AUTOMOTIVE

Low-Cost Samurais: Consumer Reports almost killed Suzuki’s Samurai sports utility vehicle a few years back with its report--later rejected by the federal government--that the Jeep-like vehicle was prone to roll over when making hard and fast turns. But the Brea-based importer, American Suzuki, keeps bringing Samurais to the United States--and buyers looking for a bargain keep buying them.

And now another national magazine is giving the Samurai a boost.

In its November issue, Money magazine rates new car and truck models and finds that the bottom-of-the-line Suzuki Samurai JA gets the best gas mileage and carries the lowest total five-year cost of all sports utility vehicles. The magazine calculated insurance, maintenance, repairs, financing and depreciation in its rankings, which excluded sports utility vehicles that have not been on the market for five years.

Bottom line, Money found, is that the Samurai JA, at a suggested retail of $6,299, will cost the average owner $18,622 by the time it is 5 years old.