Review: 2004 Suzuki Verona
2004 Suzuki Verona Base price: $19,499 Price as tested: $20,499 EPA mileage: 20 city/ 28 highway By Des Toups The midsize sedan market is perhaps the auto industry's toughest, with great cars (Accord and Camry), interesting cars (Mazda6 and Altima) and bargain cars (Taurus, Impala, Sonata) slugging it out for a piece of a 3-million car pie. The Suzuki Verona is not a great car or even an interesting one, but it does strike a convincing note on the bargain front. Our tester, an EX , positively dripped with extras: sunroof, climate control, heated leather seats with eight-way power for the driver, antilock brakes and six-cylinder engine. The tab is just $20,499 -- about the cost of a marginally equipped four-cylinder Camry or Accord. (Even the $17,499 base model includes the six, automatic, air and power windows and locks.) Oddly, the one extra not available at any price is side air bags, a critical omission in this class. All the extras come wrapped in a roomy, attractive and substantial-feeling package. Quality of interior fittings is a step above the domestics, as is the silky feel of the 2.5-liter inline six. If, stopping there, you feel like that's enough, you're probably the customer Suzuki is going after in its newly aggressive push to go mainstream. The Verona tops a new lineup that starts with the entry-level Forenza (both are mined from the lineup of General Motors' Korean arm, Daewoo) and last year's weird but peppy Aerio compact. The defining trait across the board is value, with these cars undercutting the segment leaders by thousands. All are backed by a seven-year, 100,000-mile warranty. If, though, you think there's more to a car than a monthly payment, look a little closer. Though there is nothing inherently wrong with the way the Verona accelerates, turns or stops, there's nothing especially right, either. Take acceleration, for example. The sweet-sounding six develops just 155 horsepower, less than the four-cylinder engines in the Camry, Accord or Mazda6. (Suzuki's own 2.3-liter four offers just as much horsepower in the humble Aerio.) It's hitched to a four-speed automatic rather than a five-speed, which has rapidly become the class standard. What an unhappy pair. There's not much grunt down low -- entering a busy street usually requires a second, panicked flooring of the gas pedal -- and little grunt up high, either. The slightest acceleration at highway speeds forces the transmission to downshift in search of power. A manual transmission, not offered in the United States, would go a long way toward getting more out of this potentially alluring engine. The engine may be silky enough, but there's a coarse feel to the way the Verona rides and handles. Tire roar and fierce wind noise from around the sunroof and windows wear on passengers during Interstate cruising. Reception on the six-speaker AM/FM/CD stereo is weak. The overly soft suspension manages to offering both mushy handling and a jiggly ride. These rough edges probably don't do much to reassure shoppers concerned about Suzuki's poor reliability history. Though Suzuki has countered with the long warranty, buyers may need it: On our low-mileage tester, the cruise control was out. This is a passable effort, assuming quality stands up, but the only compelling reason to buy it is price. Bargain hard. Des Toups <http://www.theautochannel.com/search/search.html?words=Toups> is a Seattle <http://www.theautochannel.com/search/search.html?words=Seattle> free-lance writer whose work has appeared in Driving Sports and AutoWorld <http://www.theautochannel.com/search/search.html?words=AutoWorld> magazines, MSN Money, The Seattle Times <http://www.theautochannel.com/search/search.html?words=Seattle%20Times> and newspapers nationwide.