes, and big batteryt packs, then after a few more years,
in the 90s, they went to the mini-cassette, then mini disc, and now finally it's a tiny palmcorder with gigabytes of digital storage,
that you can upload very quickly into your computer.

It was evolution over 40 years (1972 ---> 2012), just like the bulky home low storage memory computers back then (ie Radio Shack TRS-80) vs the IPad today.


----------



## ddkay (Nov 20, 2010)

The media industry trying to push Ultra HD (4K×2K) displays for the next decade. I just bought a new TV myself, it sucks to think that my TV, bluray player and cable box will be obsolete in a couple of years. They are also eventually switching from LCD panels to OLED, but that may take longer because the manufacturing process is still very expensive. They forecast OLED will have 3% of the market by 2016, so aways to go...


----------



## sags (May 15, 2010)

The Cami plant in Ingersoll, Ontario was originally a joint Suzuki/GM venture. 

They manufactured the ill fated Cami/Suzuki Tracker vehicles. Small, and unstable due to short width and top heavy height.

GM bought out Suzuki a few years ago and today the plant produces the popular Equinox vehicles.


----------



## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

ddkay said:


> The media industry trying to push Ultra HD (4K×2K) displays for the next decade.* I just bought a new TV myself, it sucks to think that my TV, bluray player and cable box will be obsolete in a couple of years. *They are also eventually switching from LCD panels to OLED, but that may take longer because the manufacturing process is still very expensive. They forecast OLED will have 3% of the market by 2016, so aways to go...


So if you already know it will be obsolete, why did you buy it? 3D TV is coming out now, but still expensive to manufacture as well, and right now still a novelty because of the high prices.
Once they come up with cheaper methods to manufacture them, and come up with an encoder to broadcast the signals at the TV station(s). as well asdecoders inside the TVs to replicate the 3D optical illusion,
(AUTO3D), you could be right in the action...but then how many years did it take to get the networks to switch to DTV?... around 50?

But they have to sell off the existing flat screen production first of course over the next 5 to 10 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_television

http://www.oled-info.com/oled-tv (LED TVs)


----------



## ddkay (Nov 20, 2010)

Old one isn't in style anymore, you know, everyone wants the ultra thin bezel now :tongue-new:

The switch to 4K will be interesting to watch though, the movie/tv industry will be pushing for this new format while cable companies will be resisting, it requires at least twice as much bandwidth, which means the Bell's and Rogers's of the world need to do seriously heavy investment into fiber networks in the coming decade, fiber is about as future-proof you can get though for last mile delivery.


----------



## Mall Guy (Sep 14, 2011)

carverman said:


> Looks like the small Japanese automaker has gone bankrupt. While they seemed to make
> inroads into the SUV markets for a while, looks like the sales in the US were not enough
> to keep the cash flow going for Suzuki... with the other Japanese manufacturers Toyota and Honda
> pretty much dominating the Asian car market in the US, along with Kia and Hyundai.


The Japanese manufacturer didn't go bankrupt, they just file for Chapter 11 for their US distribution company. Reportedly does not affect Suzuki Canada.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/autos/suzuki-business-as-usual-in-canada-despite-u-s-bankruptcy-1.1028352


----------

