Suzuki Fronte

The Suzuki Fronte is a 2-door sedan from Suzuki, built from 1962 to 1989, in the decade that gave the world the pony car and the mid-engined supercar. Under the bonnet: 356&nbsp.

The story

The Suzuki Fronte (Japanese: スズキ・フロンテ) is an automobile introduced in March 1962 as a sedan version of the Suzulight Van. The nameplate remained in use for Suzuki's Kei car sedans as well as some commercial-use derivatives until it was replaced by the Alto (originally only used for commercial vehicles) in September 1988.

The "fronte" nameplate initially alluded to the fact that the initial Fronte was front-wheel-drive, but during the years when the Fronte was rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive, Suzuki stated that it referred to their aim of being at the front of the Kei class.

What is underneath

Power comes from 356  other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It weighs 425 kg. It shifts through a 4-speed manual. The layout matters: the engine hangs behind the rear axle, a layout that gives ferocious traction out of a corner and a reputation to match on the way in. The wheelbase is 1960 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.

Its place in the line

Its family tree is legible: its successor was the Suzuki Alto; assembly was at Kosai Assembly Plant, Hamana-gun, Shizuoka, Japan. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Ferrari 250 GTO, the Alfa Romeo Giulia, the Jaguar E-Type — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Suzuki catalogue sit the Suzuki XL-7 and the Suzuki Landy.

What it costs now

MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Suzuki Fronte has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.