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2006 Grand Vitara vibration problem

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Comments

  • i3oyeti3oyet Member Posts: 16
    Hello guys,
    I am back and this time very happy. After all the pain and misery that My Grand Vitara has caused me, I decided that the whole thing was going nowhere and problems after another and keeps getting BS from the suzuki dealer mechanics. I am now a proud owner of a 2007 Nissan Xterra (off road version) I can tell you guys how glad I am that I got rid of that car. There is definitely a big difference in terms of the design quality. Some people may say that there is a price difference but when you experiance what I had been through with the Suzuki Grand Vitara that I owned for two years. You will say that the few thousand dollars differrence is nothing. When I think back to what I had been through getting that car back and forth to the dealership shop for repair time and time again since I bought it. I just smile and say to my self. I wish I never bought a Suzuki Grand Vitara (It is the worst vehicle I have ever drove) The only thing I can say now is good luck and hope that Suzuki will treat you a lot better than how treated me because if you ask me, They have given me zero customer service after sale. All i got was a bunch of BS. This is my message to all...I! in my lifetime will never ever drive anything that is made or design by Suzuki. Thank you all
  • i3oyeti3oyet Member Posts: 16
    Hello again,
    I just want to clarify that on my last post. I was not compairing the capability of the Xterra and the grand vitara. I was compairing the quality of the two vehicles. For example, On my previous car(Grand Vitara)when ever I put it on second gear I hear the very annoying noise from the transmission. Well shouldn't I be hearing just the engine running instead of some other noise that isn't suppose to be there? This is just one of the things I experienced with it. Thanks all
  • vitara4mevitara4me Member Posts: 35
    Hello everyone. I called Suzuki of America corporate office to discuss my ongoing issues and I was told by a rather rude individual to "pound sand". In other words, Suzuki said that there is no way that they will buy back my vehicle, or give me another vehicle. :lemon:

    Oh really? You sure about that? :lemon:

    Well, I have found a very nasty Lemon-Law attorney that has dealt with Suzuki before, and told me to start looking for my next car, because Suzuki is at fault, and is liable for my loss. :lemon:

    I'm sure glad I took pictures and documented everything, including all my warranty repair invoices, showing miles and date/time in service. I even recorded all my phone calls to Suzuki of America and all the dealerships I have dealt with. (four Suzuki dealerships in my area have gone bankrupt and shut down). I now have to drive 35 miles to the nearest dealership. :lemon:

    I'll let you know how it turns out. :lemon:

    Regards, Vitaranot4me :lemon:
  • i3oyeti3oyet Member Posts: 16
    Hello everyone, Another update with my new found hapiness with my new vehicle. It has been snowing a bit here in Vancouver Canada lately and I've had a chance to fully test my new vehicle (Nissan Xterra) with the rough weather and boy! am so very happy and wish I've purchase this vehicle instead of the Grand Lemon I had for two years. Funny thing is, I've gone through so much pain and frustration with the Grand Lemon or I mean Grand Vitara that sometimes I unconciously expect to hear/see/feel the problem. Like for example, sometimes when I turn my steering wheels, my brain goes into a mode where it's waiting for that metal to metal rubbing sound from the front suspension. Then I will just smile and say...oh yeah am not driving that piece of crap anymore...More updates in the future and thanks for reading my post. Hope that you won't make the same mistake I did by reading this post
  • xostnotxostnot Member Posts: 232
    i3oyet,

    I think it's entirely fair that you posted your unfortunate (an understatement) experience with the Grand Vitara here. I don't think you're alone, yet there is no way of knowing what the rate of lemons is. I would also expect some Xterra owners are regretting their decision also. The old Xterra was too crude for us, being a revision of the original Pathfinder. And the new Xterra is just too big for us.

    Our GV is absolutely amazing in bad conditions. Just last night we went through a blizzard on the Coquihalla. No problem. A month ago we came from north of Vernon over the Coquihalla to Vancouver in that horrendous storm on a Sunday. We saw only two vehicles travelling faster than us: an Audi quattro wagon and a Murano. Saw about 50 cars in the ditches, mostly sedans. The GV seemed designed to travel fast and safe in conditions that had most drivers at 50-60kph.

    Glad to hear you're happy with your vehicle. No sense living with a pos for no good reason.
  • packaging propackaging pro Member Posts: 32
    Hey Suzuki Woman!
    I do not know if you are still out there or not. My 06 Grand Vitara, 2WD now has 60,000 miles and the Vibration issue just started. Its right at 55-60 MPH. Anything above or below is perfect. I have new tires and everything else checks out. My problem is that the dealers in South Florida are clueless to the flash. My vehicle is out of warranty. They want $100.00 just to try to diagnose the problem. Is this considered a Drivetrain issue? Should they cover it under warranty? Please help if you are still around, its been awhile!
  • i3oyeti3oyet Member Posts: 16
    I am glad to hear your Grand Vitara is working. I am not so much disappointed with the problem itself in my previous lemon vehicle. I was so pissed about how this company get away with it all. I was having so much problem and none of their dealers I dealt with had helped me. Imagine yourself going to the dealer's shop every couple of weeks for two years. What would you say if you were in my shoes at the time. It still piss me off until now to hear their (what I call idiot representaive) tell me that their only obligation is to keep trying to fix the problem even if it takes 10 years. it also really piss me off to take the vehicle for repair and would take 3 or more hours everytime because the vehicle would sit in the parking lot for a while before they even look at it or maybe even just pretending to look at it(everytime I would be told that it is fix only to find out that it was not when I drive the vehicle). I don't know how this people sleep at night knowing that they have made others peoples life misserable. Hopefully your vehicle will continue to perform like every other normal vehicles. I would like nothing else but for everyone purchasing new vehicles be treated by manufacturers fairly. In addition to my experience with this manufacturer. My brother in law is also driving Grand Vitara except his is automatic transmission. He is also going through the same issue with all this dealer [non-permissible content removed]. He's been trying to get them to fix the metal to metal rubbing sound on the front suspension and all he gets everytime is "it's fix and work like a charm" only to find out after he drives the car that it's not fixed. hopefully, your case will be different. Good luck and wish you the best with you vehicle
  • i3oyeti3oyet Member Posts: 16
    Another update. I am still extremely satisfied with the quality of my 07 Xterra. No weird noises anywhere. It's already on it's 6 moths and still haven't had anything other than regular maintenance. "That's what it's supposed to be" Why am I telling you all this? If you read all my previous post, You will see there that a few weeks after I bought the 2006 Suzuki Grand Vitara, I already started having a problem witrh the transmission. "major problem" and it went on and on with more problems over two years until I couldn't take it anymore and got rid of it. I have never seen such a poorly designed vehicle in my life until I purchase the what I call Grand Lemon. You will also see in some of my previous post that my borther in law have also purchase a Suzuki Grand Lemon or Vitara. The difference between his and mine was the manual transmission on mine and his is automatic. he didn't have transmission problem but he had all sorts of other problems. (Front suspension metel to metal rubbing, Heated seat and also slider for same seat, vibration at 100 kilometers and most of the time there's a recall, he wouldn't get any notice from Suzuki. Anyways, He finally got really sick of the vehicle and got rid of it and purchase a Honda Oddessey. He's been driving the Oddessey now for a few weeks and he wish that he had gotten rid of the Vitara long time ago. He is very satisfied with the quality of his new vehicle.I am only doing this to warn new car buyers and also to let the manufacturer know how much pain and suffering they and their dealers cost me from all the frustrations resulting from their very poor vehicle quality and also the worst I've seen service quality
  • bm000092bm000092 Member Posts: 70
    It must have been a very frustating experience. It is sad to read all this when I'm so please with mine. After owning it for 27 months, I had not a single problem. Just did regular maintenance, and I'm so pleased with it. Sad to read as well that you both had such poor service from your dealer when I receive a stellar one from mine.

    The GV is very popular around here and I just see happy faces. For me it was the best damn car to ride here with the over 500cm of snow we received this winter.
  • i3oyeti3oyet Member Posts: 16
    It's good to hear that you are having such a wonderful performance out your Vitara. I just hope that you are not working for Suzuki. It would be a shame if we get comment here that is actually from a member or employee of Suzuki. That wouldn't be a good source of information for new vehicle buyers.
  • bm000092bm000092 Member Posts: 70
    No, I'm in telecommunications. The cars I did own:

    1973 Dodge Dart from 1980 to 1981 (very good for a first car)
    1981 Pontiac Phoenix :worst car ever, sold it after 4 months, everything broke
    1982 Ford Escort from 1982 to 1989: Not bad, good for a student, was reliable
    1989 Suzuki Sidekick from 1989 to 1997: Fun 4x4, reliable
    1989 Dodge Lancer (wife) from 1993 to 1996: Was ok for a second car with kids.
    1996 Dodge Neon (wife) from 1996 to 1997: Nice to drive but sold it before end of warranty
    1996 Jeep Cherokee Country from 1997 to 2006: the best vehicule I ever owned
    1997 Ford Aspire (wife) from 1997 to 2005: not good, not bad, cheap to maintain.
    2005 Dodge Caravan (wife) 2005 until now: confortable and practical
    2006 Suzuki Grand Vitara from 2006 until now: I like it even more than the Cherokee, hope it will be as reliable, trouble free and last as long as the Cherokee.

    As you can see, most of the cars I (or we) owned were cheap american ones, easy and cheap to maintain, since I was either a student or begining in life with a first house and new borns, with the exception of the Cherokee, Caravan and Grand Vitara for which we spent more when buying.

    I can say that I was lucky with all of them, no troubles or very few, except for the Phoenix, I think that everything that can break, did. I never drove it much, it was always at the dealer, only glad that it was under warranty, I never had any other GM.
  • gt601gt601 Member Posts: 1
    I bought a 2006 Suzuki GV X-sport in Oct 2006. I absolutely love it. It is my first new car purchase. I have always driven cheap used cars and have a passion for old Alfa Romeos. The issues with the vibration started pretty soon after I bought the vehicle. I figured that it was the junky tires that came on it. I rebalanced them several times and that didn't help. I then took it to the dealer i bought it from after I replaced the tires at 11,000 miles or so because they were choppy and worn. I left it there for the day and asked them to check out the vibration. They said that they couldn't feel anything. I then took it back to them again to have it checked for the a radio issue and to feel the vibration. Once again they couldn't feel it?? I then drove the car and took it back to them to replace the radio because of the focus error and to see if they would drive it some more. They then said that they DID feel a vibration and would order some parts. At that time they also fixed the defrost vent warpage issue and did the seat anchor recall.The dealer then closed down before doing any more.work so I had to start all over with a new dealer. That made three trips up to that point. :mad:
    I took it to the new dealer and left it for the day with some other issues such as the warped drivers mirror and the seat material wearing. They drove it and didn't feel anything they said. They also said that the seat wear was normal and the mirror is normal. The service manager said that his GV also vibrated and this is normal??
    I drove it for a couple of weeks and after a long trip of the steering wheel vibrating so bad that the wiper and turn signal stalks were a blur I took it back. I met with the tech and drove approx 50 miles and he said that that was NOT normal. His words were "Wow that is a bad vibration" We scheduled for the next week and I left it there for the week.They told me that they thought that the vibration was in one of the driveshafts but Suzuki said that the new ones were worse so take the shafts out and balance them at an independent shop. The place they took it to said they couldn't balance the shafts because of the way they were made. They then said that the front driveshaft was warped and they would order a new one? I had also mentioned that the seat that had been repaired was squeaking again and that there was a noise in front end that was a sort of creak when turning. They installed the new drive shaft and when I picked up the car the vibration was gone in the steering wheel BUT there was a low frequency vibration in the drivetrain that wasn't there before :mad:
    I then took it back to them and they had it for another full week. They told me that the rear shaft was warped even worse than the front one had been. So they replaced that driveshaft. (Ahhh but there wasn't a vibration??That is why they were replacing parts.) They fixed the seat noise and also replace the seat cushion that had"normal wear" on it with a new one.I then took it and drove it with no change in the vibation. Did I mention that your ears will ring and your feet tingle after about 1/2 an hour at highway speed?
    The whole time I have also been talking to American Suzuki. They have some issues with keeping in contact with the customer. I then took it BACK to the dealer and they tell me once again that the vibration is normal. I can't understand why they would replace parts if there is no problem found. I then got a call this morning that the car was ready and that the vibration is normal. I'm really gettign fed up with these people.

    I'll post any progress.I am also in Ky. I'm getting ready to contact the state Attorney General next to see if they can help in this mess.
  • timeout740timeout740 Member Posts: 1
    suzuki woman . I have 2006 grand vitara have had contact with suzuki and they seem to know nothing about this. but it is driveing me crazy. I have called many dealers here on Long Island with no luck. I was taking the vitara to Malstrum Suzuki but they went out of business for tax reasons so I think he was giving me the runaround. think you said you were in newyork can you refer me to a dealer that I can go to to have it checked. I have an apt with Bite bay Suzuki wed 2/18 here in bay shore ny. any help would be great can you contact me

    [email protected]

    thanks
    Jay
  • xostnotxostnot Member Posts: 232
    timeout740, I think suzukiwoman has not been active here for a long time. If I were you, I'd print out some of these discussions of the vibration issue, write a letter on real paper, and send it by registered mail to Suzuki USA. Mention that you are doing this in case you need to follow up later. Don't go any closer than that to threatening legal action, but convey that you're not going to give up. Suzuki DOES know about this problem, and it's in their interests to fix the defective vehicles. And YOU didn't get what you paid for. Good Luck.
  • broncododgebroncododge Member Posts: 28
    Jay, Whats the issue? Malmstrom did not go out of business for tax reasons... but for a complicated form of fraud, that stopped it's "cash" flow... hard to explain to someone not in the business. You could also try Suzuki 112 in Medford NY if you are in that area.
  • shuckapeafarmsshuckapeafarms Member Posts: 3
    I purchased a 2006 Grand Vitara Luxury model in October 2006. I have heard about this issue for quite some time but have not yet experienced it with mine. I have 84,000 miles presently and the ONLY problem I experienced with mine were the rear wheel sensors and the inability to find the original tire size (I just upgraded to 245-17)! First one wheel sensor and then the other only a week apart (fixed under warranty)! Outside of that issue, my Suzuki has been an outstanding vehicle!
    My brother has the 2003 XL-7 and absolutely no problems outside of general maintainence such as brakes, tune-ups, etc!
    The key to any reliable vehicle is MAINTAINENCE!!!!!!!! So many people just drive and do nothing else! They don't even check the oil let alone change it!
    It seems all the American made vehicles have turned into pure JUNK because CORPORATE GREED prevails over producing a reliable product! NOTHING ANTI-AMERICAN about it! The proofs in the pudding right now with the Chrysler and GM bankruptcies!
    Until this country comes to face and deal with the root problem of AMERICAN CORPORATE GREED----I'll buy Suzuki, Toyota, and Honda's until hell freezes over!
  • i3oyeti3oyet Member Posts: 16
    I'm back After two years since I've gotten rid of my Grand Lemon. I just want to update you folks with my replacement (Nissan Xterra) vehicle. Well, it's been two years an haven't been to the dealer for any repair. The only time I've been back is for regular maintenance. Unlike my previous Grand Lemon which I had to take back for repair every other weekend. If you read my post from earlier, my brother in law also bought a Grand Lemon (same year) Right after i got rid of mine he soon traded his to a Honda Odyssey and boy! was he ever greatful for getting rid of the Suzuki Lemon he had. We are both now enjoying our vehicles like we should have been with the Grand Lemon. I have learn a very valuable lesson. Never to trust any Suzuki product again. I will never forget all the experience I had with this manufacturer and its representatives. They have caused me nothing but pain for two years that I owned their Grand Lemon.
  • xostnotxostnot Member Posts: 232
    I suppose only Suzuki knows for sure how many GV's were lemons. For sure it's as well built as the Pathfinder we used to have, and which was the base vehicle for the first generation Xterra.

    The reliability stats from various sources indicate the GV is not as well-built as things such as Rav4's and CRV's, but we're talking about 2.5 trips to the dealer on average per year for build quality issues as opposed to about 1.5 trips. That would indicate GV's that truly are lemons must be fairly rare.

    On a Suzuki-specific discussion site, complaints about the vibration issue have pretty well died out. So the problem must have been fixed eventually. Not that this is of any use to people who had the problem and couldn't get Suzuki to fix it.

    I'm not happy with the number of issues our '06 has had, but it was an all-new vehicle, it certainly does what we bought it for, and I would be willing to buy another one or any other in-house Suzuki brand, Japanese-made vehicle.

    That said, I'm also not happy with the effort needed to get Suzuki to resolve the problems we've had.
  • whitwes1whitwes1 Member Posts: 2
    Well ive read over lots of the complaints you all have had with your 06 GV, I have had the same problems worn tire ( on my third set at 75k) squeaky seat, vibrations ,u-joint replacement, axels, drive shafts , if its under the car it probably been replaced, but what’s funny is when you see the repair repot is doesn’t show everything they did and there a little reluctant to even give you a report, when we first got the GV we took it back at 700 miles for noise and they told us it was a loose bolt come to find out a year later after talking to the repair tech they had to re index the drive shaft??? I think its call CYA , Cover your [non-permissible content removed] I don’t think Suzuki want to large of a paper trail showing what is quit obvious a design flaw with the GV , imagine all the GV owners driving around with the same problems and not know what’s really going on, I think we need to set up and e-mail address and have every one send in their complaints with your real names and info and file a class action law suit against Suzuki and make them buy back our cars and pay for all the time we lost dealing with car repairs ,,, my car was in the shop in Denver for 5 weeks and again for 3 and now it needs to go in again for some other god awful noise coming back from the rear end, and do I get a free rental oh no it after the 36k mile warranty even thou it’s the same problems??? I’ve mad payments on a care that I wasn’t even able to drive, maybe we all need to start marking on the windows my Suzuki is a lemon maybe they will take the hint,,
    Steve Malone San Antonio tx
  • whitwes1whitwes1 Member Posts: 2
    You got to be kidding me, I to think the towing capacity of the GV is a joke I have never towed anything with mine, but try heading west on I 70 out of Denver, me and my wife well under the 3000 lb towing cap of the GV and you had to put it in third to get up the hill and with any luck you might break 55 mph, with the mighty v6 of the GV,,, when I took it to the dealer MEDVED in Denver they told me there is adjustment it all done by the computer and that’s all it can do??? So it sounds like Suzuki may not of done it home work when designing a SUV for elevations , lets say above 2ooo ft ????
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