In many years of ‘Facelift Friday’, facelifts have come in all conceivable shapes and sizes. At least… we thought so. Suzuki made it very furious in 2003 and came with an Ignis that not only got a new nose, but also became a lot longer.
The fact that a car grows a few centimeters during a facelift is not news in itself. After all, a new front bumper can have an effect on the total length of the car, as was the case with the famous facelift of the Fiat Multipla, for example.
The Ignis, however, is a different kind of lengthening. The SUV-like SUV, introduced in 2000, was stretched by almost 15 cm in 2003 especially for the European market. The wheelbase remained the same, but the rear overhang was considerably larger.
Another special feature: all major changes only applied to the five-door version of the Ignis. The three-door, on which the funny Sport was based, remained the old after some details. Initially, a five-door Ignis was what the name suggests: a three-door, but with two extra doors. That changed in 2003. In that year, Suzuki decided to replace the five-door Ignis with one with the exterior characteristics of the Chevrolet Cruze, an Ignis derivative developed by the Australian Holden that was available as a Chevrolet in Japan, among others.
That meant that the European five-door got a whole new look to start with. The rounded headlights made way for higher, narrower and sharper ones, the grille became tighter, the front bumper different and also the hood and side screens had to die. At the rear, the work was even more rigorous if possible. The third side window was, as it were, ‘turned around’. It is therefore visually no longer part of the side window since 2003, but is actually connected to the rear window. Between the side window and rear window, new light units were mounted, which grew a lot compared to the old situation. A completely new dashboard completed the metamorphosis.
Unique rear lights
The result actually goes beyond the term ‘facelift’, but the 2003 edition is in fact still the primal Ignis. Although after this operation the European Ignis resembled the Holden Cruze and Chevrolet Cruze like two drops of water, its increased length was always reserved for the European-only Suzuki variant. Intrigued by this special story? In this episode of ‘De Tweeling’ you can read all about it and also the crazy rear lights of the Cruze.