A flopped car doesn't necessarily means that the car is a bad car. Suzuki didn't had funds to offer more engine options, or develop a new automatic gearbox to put on it instead of the CVT. The 2 liter was weak for US and too big for some European markets.. it got stranded in a middle of the way, and with a weakened brand, things couldn't be different for him :/
Bought one of these and it still runs amazingly! Good handling, reliability and that CVT really puts the ones from Toyota and Honda to shame - never experienced the rubber band effect in the Kizashi! Truly a gem
I don't think building Sedan was even Suzuki's strong suit. They should have pushed for the Suzuki jimny instead. There are plenty of people who wanted a Wrangler Competitor on a budget.
@@steak5599 Suzuki's strong suit is at making really small cars, they're basically second to none at that specific job in Japan, their booming kei car business back in their home country, and strong position in small car and small crossover/SUV markets everywhere else proves that. This is mostly a case of Suzuki wanting to try something new for themselves, but they're trying a bit too late in the age when midsizer sedans are dying out.
A neighbour of mine has one, and has had it for the last 6 years that I've lived here, and honestly, it's a good looking car, even now. It's the only one I've ever seen. I live in Scotland, btw.
I remember when this came out in the States and I was sold on it. Great styling and it was reliable. Fortunately, I had two dealers near me. The biggest mistake Suzuki made was marketing the Kizashi as a mid-size when it was really a compact sedan
I dont what size every class is bit its bigger then bmw 3 serie and mercedes C of the same years. And interior even more size difference. The bodywork of the kizashi makes it look shorter and less width
Australia here, It had a substantial, chunky well honed look to it in the same manner as a SAAB, still makes me look back when I see one... agree that the cvt was unfortunate and would have deterred me from a purchase.
Kizashi Driver here. Afaik Suzuki had a deal with VW back in 2010, preventing them from licensing any more Fiat Diesel engines, VW was already angry because Suzuki licensed the 1.3DDIS and 1.9DDIS from Fiat. VW wanted to sell their own Diesel engines to Suzuki, which was apparently too expensive. German reviewers at the time were surprised about the engine choice in the Kizashi, they would have hoped for a TSI engine from VW, because of the partnership. In the end a court ordered VW to sell back the 19.9% shrares in Suzuki and the whole thing ended. All in all, the Kizashi is a great car. The worst thing in my opinion is the limited choice they gave you. Why do I have to take the CVT just to get an AWD powertrain ? They literally used the same 2.4l engine in the Grand Vitara with AWD and a 5 speed transmission. About the transmission, it was a JATCO CVT from Nissan. They even had to limit the max RPM to 6000 in order to protect the CVT. Normally the engine revs to 6500 where it will do around 188hp so the CVT model wasnt even able to make peak power. So people were right in avoiding the CVT.
I rented one in Australia, it handled really well but with the CVT it was torque less. Went with a mint Mitsubishi Galant (380 ) for its larger V6. Good decsion .
01:28 The Kizashi 2 SUV was drop-dead gorgeous. The shooting brake/hatchback wasn't bad either 01:23. Why wasn't one of these two chosen for production is a mystery. Imagine the Kizashi 2 with the same Toyota-sourced hybrid drive as today's Suzuki Across - the gorgeous compact SUV Toyota never had.
Engine is an answer, in most eu countries insurance is calculated at engine capacity, everything above 2 liter is just higher insurance cost, adding no disel option and suzuki is concidered as car for poor with no used parts market. For me its actually sad, car looks preety in my opininon it would be nice to see it from time to time, i see it bit as more american looking
The Kizashi was launched in India when we were buying the Maruti Suzuki Alto in 2009. I saw the poster in the showroom and thought that it will sell like the Swift, but it didn't may be because it was too costly for a sedan when compared with Honda City.
I dont agree .ciaz is much cheaper car. (And ciaz is India and maybe other countrys but not usa or Europe). I have seen 1 imported in my country and really cant compare it to the kizashi😂
For example, in Colombia the Kizashi didn't had much investment on advertising. Also, as it happens in other Latam countries, people are really bound to traditional sedans (Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Mazda 3, VW Jetta, Nissan Sentra, and recently the Hyundai/Kia models). Finally, the after-sale service was quite hard, taking into account that the presence of Suzuki was (and still) quite short compared to the "traditional" ones mentioned, and in a segment were people really takes its time for looking for a car, is really hard to make them change.
I have 2012 Kizashi AWD. The name, I believe did hurt sales in the USA. The CVT transmission is also used in the Mitsubishi Lancer. The owners manual says to check the Cvt fluid, but doesn’t mention changing the fluid. Also there is no mention of the transmission cooler filter. I ended up getting the filter and o-ring seal from Mitsubishi parts. It’s been a good vehicle for me. I was sad to see Suzuki leave the USA.
I loved this car too. As you said the engine department failed when it comes to the EU market. Yes, at that time Diesel was wrongly promoted as being the only ecological way to go (we all know better now) but not everyone was into diesel. A large portion of potential buyers actually hated diesels and preferred gasoline engines by far. The problem with Suzuki's choice was the size. A 2.4 liter engine was very costly tax wise and also much more expensive in running costs (tax, insurance, fuel...). One thing said is right, European buyers were and still are snobs, at least some of them. This means that an average person would not opt for an engine that is deemed to be luxury while being in a more "lot of car for your money" type of brand and car. If they would have offered it as a 1.6 or a 18 gasoline engine version they would have a lot more potential buyers. On the contrary of many parts of the world in Europe any engine as from 2.0 liter is considered to be more premium, more luxury. And buyers in these segments are extremely snobby. If it's not german or to a certain level Swedish then it's not worthy of their social status. In short they are so narrow-minded that they willingly pay 20-30% more, just for the brand name, even if the actual quality and reliability is lower (much lower) than what they pay for. Everything below the 2.0 size is considered more "socially acceptable", more down to earth, good for the common people...me...us thus. I think that Suzuki mainly failed because it wanted to climb up the ladder towards premium shit and that would simply not happen. It's against their roots of basic, reliable and affordable transportation products. And that's fine. Especially because Suzuki is a very wealthy company with loads of financial power, just because of this strategy. Never change a winning team they say or if it ain't broken, don't fix it and that is what they tried and failed at.
I thought for a long time in getting a kazashi but due to them being so far away from where I live in the UK I went for a lexus instead. They are selling for about £300-5000 in the UK with under 100,000 miles on the clock. Most people rate it very highly
I've worked for a dutch suzuki dealer for the past 3 years. Suzuki is pretty popular here in the Netherlands yet i only know of 1 customer who has a kizashi. Shame it didnt catch on from my limited experience with them theyre not bad at all.
I live in the Netherlands and have a Kizashi cvt in a pretty mint state that I imported from Germany about a year ago with about 40.000 km. I absolutely love the car and obviously there are more reasonable choices when it comes to gas mileage but that's the only point where I am not completely taken on the Kizzy. The comfort, full options, excellent handling, big trunk, and reliability are unbeatable. The only thing that I changed from stock was to add a 13" android tablet integrated to the dashboard with 360 cameras instead of the OEM radio and a new sound system, but for the mechanical mods will keep it as it is as any increase in power won't be liked by the CVT. This is so much car for your money, in Europe it's definitely exotic and everyone who sees the car loves it. Plus the Suzuki dealer that I go to for service is fantastic. I am certain that I will be crying the day I sell it, currently at 65.000km so long way to go, but low key hope to be able to keep it until 250.000 km!
Great video! I love these cars and their abilities still hold up quite well today. The quality of engineering Suzuki sunk into them was unreal (eg. brakes developed by the same engineers who developed brakes for the Shinkansen bullet trains). I'm in Australia and was all set to buy a new manual Kizashi back in 2011 when I was injured and unable to drive for over 6 months. However, by that time the Kizashi had started to develop the whiff of failure and was worried about resale/parts support, but I would still have taken an AWD if it came in manual. I hate CVTs with a passion, so it was not to be. I still look at them wistfully in the used car ads though...
It's the plight of the European sedan... You mentioned that one of its main competitors was the Ford Focus sedan. I never saw one here in Germany. Ford Focus has always been sold either as a hatchback or a station wagon here. Fun fact: with the discontinuation of the Passat and Arteon sedans (we only have the station wagon versions now), VW currently doesn't have any sedans in its inventory. The closest thing to a sedan is the electric ID7, which is actually more of a 4-door-coupé. Plus, around 90% of Octavias and Superbs are station wagons. If even he German (or German-owned, in the case of Skoda) manufacturers aren't able to market sedans, an Asian manufacturer really doesn't stand a chance. And on a personal note, even though they're nice to look at, I find sedans quite impractical, and I'm guessing I'm not alone in thinking that, which is probably why hatchbacks, station wagons and SUVs rule European streets.
Absolutely love my Kizashi. Not a fan of the CVT, but haven’t had any big issues. It is very funny when your passenger is expecting a shift and the RPMS are just sitting right under red line for as long as you hold your foot down. Not sure how many times I’ve heard people say it’s going to blow up or somethings wrong with my transmission. With the CVT being made of glass it can’t handle more than stock for power, and even then it slips when it’s being abused.
interestingly enough, the Kizashi was a great little car. The CVT’s seemed to hold up well and most the forums report this to be the case. I think the problem Suzuki had was they had a very small dealer network and people didn’t pay attention to them as a serious vehicle because of this. When Suzuki came to the states in the mid-1980’s no one knew them despite the fact they had been buying and driving them as GEO’s through GM’s Chevrolet division. My personal experience is Suzuki builds a car as fine as any Toyota on the market. The problem is they are not financially in the position to market themselves as such and no one here in the states knows who they are. The Kizashi, it should have been the car that put Suzuki on the map in the US. Unfortunately, they were too strapped after the whole SX4 debacle (the FIAT and Suzuki designed car) and the failure of the Aerio. Then GM (as partial owner) forced them to rebadge Daewoo cars and sell them (since GM didn’t want these crappy cars on their hands, but needed to sell them since they had just purchased Daewoo). This weakened the perception of Suzuki as being a brand of quality cars (as the Daewoos were complete garbage) and the Kizashi came in when the brand was struggling in this market. Within two years, they were gone from the North American market and most likely will never return. Once again, the good ones leave and the left overs raise the price for crap cars no one can afford. too the US car market!
I have one right now in the United States. It’s epic. Gotta be careful with it but the Rockford fostgate is insane. Very comfy ride and very attractive. Turns heads :)
In the USA 2 big reasons HONDA ACCORD/TOYOTA CAMRY, and if you were gunning for an AWD midsize car it was just better to go with a Subaru Legacy I was like 20 when I test drove one and even being a person who had a Grand Vitara and a XL-7 grand vitara in our family it just didn't have the same feel.
I am in Canada and the Suzuki kizashi last until 2013 when actually Suzuki left Canada and the USA. I would have only gotten the manual transmission as not many people like CVTs. It's super hard to find these here now especially in the manual. I am a huge Suzuki fan as I had many of their cars in my lifetime
when the Kizashi was released, the mid size segment that it was aimed at, had grown in physical size, the Mazda 6, Honda Accord and Toyota Camry all got bigger, the Kizashi was now a Corolla/Mazda 3/Civic size car, it's why it didn't take off. Remember the Vitara was a decent size vehicle and was successful.
Owned one for two weeks in uk, cvt made a weird noise, diagnosed needed a replacement transmission, returned for full refund. It had the same problematic cvt as the Nissans at the time.
This was a funky car, I was only a teenager couldn’t get my driver license yet, when I saw this funky coolish Suzuki I knew it was a flop I saw the interior and was impressed for its cost, it’s a shame Suzuki is out of the American market the little jimny SUV is pure coolness that would be in my driveway in a heartbeat but too bad not in US
I have to remember that in Europe, the Honda Civic and Volkswagen Jetta are midsize cars, whereas here in the US, those are compacts. Honda Accord and Volkswagen Passat are our midsize cars, and the Suzuki kizashi was definitely considerably smaller than those when it went on sale here
It was neither here nor there. Besides, when you think about Suzuki, you think about tiny cars, mainly city cars, with tiny engines. The Kizashi wasn’t in a lot of people’s radar as far as mid size cars were concerned.
It was positioned as a D-segment car with large engines. But it is smaller than most C-segment cars and the large engines made it too expensive, especially in Europe.
I remember when I first saw one and was like it’s a good looking cat just the wrong automaker and that shooting brake was very nice should’ve came out with that model
Small and midsize sedans are cute. I hate that Western Europe dislikes them, so there isn't any available nowadays in my country. The Corolla and the Octavia became large size over time.
We got them in Australia and the main reason they flopped in Australia and by the way Suzuki's are popular in Australia we have owned three of them and we have our third one now a Suzuki Baleno but there is the Toyota yes Toyota Starlet which us just a rebadged Suzuki Baleno sold in other countries not Australia but the Suzuki Baleno was the cheapest car available in Australia unil they stopped selling the because they didn't come with blind spot monitoring getting back the the Suzuki Kasashi the reason they flopped in Australia they were to expensive around aud $40000 to $50000 to much for Australians because they were used to paying aud $15000 to $20000 for there Suzuki's and there are a couple of the Suzuki Kasadhis still driving around were l live in the south western suburbs of Sydney they aren't a rare car not a car l get excited about seeing
Yes same pricing here. Although kizashi interior and isolation is much better then cheaper Suzukies,it was hard to pay 2x the price for the kizashi...even when it kicks asses of some (much) more expensive sedan/saloon cars
@Tom_pr There is a slight problem with the Suzuki Kisashi in Australia if you are unlucky to have a crash the insurance company may write them off because of the unavailability of body parts
I ALWAYS UNDERSTOOD KIZASHI AS A NORTH AMERICAN SPECIAL. ONLY BECAUSE TOYOTA CAMRY WAS THE BEST SELLING CAR THERE FOR ABOUT TEN CONTINUOUS YEARS. - BUT OSAMU SUZUKI WAS REPORTEDLY AGAINST THE IDEA OF COMPETING WITH THE ESTABLISHED CAMRY.
IMO europeans don't buy cars for reliability, they buy them to show off, there's a ton of peugeot 308's in my country, and they are beautiful, but none of their engines are reliable, specially the 1.2 petrol and the 1.5 diesel.
good story, however too much of random footage IMO (I understand that there was not enough kizashi footage available, I know I've researched the model myself some time ago as I wanted to by one)
Why did it fail? 3 reasons: 1. Bad marketing: Global car = Same car everywhere, same engine, CVT transmission all-over the world. Far too little things to make it feel..well, Europe oriented. 2. Bad choice of engine-transmission coupling: CVT with AWD and manual with FWD..."sheeettty" 3. I remember a test Kizashi 2.4 (manual) vs Octavia RS 2.0 (also manual. Octavia won easily because: - cheaper - faster (200hp turbo vs 188hp NA) - bigger interior - bigger trunk (and hatchback configuration) - fuel economy. And that is the answer...
To me, the main things that caused the kizashi to flop were. Saloon only, for executive/performance use. Petrol 4WD only for performance over diesel economy. CVT that put those performance oriented off. I think Kizashi has a great name. But a manual transmission would have given it a cult following in the UK, Europe and the US to an extent. The Suzukis brand image of light and small cars orients it to buyers associating them with manual transmissions, especially here in the UK. So a CVT only car in 2009 wasn't what Suzuki customers might go for and it probably wouldn't have brought in a lot of the German compact executive buyers thanks to badge snobbery.
Car models become insignificant now, when the Chinese cars dominate the market, a final nail to all the conventional car makers, they all were looting a lot money from the middle class
Lol Fiat engines are a heap of garbage though and expensive to maintain. There are still quite a few Kizashi’s on the roads out here even today and they still look great. The biggest issue for them here in Australia were locally built cars at the time that were family size and were often available for the same sort of money and offered match larger engines. They also competed with the Toyota Corolla and even lower spec Camry’s price wise. The obsession with unreliable diesel engines is such a shame over there as Suzuki Swift are just petrol engines here and very reliable then as they are today. Sadly Australia is infested with front wheel drive cars today that are all just boring and samey.
The fiat diesel used in some Suzuki is quite reliable actually . But swift diesel are very rare in Europe too. Sx4 very few. And some grand Vitara diesel
IMO, in the US, anything Suzuki sold here was unsuccessful not because they weren't reliable or stylish, but because the brand itself had such a tarnished rep from the Samurai in the 80s. Personally I thought the car was pretty cool looking- but no way would I buy a Suzuki- few dealerships, unsure of the reliability- and the SUV craze was in full force.
Man if there had been a Shooting brake AWD with a manual transmission It would be in my driveway right now
manual sucks
That would be the red 2007 concept kizashi (one of 3 concepts)😊
There is a nice one in my neighborhood and the guy takes such good care of it. Looks new all the time and it is still a good looking car.
i can hear a very Faint NFS Carbon background music lol, a man of culture i see !
A flopped car doesn't necessarily means that the car is a bad car. Suzuki didn't had funds to offer more engine options, or develop a new automatic gearbox to put on it instead of the CVT. The 2 liter was weak for US and too big for some European markets.. it got stranded in a middle of the way, and with a weakened brand, things couldn't be different for him :/
True, poor sales do not indicate a poor product.
Bought one of these and it still runs amazingly! Good handling, reliability and that CVT really puts the ones from Toyota and Honda to shame - never experienced the rubber band effect in the Kizashi! Truly a gem
I don't think building Sedan was even Suzuki's strong suit. They should have pushed for the Suzuki jimny instead.
There are plenty of people who wanted a Wrangler Competitor on a budget.
@@steak5599 Suzuki's strong suit is at making really small cars, they're basically second to none at that specific job in Japan, their booming kei car business back in their home country, and strong position in small car and small crossover/SUV markets everywhere else proves that. This is mostly a case of Suzuki wanting to try something new for themselves, but they're trying a bit too late in the age when midsizer sedans are dying out.
@@steak5599 Well,we have the swift sedan from 1989 and up..baleno/esteem sedan..liana sedan...SX4 sedan
this car would have been a classic if they would have offered an manual with the AWD system.
The interior felt like it was put together a lot better than the Ford Focus at the time!!
A neighbour of mine has one, and has had it for the last 6 years that I've lived here, and honestly, it's a good looking car, even now. It's the only one I've ever seen. I live in Scotland, btw.
I remember when this came out in the States and I was sold on it. Great styling and it was reliable. Fortunately, I had two dealers near me. The biggest mistake Suzuki made was marketing the Kizashi as a mid-size when it was really a compact sedan
I dont what size every class is bit its bigger then bmw 3 serie and mercedes C of the same years. And interior even more size difference. The bodywork of the kizashi makes it look shorter and less width
Australia here, It had a substantial, chunky well honed look to it in the same manner as a SAAB, still makes me look back when I see one... agree that the cvt was unfortunate and would have deterred me from a purchase.
Kizashi Driver here. Afaik Suzuki had a deal with VW back in 2010, preventing them from licensing any more Fiat Diesel engines, VW was already angry because Suzuki licensed the 1.3DDIS and 1.9DDIS from Fiat.
VW wanted to sell their own Diesel engines to Suzuki, which was apparently too expensive. German reviewers at the time were surprised about the engine choice in the Kizashi, they would have hoped for a TSI engine from VW, because of the partnership.
In the end a court ordered VW to sell back the 19.9% shrares in Suzuki and the whole thing ended.
All in all, the Kizashi is a great car. The worst thing in my opinion is the limited choice they gave you. Why do I have to take the CVT just to get an AWD powertrain ? They literally used the same 2.4l engine in the Grand Vitara with AWD and a 5 speed transmission.
About the transmission, it was a JATCO CVT from Nissan. They even had to limit the max RPM to 6000 in order to protect the CVT. Normally the engine revs to 6500 where it will do around 188hp so the CVT model wasnt even able to make peak power. So people were right in avoiding the CVT.
Right car, wrong time. Suzuki was so headstrong in the 2010s, post recession. What the hell happened?
Answer: see the comment immediately following yours
I rented one in Australia, it handled really well but with the CVT it was torque less. Went with a mint Mitsubishi Galant (380 ) for its larger V6. Good decsion .
01:28 The Kizashi 2 SUV was drop-dead gorgeous. The shooting brake/hatchback wasn't bad either 01:23. Why wasn't one of these two chosen for production is a mystery. Imagine the Kizashi 2 with the same Toyota-sourced hybrid drive as today's Suzuki Across - the gorgeous compact SUV Toyota never had.
Engine is an answer, in most eu countries insurance is calculated at engine capacity, everything above 2 liter is just higher insurance cost, adding no disel option and suzuki is concidered as car for poor with no used parts market. For me its actually sad, car looks preety in my opininon it would be nice to see it from time to time, i see it bit as more american looking
The Kizashi was launched in India when we were buying the Maruti Suzuki Alto in 2009.
I saw the poster in the showroom and thought that it will sell like the Swift, but it didn't may be because it was too costly for a sedan when compared with Honda City.
Kizashi was a Corolla, Civic segment car not city segment
It was replaced by the Ciaz & it's popular in quite a few developing markets
I dont agree .ciaz is much cheaper car. (And ciaz is India and maybe other countrys but not usa or Europe). I have seen 1 imported in my country and really cant compare it to the kizashi😂
For example, in Colombia the Kizashi didn't had much investment on advertising. Also, as it happens in other Latam countries, people are really bound to traditional sedans (Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Mazda 3, VW Jetta, Nissan Sentra, and recently the Hyundai/Kia models). Finally, the after-sale service was quite hard, taking into account that the presence of Suzuki was (and still) quite short compared to the "traditional" ones mentioned, and in a segment were people really takes its time for looking for a car, is really hard to make them change.
I have 2012 Kizashi AWD. The name, I believe did hurt sales in the USA. The CVT transmission is also used in the Mitsubishi Lancer. The owners manual says to check the Cvt fluid, but doesn’t mention changing the fluid. Also there is no mention of the transmission cooler filter. I ended up getting the filter and o-ring seal from Mitsubishi parts. It’s been a good vehicle for me. I was sad to see Suzuki leave the USA.
I remember these being fairly well liked in the US when they first launched. Not many left on the roads now though.
I loved this car too. As you said the engine department failed when it comes to the EU market. Yes, at that time Diesel was wrongly promoted as being the only ecological way to go (we all know better now) but not everyone was into diesel. A large portion of potential buyers actually hated diesels and preferred gasoline engines by far. The problem with Suzuki's choice was the size. A 2.4 liter engine was very costly tax wise and also much more expensive in running costs (tax, insurance, fuel...). One thing said is right, European buyers were and still are snobs, at least some of them. This means that an average person would not opt for an engine that is deemed to be luxury while being in a more "lot of car for your money" type of brand and car. If they would have offered it as a 1.6 or a 18 gasoline engine version they would have a lot more potential buyers. On the contrary of many parts of the world in Europe any engine as from 2.0 liter is considered to be more premium, more luxury. And buyers in these segments are extremely snobby. If it's not german or to a certain level Swedish then it's not worthy of their social status. In short they are so narrow-minded that they willingly pay 20-30% more, just for the brand name, even if the actual quality and reliability is lower (much lower) than what they pay for. Everything below the 2.0 size is considered more "socially acceptable", more down to earth, good for the common people...me...us thus. I think that Suzuki mainly failed because it wanted to climb up the ladder towards premium shit and that would simply not happen. It's against their roots of basic, reliable and affordable transportation products. And that's fine. Especially because Suzuki is a very wealthy company with loads of financial power, just because of this strategy. Never change a winning team they say or if it ain't broken, don't fix it and that is what they tried and failed at.
I thought for a long time in getting a kazashi but due to them being so far away from where I live in the UK I went for a lexus instead. They are selling for about £300-5000 in the UK with under 100,000 miles on the clock. Most people rate it very highly
I've worked for a dutch suzuki dealer for the past 3 years. Suzuki is pretty popular here in the Netherlands yet i only know of 1 customer who has a kizashi. Shame it didnt catch on from my limited experience with them theyre not bad at all.
henk je oma hier staat er ook een bij iemand voor de deur.
200-240 in the Netherlands. Many of them are imported from Germany where there are %wise the same amount but Germany is much bigger country offcourse.
I live in the Netherlands and have a Kizashi cvt in a pretty mint state that I imported from Germany about a year ago with about 40.000 km.
I absolutely love the car and obviously there are more reasonable choices when it comes to gas mileage but that's the only point where I am not completely taken on the Kizzy. The comfort, full options, excellent handling, big trunk, and reliability are unbeatable.
The only thing that I changed from stock was to add a 13" android tablet integrated to the dashboard with 360 cameras instead of the OEM radio and a new sound system, but for the mechanical mods will keep it as it is as any increase in power won't be liked by the CVT.
This is so much car for your money, in Europe it's definitely exotic and everyone who sees the car loves it. Plus the Suzuki dealer that I go to for service is fantastic.
I am certain that I will be crying the day I sell it, currently at 65.000km so long way to go, but low key hope to be able to keep it until 250.000 km!
Great video! I love these cars and their abilities still hold up quite well today. The quality of engineering Suzuki sunk into them was unreal (eg. brakes developed by the same engineers who developed brakes for the Shinkansen bullet trains). I'm in Australia and was all set to buy a new manual Kizashi back in 2011 when I was injured and unable to drive for over 6 months. However, by that time the Kizashi had started to develop the whiff of failure and was worried about resale/parts support, but I would still have taken an AWD if it came in manual. I hate CVTs with a passion, so it was not to be. I still look at them wistfully in the used car ads though...
It's the plight of the European sedan... You mentioned that one of its main competitors was the Ford Focus sedan. I never saw one here in Germany. Ford Focus has always been sold either as a hatchback or a station wagon here. Fun fact: with the discontinuation of the Passat and Arteon sedans (we only have the station wagon versions now), VW currently doesn't have any sedans in its inventory. The closest thing to a sedan is the electric ID7, which is actually more of a 4-door-coupé. Plus, around 90% of Octavias and Superbs are station wagons. If even he German (or German-owned, in the case of Skoda) manufacturers aren't able to market sedans, an Asian manufacturer really doesn't stand a chance. And on a personal note, even though they're nice to look at, I find sedans quite impractical, and I'm guessing I'm not alone in thinking that, which is probably why hatchbacks, station wagons and SUVs rule European streets.
Absolutely love my Kizashi. Not a fan of the CVT, but haven’t had any big issues. It is very funny when your passenger is expecting a shift and the RPMS are just sitting right under red line for as long as you hold your foot down. Not sure how many times I’ve heard people say it’s going to blow up or somethings wrong with my transmission. With the CVT being made of glass it can’t handle more than stock for power, and even then it slips when it’s being abused.
interestingly enough, the Kizashi was a great little car. The CVT’s seemed to hold up well and most the forums report this to be the case. I think the problem Suzuki had was they had a very small dealer network and people didn’t pay attention to them as a serious vehicle because of this.
When Suzuki came to the states in the mid-1980’s no one knew them despite the fact they had been buying and driving them as GEO’s through GM’s Chevrolet division.
My personal experience is Suzuki builds a car as fine as any Toyota on the market. The problem is they are not financially in the position to market themselves as such and no one here in the states knows who they are.
The Kizashi, it should have been the car that put Suzuki on the map in the US. Unfortunately, they were too strapped after the whole SX4 debacle (the FIAT and Suzuki designed car) and the failure of the Aerio. Then GM (as partial owner) forced them to rebadge Daewoo cars and sell them (since GM didn’t want these crappy cars on their hands, but needed to sell them since they had just purchased Daewoo).
This weakened the perception of Suzuki as being a brand of quality cars (as the Daewoos were complete garbage) and the Kizashi came in when the brand was struggling in this market. Within two years, they were gone from the North American market and most likely will never return. Once again, the good ones leave and the left overs raise the price for crap cars no one can afford. too the US car market!
I freaking loved these
Came out right after the recession also.
I have one right now in the United States. It’s epic. Gotta be careful with it but the Rockford fostgate is insane. Very comfy ride and very attractive. Turns heads :)
In the USA 2 big reasons HONDA ACCORD/TOYOTA CAMRY, and if you were gunning for an AWD midsize car it was just better to go with a Subaru Legacy I was like 20 when I test drove one and even being a person who had a Grand Vitara and a XL-7 grand vitara in our family it just didn't have the same feel.
Ive never seen a suzuki with cvt 😮. In my country they keep using confentional automatic same as mazda
I am in Canada and the Suzuki kizashi last until 2013 when actually Suzuki left Canada and the USA. I would have only gotten the manual transmission as not many people like CVTs. It's super hard to find these here now especially in the manual. I am a huge Suzuki fan as I had many of their cars in my lifetime
when the Kizashi was released, the mid size segment that it was aimed at, had grown in physical size, the Mazda 6, Honda Accord and Toyota Camry all got bigger, the Kizashi was now a Corolla/Mazda 3/Civic size car, it's why it didn't take off. Remember the Vitara was a decent size vehicle and was successful.
Owned one for two weeks in uk, cvt made a weird noise, diagnosed needed a replacement transmission, returned for full refund. It had the same problematic cvt as the Nissans at the time.
This was a funky car, I was only a teenager couldn’t get my driver license yet, when I saw this funky coolish Suzuki I knew it was a flop I saw the interior and was impressed for its cost, it’s a shame Suzuki is out of the American market the little jimny SUV is pure coolness that would be in my driveway in a heartbeat but too bad not in US
I have to remember that in Europe, the Honda Civic and Volkswagen Jetta are midsize cars, whereas here in the US, those are compacts. Honda Accord and Volkswagen Passat are our midsize cars, and the Suzuki kizashi was definitely considerably smaller than those when it went on sale here
It was neither here nor there. Besides, when you think about Suzuki, you think about tiny cars, mainly city cars, with tiny engines. The Kizashi wasn’t in a lot of people’s radar as far as mid size cars were concerned.
Must be easy to find parts at the junkyard. Always the right engine.
It was positioned as a D-segment car with large engines. But it is smaller than most C-segment cars and the large engines made it too expensive, especially in Europe.
I remember when I first saw one and was like it’s a good looking cat just the wrong automaker and that shooting brake was very nice should’ve came out with that model
Ramble on Sir
I have one and its awesome
Great video, well the Kizashi was also a flop in the USA.
Suzuki also tempered with the exhaust tests.
It didn't get an optional V6 or turbo four. That alone doomed the car especially in the United States.
Small and midsize sedans are cute. I hate that Western Europe dislikes them, so there isn't any available nowadays in my country. The Corolla and the Octavia became large size over time.
We got them in Australia and the main reason they flopped in Australia and by the way Suzuki's are popular in Australia we have owned three of them and we have our third one now a Suzuki Baleno but there is the Toyota yes Toyota Starlet which us just a rebadged Suzuki Baleno sold in other countries not Australia but the Suzuki Baleno was the cheapest car available in Australia unil they stopped selling the because they didn't come with blind spot monitoring getting back the the Suzuki Kasashi the reason they flopped in Australia they were to expensive around aud $40000 to $50000 to much for Australians because they were used to paying aud $15000 to $20000 for there Suzuki's and there are a couple of the Suzuki Kasadhis still driving around were l live in the south western suburbs of Sydney they aren't a rare car not a car l get excited about seeing
Yes same pricing here. Although kizashi interior and isolation is much better then cheaper Suzukies,it was hard to pay 2x the price for the kizashi...even when it kicks asses of some (much) more expensive sedan/saloon cars
@Tom_pr There is a slight problem with the Suzuki Kisashi in Australia if you are unlucky to have a crash the insurance company may write them off because of the unavailability of body parts
this car's grill looks like lexus car's grill
I feel like a sport trim would’ve made this better
GTS is the "sporttrim". In Europe we all have the "sporttrim but with all luxury. (I know its not really sporty looking)
I ALWAYS UNDERSTOOD KIZASHI AS A NORTH AMERICAN SPECIAL. ONLY BECAUSE TOYOTA CAMRY WAS THE BEST SELLING CAR THERE FOR ABOUT TEN CONTINUOUS YEARS. - BUT OSAMU SUZUKI WAS REPORTEDLY AGAINST THE IDEA OF COMPETING WITH THE ESTABLISHED CAMRY.
Yep designed for North American market. If it was for Europe they would give the front even more stiffness for driving dynamics😊
Rumblings are more authentic. I prefer them to the scripted ones.
"Chatgpt write my script in a more rambling style"
IMO europeans don't buy cars for reliability, they buy them to show off, there's a ton of peugeot 308's in my country, and they are beautiful, but none of their engines are reliable, specially the 1.2 petrol and the 1.5 diesel.
good story, however too much of random footage IMO (I understand that there was not enough kizashi footage available, I know I've researched the model myself some time ago as I wanted to by one)
Why did it fail? 3 reasons:
1. Bad marketing: Global car = Same car everywhere, same engine, CVT transmission all-over the world. Far too little things to make it feel..well, Europe oriented.
2. Bad choice of engine-transmission coupling: CVT with AWD and manual with FWD..."sheeettty"
3. I remember a test Kizashi 2.4 (manual) vs Octavia RS 2.0 (also manual. Octavia won easily because:
- cheaper
- faster (200hp turbo vs 188hp NA)
- bigger interior
- bigger trunk (and hatchback configuration)
- fuel economy.
And that is the answer...
To me, the main things that caused the kizashi to flop were.
Saloon only, for executive/performance use.
Petrol 4WD only for performance over diesel economy.
CVT that put those performance oriented off.
I think Kizashi has a great name. But a manual transmission would have given it a cult following in the UK, Europe and the US to an extent.
The Suzukis brand image of light and small cars orients it to buyers associating them with manual transmissions, especially here in the UK. So a CVT only car in 2009 wasn't what Suzuki customers might go for and it probably wouldn't have brought in a lot of the German compact executive buyers thanks to badge snobbery.
Car models become insignificant now, when the Chinese cars dominate the market, a final nail to all the conventional car makers, they all were looting a lot money from the middle class
All about North America, and they pulled out!😊
They should have pushed for the Jimny instead. I think that little car on a budget would have done well. Or make a Longer variant of it.
Lol Fiat engines are a heap of garbage though and expensive to maintain.
There are still quite a few Kizashi’s on the roads out here even today and they still look great.
The biggest issue for them here in Australia were locally built cars at the time that were family size and were often available for the same sort of money and offered match larger engines.
They also competed with the Toyota Corolla and even lower spec Camry’s price wise.
The obsession with unreliable diesel engines is such a shame over there as Suzuki Swift are just petrol engines here and very reliable then as they are today.
Sadly Australia is infested with front wheel drive cars today that are all just boring and samey.
The fiat diesel used in some Suzuki is quite reliable actually . But swift diesel are very rare in Europe too. Sx4 very few. And some grand Vitara diesel
How old are you?
IMO, in the US, anything Suzuki sold here was unsuccessful not because they weren't reliable or stylish, but because the brand itself had such a tarnished rep from the Samurai in the 80s. Personally I thought the car was pretty cool looking- but no way would I buy a Suzuki- few dealerships, unsure of the reliability- and the SUV craze was in full force.
Suzuki make very fine bikes and cars but no parts and fragile electronics doom it
I currently own one of these and I love it my only gripe is that I wish the manual could’ve come with awd