If the school van drivers were getting its wheelbase stretched, it is an indication that the product being sold was not in line with the requirements of the buyer. On the one hand Khurram had typed lots of comments in many articles about how the needs and wants of commercial drivers are so precious which are being and can be being fulfilled by Bolan and Bolan alone, on the other hand he has now mentioned that people were altering the whole body and mechanism to make it fit for their purpose.

In contrast, in Indonesia, they sold the customized ST100 Super Carry Extra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_Carry#Indonesia, which was 20 cm longer than what we had in Pakistan + having the torquey 970cc F10A which came in SJ410 Potohar and RA410 fifth gen 2000-2012 Alto. This has been previously discussed https://carspiritpk.com/suzuki-carry-minibus-in-indonesia/#comment-7586

“It was so popular that Suzuki kept this car in production for 40 years without any change.” meanwhile also mentioning the facelift above. In truth, the car hadn’t been “without any change”, it changed a lot over its years, becoming feature-stripped and quality-starved in every iteration as seen in detail in the following article: https://carspiritpk.com/suzuki-carry-bolan-ravi-44-years-and-counting/

You should also have referenced these 2 articles from 2021 which discuss the gradual feature-removal from Bolan in more specific detail with photos and videos:

August https://carspiritpk.com/suzuki-carry-bolan-ravi-becomes-42-years-old/

November https://carspiritpk.com/if-other-cars-were-as-old-as-bolan/#comments

For FX, the interior color effect was inverse. The initial version FX 808 came with black interior, the facelift FX 800 had the beige interior. Also mentioned in this article and its comments:
https://carspiritpk.com/suzuki-fx-car-that-made-so-many-people-proud/#comments

As far as headlights, it is parallel to Bolan, the pre-facelift had round, facelifted ones had rectangular.

regarding the dashboard colors, it became grey in 1991 when Pak Suzuki’s Bin Qasim plant became operational and all their locally assembled cars were named after famous places- Ravi, Bolan, Mehran, Khyber and Margalla. Before that, it was still called a Carry HiRoof with a brown dashboard, just like Suzuki FX (locally assembled) came with a brown interior in 1980s.

Will that also be replaced or are we still stuck with it?

https://www.pakwheels.com/blog/history-of-suzuki-bolan/

Khurram is having the usual nostalgia in the comments section under the linked articles, based upon exactly 2 experiences with the vehicle: one is hauling the freezer, the other is a day of picnic. Let me copy the golden words completely here for future reference: “Khurram says 1 day ago
Without a doubt as a child growing up with Bolan it is sad a moment for me. I remember my father having a labour loading a Waves triplet inside it. The thing fitted in with ease and the vehicle despite that didn’t feel strained or bent down as well.
On another occasion we went on picnic as well. On that day we have folded its second and separate kind third and fourth bench seats and spread a mattress across its floor. It was then easy and very comfortable for us to stretch our legs and even sleep. I doubt that any box on wheels coming out of China could offer a user this easy and cheap kind of make-over. I suppose that that is the reason that it still remains a first choice as an ambulance and a charity vehicle.”
He has been commenting about the Waves triplet before too https://carspiritpk.com/supercar-blondie-and-pak-suzuki-bolan/#comment-7137

and “Khurram says 1 day ago
Dear author please note that even now, despite availability of Chinese vans, Suzuki Bolan remains choiciest vehicle for commercial users including trusts, hospitals, school van drivers, business owners operating via a mobile business model. Do you know why, its body is better than cheap steely Chinese van body, parts are dirt cheap, it is easy to repair and very fuel efficient as well. Aside that its gear ratios make it a far superior vehicle than any Chinese box on wheels when it comes to driving over steep roads.
These characteristics make it a very appealing fixed asset for any business owner looking to maintain net profits.
PS I have even seen school van drivers having its wheelbase stretched for accommodating another row of three-seater seat.”

Such an emotional mess, such fickle thought-process – and the same China-bashing not even relevant to the article! The series of articles is about the replacement of Suzuki Bolan with Suzuki Every mister! A 100% original Japanese-branded PKDM locally-assembled item.

Pak Suzuki should also provide psychological comfort and therapy services together with new products to help ease the transition process!

https://www.pakwheels.com/blog/farewell-pak-suzuki-officially-ends-production-of-suzuki-bolan/

https://www.pakwheels.com/blog/expected-price-of-locally-assembled-suzuki-every-sources/

https://www.pakwheels.com/blog/history-of-suzuki-bolan/

As usual with PakWheels Blog, some of the information is true and some isn’t well-researched. It is always a hit & miss.

For example, in https://www.pakwheels.com/blog/history-of-suzuki-bolan/ they write that in 2012, Bloan was upgraded to EFI because of government regulations requiring EFI (it is incorrect, at that time government required Euro-II emissions compliance – as a result some cars were upgraded to EFI, some were discontinued because they couldn’t have met the emissions requirement even with upgrades, and some e.g. motorcycles CG125 etc. continued in carburetted form with minor changes to bore×stroke to reduce the emissions), that in 2012 the dash was changed from yellow to grey (this is also wrong, the dash used to be brown, it was changed to grey in the same shape a long time ago, I don’t remember the date but I had a 1987 Bolan with the brown dash, 1994 Bolan with the grey dash in the same shape and 2003 Bolan with the same dash in grey colour, the dash was definitely in changed shape in 2012 but it has been grey since the early 90s at least – of course the new generations don’t even know because Bolan has been continue since decades before their birth), that Suzuki “tried” to fit Bolan with A/C in 2022 (it is only the half-truth, my 2003 Bolan was a GL trim with factory-fitted A/C, at that time there used to be 2 trims, the base model was GA and the top trim was GL, this has also been discussed at length in the following 3 articles and their comments in the chronological order https://carspiritpk.com/ac-wali-suzuki-bolan-vxl-is-here/, https://carspiritpk.com/suzuki-bolans-future-and-the-vxl-with-ac/, https://carspiritpk.com/pak-suzuki-discontinues-bolan-ac-variant/), they also say that Bolan is finally being discontinued after 36 years while mentioning 40 in the same article elsewhere, and also noting that it was launched as an obsolete model locally in 1985.
2024-1985=39 though.
Also noted in the article is that “It was so popular that Suzuki kept this car in production for 40 years without any change.” meanwhile also mentioning the facelift above. In truth, the car hadn’t been “without any change”, it changed a lot over its years, becoming feature-stripped and quality-starved in every iteration as seen in detail in the following article: https://carspiritpk.com/suzuki-carry-bolan-ravi-44-years-and-counting/

In the https://www.pakwheels.com/blog/expected-price-of-locally-assembled-suzuki-every-sources/ the reason being mentioned is the lack of airbags and the LHC directive, however with confusing dates about the deadline.

In the 3rd article https://www.pakwheels.com/blog/farewell-pak-suzuki-officially-ends-production-of-suzuki-bolan/ again the same mistake about A/C VXL is being made without any indication towards the erstwhile GL trim. The writers seem to have differing opinions, while “It was so popular that Suzuki kept this car in production for 40 years without any change” is found in https://www.pakwheels.com/blog/history-of-suzuki-bolan/, “It was a long wait for Pakistani consumers because the vehicle was surely outdated, without any major specs and safety features. The people were buying it because there was no other option until the launch of Changan Karvaan. Suzuki Bolan had been criticized for very basic and decade-old shape, absence of comfort and kind of a hazard on the roads. The consumers have been demanding its replacement and it seems Suzuki has finally listened.” is noted in https://www.pakwheels.com/blog/farewell-pak-suzuki-officially-ends-production-of-suzuki-bolan/.