Suzuki Caribians On Phuket

[Gary A]

They will beat you to death on a trip and they are underpowered. The turning radius is too big and for a 1.3 liter engine, they are NOT that efficient.

That said, I had more fun with that little vehicle than any other vehicle I ever owned. It was quite dependable and I would recommend the little vehicle for anyone who needs just a run around. I used to drive mine from Bangkok to Yasothon fairly often but it was NOT a pleasant experience. It will go places a 4X4 pickup won't go.

[Yamantaka]

Think you can still get the Suzuki SJ 130 jeeps new in Phuket Town Suzuki dealer. But only as sporty & canvas versions. Think you need to order a hard top for the canvas and have a specialist company do the conversion for a true Caribian. Dealer location, road past Royal City Hotel/True UBC, to the end, turn left (big gas station on the corner, and dealer about 100m up on right side of road. Looks more like a repair shop and has no fancy show room.

Be careful of your dealings with the dealer. We were told we needed to put down a 25% down payment and did so, ordering some extras at the same time. When we went to pick up the car, we were told that we needed to put down a 50% down payment because I am a farang even though we were buying the vehicle in the name of a Thai-majority owned registered company. We did not want to put down such a big down payment, so we cancelled the purchase. When the refund cheque came they refused to refund the full price of the extras we'd purchased, so we were stuck with cd player, sport wheels and some other stuff for a car we never bought, losing something like THB 60,000.

[phuketsub]

I have what is a potentially dangerous problem with my 1996 SJ413...(aka White Caribean)

The other day as I was racing to get though the yellow light Central Intersection Intersection (heading south on the bypass) the old jalopy started to vibrate violently from side-to-side, and continued to do so until I came to almost a complete stop..

This is not a mild vibration, but closer to 'space shuttle on a bad re-entry' type stuff...very bad. I was lucky there were no other cars around me.

This has happened to me 2-3 times before over the 6-8 months I have owned it, and it doesn't always have to be at a very high speed to set it off.

A buddy of mine says he had a similar problem with an old Ford Comet and that it was a design flaw with that car -- not something that could be fixed by a trip to the mechanic...

So I am wondering if anyone else has had this problem with a Caribean and, if so, how they solved it....

You can get this problem on many 4 wheel drives, it will be wear or alignment problems on steering, chassis or transmisson, front axle best place to start cv / ball joints etc is it bent ?

thanks for the advice...

[phuketsub]

Does anyone know of a junkyard that "specializes" in Suzuki Caribeans? The air-con on mine died and I have no intention of fixing it. I don't mind the heat, but the only problem is that the windows fog up when it rains, so my only option is to keep the windows down a bit -- and get wet. What I need are those plastic things that go over the top of the window frame and keep air/rain out. Does anyone know what they are called or where I can get a pair on the cheap? I have already spent more on repairing this vehicle than it cost to buy...

Any help would be much appreciated.

[LivinginKata]

New ones not that expensive (can't remember what I paid). Long time ago I bought at Chai Audio on the bypass road, north bound side about 1,000m before Lotus lights.

[LivinginKata]

New ones not that expensive (can't remember what I paid). Long time ago I bought at Chai Audio on the bypass road, north bound side about 1,000m before Lotus lights.

Correction .... south bound side..

[jeepholt]

If you'd like to see how I built my Suzuki Caribian, please look here:

My Suzuki for sale

[rishihermit]

Is it still available? Am interested if it is.

R

Think you can still get the Suzuki SJ 130 jeeps new in Phuket Town Suzuki dealer. But only as sporty & canvas versions. Think you need to order a hard top for the canvas and have a specialist company do the conversion for a true Caribian. Dealer location, road past Royal City Hotel/True UBC, to the end, turn left (big gas station on the corner, and dealer about 100m up on right side of road. Looks more like a repair shop and has no fancy show room.

I've had my Caribian for 10 years, and it was 7 years old when I bought. Been up to Bangkok and beyond 3 times. Never had a problem other than rountine stuff. The steering box biggest problem and I've replaced twice. Water pump twice, clutch once, timing belt once. Good solid agricultural vehicle.

Seen a few RAV 4s about the island. Smallish Toyota SUV, lot of space in the back for size of vehicle.

P.S. we don't use our Suzuki much these days and it's just sitting doing nothing. Good mechanically, cosmetically terrible. Open to offers ?? PM me if any interest.

[LivinginKata]

Is it still available? Am interested if it is.

R

Think you can still get the Suzuki SJ 130 jeeps new in Phuket Town Suzuki dealer. But only as sporty & canvas versions. Think you need to order a hard top for the canvas and have a specialist company do the conversion for a true Caribian. Dealer location, road past Royal City Hotel/True UBC, to the end, turn left (big gas station on the corner, and dealer about 100m up on right side of road. Looks more like a repair shop and has no fancy show room.

I've had my Caribian for 10 years, and it was 7 years old when I bought. Been up to Bangkok and beyond 3 times. Never had a problem other than rountine stuff. The steering box biggest problem and I've replaced twice. Water pump twice, clutch once, timing belt once. Good solid agricultural vehicle.

Seen a few RAV 4s about the island. Smallish Toyota SUV, lot of space in the back for size of vehicle.

P.S. we don't use our Suzuki much these days and it's just sitting doing nothing. Good mechanically, cosmetically terrible. Open to offers ?? PM me if any interest.

Sold it a couple of years ago to a guy who lives in Samui. He came over to Phuket to drive it back.

Note// 3+ years old topic

[Ping]

Ah, a nice little trip down memory lane...

[MrE]

I went to buy a new Caribian at the dealer in Phuket. Spoke to the finance office, put down the down payment and orderd a bunch of accessories. A couple of days later, they called me to say that I had to put down more down payment (I think the increase was from 25% to 35%). I said I wasn't interested and wanted to cancel the deal. They said ok come in and pick up the down payment. When I got there they had the cancelled contract done and a check for the down payment but with the cost of all of the accessories deducted. Their claim was that the problem was with the finance company and they couldn't cancel the accessories since they had allegedly ordered them from somenewhere else. None had been installed but they refused to give me the money so I was stuck with a lot of Caribian gear that I didn't need since I ended up buying a Chevy truck.