The plus-less R
Do you remember the Suzuki Wagon R+? Two generations of this compact block box have been sold in the Netherlands. The Wagon R, which was replaced by the Splash after 2008, is still very much alive outside the Dutch borders. Five million copies of the model have now been built, Suzuki proudly reports.
There was a time when compact, high models of mainly Asian origin were on the roads in large numbers in Europe. Daihatsu had the Move, Daewoo the Matiz, Hyundai the Atoz and Suzuki the Wagon R+. The first Wagon R+ was actually a slightly larger variant of the Suzuki Wagon R-without-Plus intended for the European market that it had on the menu in its home country Japan. While the Wagon R was a straight Kei car, the Wagon R+ was not, due to its larger size and larger petrol engines. The Wagon R+ was followed up here in 2000 in a new generation, of which Opel received a version: the first Agila. With the arrival of the Suzuki Splash, the Japanese ended the Wagon R+ adventure in Europe, but it never left far beyond our continent. Suzuki has now produced the five millionth Wagon R. The Wagons R+ are not taken into account!
The three-door Suzuki Wagon R, of which the first Wagon R+ was a larger variant.
Suzuki reports that it has sold five million units of the Wagon R – i.e. the Kei-car – in its home country. Not only is the European Wagon R+ not included, the Indian Wagons R built and delivered by the Indian Maruti Suzuki are also not included. Five million Wagon Rs. If you line them all up, you create an impressive row of compact space giants that stretches over no less than 17,000 kilometers. Information that you can’t do anything with, but that the car-loving part of your brain can certainly park in the fun facts corner.
The first Wagon R+ even performed heroically in the Barrel Brigade.
In Japan, the Suzuki Wagon R has now been in its sixth generation for a while. The current Wagon R was presented in 2017 and is available in three variants. The compact Suzuki received a cheerful sister model with sliding doors next to it in 2021: the Wagon R Smile. The millionth Wagon R was delivered in Japan in March 1999, four years later the sales counter reached 2 million units and reached 3 million in 2008. The four millionth Wagon R found a Japanese owner in 2013. Ten years later – now – the five millionth copy has been delivered. Wagon R sales appear to be slumping somewhat. Nearly 27,000 Suzuki Wagon R have been sold in the Netherlands. This makes it the most delivered Suzuki in our country since 1983, after the Alto and the Swift.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl