Fire Hazard from Garmin Nuvi Prompts Recalls from Suzuki and Nissan

After Garmin announced a voluntary recall of 1.25 million units of its popular Nuvi GPS system at the end of August amidst concerns that the batteries could overheat and catch fire, Suzuki and Nissan followed with a recall on several vehicles equipped with the affected Garmin Nuvi navigation systems including the 750, 760, or 765 models for the same reason.

The recalled Garmin units can be found on certain Suzuki vehicles including the 2008-2010MY SX4 crossovers, 2010MY Grand Vitara SUVs, and 2009-2010MY Equator vehicles, and the 2008-2010MY Nissan Altima, Frontier, Pahtfinder, Rogue, Sentra, Versa and Xterra vehicles.

In both cases, the automakers will notify owners of the affected models, and the repairs will be performed by Garmin technicians who will replace the battery and insert a spacer on top of the battery free of charge.

Suzuki Prices the Equator Pickup Truck from $17,985

Suzuki has released pricing information for its Nissan Frontier-based, Equator mid-size pickup truck which will be available in the States in both Extended Cab and Crew Cab body styles with rear-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive options. Prices start from $17,995 for the Equator Extended Cab and for those of you wondering, the base-price for the Nissan Frontier is $17,460. The most expensive version of the Equator is the Crew Cab RMZ-4 which carries a starting MSRP of $29,325 and offers an optional moto-style bed extender.

The new mid-size pickup truck from Suzuki is offered with two engines, a standard 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine with 152 horsepower and 171 lb.-ft. of torque and an available 4.0-liter, V6 engine producing 261HP with 281 lb.-ft. of torque. The Equator comes equipped with either a five-speed electronically controlled automatic transmission or five-speed manual gearbox which is available only on four-cylinder models.