There are certain categories of discarded vehicles that I search for before all others during my junkyard travels. French cars and extreme-high-mile machinery are on my list, of course, plus Sawzall roadsters/ pickups, art cars and oddball special editions. But my favorite Junkyard Finds are obscure examples of what-could-they-have-been-thinking badge engineering, and today’s truck has lived atop my wish list for nearly 15 years.
Some examples of badge engineering worked out very well for both manufacturers involved, with the Mitsubishi-Chrysler partnership that gave North American car shoppers close to a quarter-century of Colts near the top of that list. GM had a good run with various Geo-badged Suzukis, Isuzus and Toyotas, too.
Others didn’t work out so well in the showrooms, even when there appeared to be semi-reasonable business arguments for their existence. The Volkswagen Routan, Saab 9-7X, Mitsubishi Precis, Acura SLX, Isuzu I-Series, 2006-2009 Mitsubishi Raider and 1988-1993 Pontiac LeMans come to mind here. The Suzuki Equator seems to be the most puzzling of them all, though, and now my decade-long search has unearthed one in a Denver-area car graveyard.
The Equator was a Smyrna-built Nissan Frontier with a slightly different grille and Suzuki badges, period. It was available for the 2008 through 2012 model years, and fewer than 6,000 were sold during that span.
Why? Things were unsettled around the far-flung GM Empire during the second half of the 2000s, to put it mildly, and North American Suzuki dealers were moving a significant amount of Daewoo-built iron in the immediate aftermath of Daewoo Motor America’s demise.
By the time the Equator hit showrooms, Isuzu’s once-mighty presence in the American-market truck business was no more. It had dwindled to just the Axiom and Rodeo by 2004, then staggered on for a few more years selling hastily rebadged Chevy Trailblazers and Colorados. Saab dealers were issued rebadged Trailblazers and Subaru Imprezas, because what the hell, and Saturn offered Opels that few wanted.
Oldsmobile had been taken behind the barn and shot through the head a few years earlier and Pontiac was on the ropes. But Suzuki was still moving some of its (non-Daewoo-derived) Aerios, XL-7s, SX4s and Grand Vitaras here; the upcoming Kizashi looked promising, too. Maybe all those throngs of shoppers crowding Suzuki showrooms (in the minds of GM suits who could have been weeks into a Scotchgard-huffing binge due to job-related stress at that point) might impulse-buy a pickup truck… if one were available!
As we all know, just about everybody ignored the Equator; Suzuki reverted to selling off-highway-only vehicles here after 2013. Disappointingly, Suzuki musical instruments are made by an unrelated company, giving Yamaha employees more reason to sneer at their rivals.
Was it cheaper than a similarly-equipped Frontier? The MSRP for the V6-powered short-bed ’09 Equator Crew Cab with rear-wheel-drive and automatic transmission was $23,210, or about $33,821 in 2023 dollars. The ’09 Frontier SE Crew Cab with shortbed and the same powertrain listed at $23,260 ($33,894 after inflation).
So, it was a single Grant cheaper than its twin from the same Tennessee assembly line. Suzuki America didn’t look so doomed in 2009 (that came a bit later), but Nissan would have appeared the safer bet for those who really didn’t want to get what Daewoo owners got after Manny, Moe and Jack were assigned as their providers of warranty service after 2002.
Rare, yes. Valuable, no.
What else could you call a truck rugged and tough enough to take on all the world has to offer? You’d call it “$5,000 off MSRP” by about 2011.
2009 Suzuki Equator in Colorado wrecking yard.
2009 Suzuki Equator in Colorado wrecking yard.
2009 Suzuki Equator in Colorado wrecking yard.
2009 Suzuki Equator in Colorado wrecking yard.
2009 Suzuki Equator in Colorado wrecking yard.
2009 Suzuki Equator in Colorado wrecking yard.
2009 Suzuki Equator in Colorado wrecking yard.
2009 Suzuki Equator in Colorado wrecking yard.
2009 Suzuki Equator in Colorado wrecking yard.
2009 Suzuki Equator in Colorado wrecking yard.
2009 Suzuki Equator in Colorado wrecking yard.
2009 Suzuki Equator in Colorado wrecking yard.
[Images: The Author]
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