Suzuki Cappuccino Small but Perfectly Brewed

You might think cappuccinos only became popular here in the last few years, but there’s an entirely different kind on the road that’s been around since the early ‘90s. And it has an equally strong following 20 years later.

Cappuccino is an apt name for the compact 2-seater sports car (the word ‘cappuccino’ actually means ‘small hood’ in Italian) that was designed to take advantage of lower tax regulations on small vehicles. Cars in this category are known as Kei cars (or ‘light cars’), and were required to be no more than 1.48m wide by 3.4 long, with 660cc engines.

Only 28,010 of the Cappuccinos were ever produced, and only 33 of those were sent to Suzuki New Zealand.

Peter Goldfinch remembers the last of them on the floor when he first started at Suzuki in 1995. They must have made quite an impression because he’s now the proud owner of a 1991 model.

“I’ve always wanted one but they rarely come up”, he says, noting that more have been imported privately over the  years but owners appear reluctant to let go of them.

When one popped up on Trade Me three years ago, he grabbed the opportunity.

“I left Wanganui at 4am in the morning and drove straight down to Christchurch, crossing on the ferry. I was there for about 15 minutes then turned around and drove straight back. I got home at 4am the next morning.”

“I can’t see myself ever getting rid of it. There’s no reason to.”

“If you’re in a bad mood, just hop in, go for a drive, and come back happy”.

Peter’s Cappuccino only has about 85,000 km on the clock, and is driven about 500 km a year, so there’s years of happy motoring ahead of him yet.

“It can do about 5 litres of fuel per 100 km if driven carefully” says Peter, adding that ‘carefully’ is rarely done given the fun to be had.

The Cappuccino has a remarkable power/weight ratio of 193 W/kg. To compare, a Mini Cooper 1.6T S JCW from 2008 is 129 W/kg.

“When they came out, they had the same 0-100 time as the Falcon XR6.” “The reason they’re so quick is they’re extremely light weight,” explains Peter, noting the car weighs a mere 765 kilos. “A modern car weighs about 50% more.”

The Cappuccino was only sold until 1995, when production ended, but there have been rumours of a return since 1997 when the ‘C2’ was revealed at the Frankfurt Motorshow.