A quote from the press release back when it happened:
"Suzuki Motor Corp. and Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. announced on Aug. 29, 2001, an agreement to form a strategic business relationship in the areas of product development, design, engineering, manufacturing of motorcycle and ATV products and components purchasing.
The first step will be to combine resources in the cruiser, scooter, motocross and ATV lines. Suzuki and Kawasaki will maintain autonomy in the area of marketing and sales, with each company continuing to use its own brand and sales network.
Both companies expect that this arrangement will help them respond to customer needs and to contribute to the healthy growth of the motorcycle industry."
Other than this "strategic business relationship" the two companies will remain completely independent. Chrysler and Mitsubishi did the same thing back in the 1980s, designing cars together and sharing components to get a huge volume discount from suppliers. They cranked out the Eagle Talon/ Plymouth Lazer / Mitsubishi Eclipse semi-sisters for years out of a jointly owned plant, and the Dodge Stealth/ Mitsubishi 3000GT semi-twins came off the same Mitsubishi assembly line. The Dodge D50 was a rebadged Mitsubishi truck, and certain Dodge cars used Mitsubishi motors. Eventually several Mitsubishi cars started using Dodge motors, and both companies got huge disounts from suppliers, giving then a larger per-car profit than any other car companies. It worked out well for both companies, which were debt ridden and needed to cut costs to stay competitive. Now that Daimler Benz owns Chrysler, and has decided not to purchase Mitsibishi, the partnership is winding down.
Suzuki and Kawasaki figured the same sort of partnership would help them compete in the areas they were loosing to Honda, Harley, and Yamaha; cruisers, scooters, and ATVs.
