Suzuki giving away spending money on relaunched site

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American Suzuki, hoping to promote itself so people think of it as a car company that possesses "the power of engineering" instead of just a cool maker of motorcycles and bikes, relaunched its Web site Friday morning to make it faster, easier to use and more informative, so people are ready to buy when they hit the showroom floor.

SuzukiAuto.com tells you the virtues of this Japanese carmaker, everything from "Everything Suzuki" on the home page to individual buttons for the Kizashi, SX4 Sport, SX4 SportBack, SX4 AWD Crossover, Grand Vitara, Equator and Equator Crew Cab models.

There also are individual buttons on the home page now for Build and Price, Special Offers and a locator and news sign-up.

To build traffic and generate interest in its car, Suzuki is offering a $100 giveaway via the site.

In Suzuki's words: "For a limited time, signing up for Suzuki E-News or following Suzuki Auto on Twitter enters you into a weekly random drawing for a chance to win a $100 gift card to either Starbucks, Target or Best Buy. The give-away ends June 19 and all winners will be notified via e-mail, text message or Twitter Direct Message."

The freshened SuzukiAuto.com site has more than 1,000 updates that aim to make it more engaging and useful, and even with these additions viewers will be able to see things 30 percent faster than before, said Steve Younan, director of marketing and product planning for Suzuki.

“Suzuki’s revamped Web site, more than ever, will be an instrumental component to our brand’s consumer outreach and sales efforts,” Younan said.

“The new design is not only more pleasing to the eye, but (also) it will give prospective buyers a more comprehensive look at Suzuki’s model line.”

Viewing SuzukiAuto.com via Google Chrome, Firefox/Mozilla or Internet Explorer 8 will give site viewers "the full benefit of the site’s upgrades," Younan said.

Hawke Fracassa covers the auto beat from Detroit for torquenews.com. You can reach him at hawkefracassa@aol.com.

Related story about Suzuki: http://www.torquenews.com/1063/suzuki-kizashi-no-1-satisfied-owners-autopacific-survey