RIP Suzuki LTR-450: What Happened to the Quadracer for 2012?
Dear ATVC:
I just heard Suzuki is no longer making/ selling the LT450R! Please say it aint so! I noticed the 450 is no longer on Suzuki’s official site either. Why in the world would they do this?
Sadly, such rumors are indeed correct. The reason for this is a little bit more difficult to pin down. Officially Suzuki states that rather than update the machine to comply with increasingly stringent EPA requirements, they would instead discontinue the model until further notice.
While there is certainly some truth to this explanation, we’re positive the economy played a massive role in this unfortunate situation. Back in 2006 when the Quadracer 450 was introduced, the economy was yet strong enough to warrant annual updates to this (as well as to most of the 450 quads). Then just as the OEM 450 race machine movement began to gain momentum, the economy started tanking in 2008 and has been extremely slow to recover.
The first change witnessed as a direct result was the elimination of the annual updates; now it appears as though true discontinuation of models is a legit concern. In fact consider this: The last brand new Suzuki LTRs to be imported to the United States happened back in 2011 but even still they were technically left-over 2009s.
Factor stagnant inventory to tighter lending criteria and now EPA troubles and it really comes as no surprise that 2012 witnessed a hole in the line where the LT450R should be. Of course should demand warrant Suzuki’s return to the 450 class, there are some viable alternatives the Zook gang can consider to bypass having to completely redesign the model or even further limit the machine’s performance such as selling the ATV as a closed-circuit race machine only.
Considering the fact that the Quadracer 450’s racing heritage has been absolutely tremendous from the onset (multiple National MX and GNCC titles); we’re certainly hopeful that Suzuki will decide to return to the US 450-class in the future. For the rest of us, locating a used 2011 (or rarer still, a new leftover) is our only option. The MSRP for the final 2009 models offered in 2011 was $8099.
