2012 Kizashi CVT issues

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shinyapgh
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Jul 30, 2012 1:04 am

I hate to be the Debbie Downer here... I was very excited when I purchased my 2012 Kizashi Sport SLS AWD in December 2011. I drive a lot for work (roughly around 2000miles a month), and live in the North East, so I wanted a good snow car, that gets decent gas mileage, and has all of the gadgets (Bluetooth, streaming, iPod hookup, premium stereo, heated/powered seats, dual climate control) and I thought I made a wise decision buying a Kizashi. Initially, the CVT drone that everyone talks about drove me nuts. Being a car guy, it was a bit frustrating, as the car wants to struggle, instead of picking up speed. But, since 90% of my driving is on the interstates and turnpikes, I got used to it after a while. I only came across a few heavy snow storms this past winter, but this was the best car ever to drive in the snow(exaggerating a little.. lol). Anyway, 5months went past, and just about 9000miles on the car, I noticed that at the end of a 3hours drive, the CVT was whining very loudly whenever I step on the gas hard, and let the rev go over 3000rpm.
I called the dealer right away, and explained the issue, but told them that it only happens after the car was driven for at least an hour. They told me that there is a software update that they can apply it on to fix that issue (which was wrong. only applies to 2010/2011). So I took it in, and of course, they did nothing as the update didn't apply for my car. They said I need to bring it in when it is making the noise. Which frustrated me, because they are never open by the time I'm back in town in the evening. Fortunately about a week later, I found a chance to take it in while it was making the whining noise. A technician got in a car with me, and took it for a spin, and he heard it very clearly, the whining noise coming out of the CVT. They told me that I need to drop my car off for a week so that they can diagnose it. Well, pain in the a$$, but it's better to get it fixed, so I dropped it off for a week.
They called me back and told me that they attached these ear devices all over the chassis, and diagnosed that the noise was coming from the transfer case. And that they ordered one, and will let me know when it comes in. So they gave me my car back, and waited for 2 weeks before the transfer case came in. Dropped it off for a day, and had them replace it. I was very skeptical that it was the transfer case...
On the way home, my car started smoking a little. I thought, maybe they spilled some oil on the exhuast and that is what I'm smelling, but right away, the CVT started making the whining noise. By this point, the dealer was closed, so I decided to take it back and make them keep it until it's fixed, the very next morning.
I forgot to mention, but at this point, the car is 7mo old, and has 11400 miles.
On the way to the dealer the next morning, SNAP!!!! And I lost the transmission completely. Of course it had to happen on a hill, so I decided to coast it back down to a safe spot... called the road side service, and waited 1.5hours (not too bad) for the tow truck to show up.
I've completely lost confidence in my Kizashi. I drive long distance daily, and the last thing I need is breaking down in the middle of nowhere late at night. That's the whole reason why I bought a new car in the first place!
It's been 2 weeks since the break down. The dealer ordered a new CVT transmission, but they have no ETA, and told me it's on a "back order".

REALL?!?!?!??! Back order?!?!?!? What? Is everyone else getting their CVT replaced, that they are out of them?? what the &(*#&$(#@*&

Not only I don't want my Kizashi anymore, I really think the biggest issue is that the dealers are not getting enough support from the manufacturer. HORRIBLE SERVICE!, not because of anything that the dealer is doing, but because Suzuki isn't helping them enough!

I'm figuring out a way to get out of this vehicle, and going back to my Nissan. I've owned a Maxima, and my wife currently drives a Murano, and we love those cars. Plus, the dealer service is great.

Buyer beware. Warranty is only as good as the dealer's services. If the manufacturer isn't giving dealers a good support, the warranty work's performance will suffer. There are reasons why they sell so many Altimas, Camrys and Accords. Because so many people have them, mechanics are familiar with them, too. None of the guys at my dealer had worked on a Kizashi yet. Rare, cool car, sounded good at first, but not when you're getting it worked on.

I'm sorry this was quite long, but I just wanted to rant. Feel free to comment or ask me questions.

Thanks,

Spike
Pittsburgh, PA
ipaqxman
Posts: 257
Joined: Mon Oct 10, 2011 2:19 am
Location: NYC, NY

I feel the same way with my semi lemon
2011 Kizash SLS AWD
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DelliReeus
Posts: 118
Joined: Wed May 23, 2012 3:49 am
Location: Burbs of Chicago.

Hmm I have a question too.. Would it be possible to get the manual transmission out of a manual kizashi & replace it with my cvt for a cheap price if my transmission breaks down?
2010 AWD/FWD Kizashi S Black Pearl Metallic
kizashi_VA
Posts: 35
Joined: Sun Jun 17, 2012 6:28 am
Location: VA

You said no one in your dealer had worked on a Kizashi before? What kinda dealership is that?! Are you the only one who brought a Kizashi from that dealership in 2 years? I'm surprise a dealership like that can still be in business.
lookin
Posts: 328
Joined: Thu Mar 18, 2010 1:48 pm

the suzuki problem is bigger than i thought ,,,,,,,,,y should transmission be back ordered its not like they sould thousands of car,,,,we the owners gotta demand better from suzuki afterall we are the few who gave them a chance
Atlas
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2012 1:07 am
Location: Kentucky

Well, Suzuki has been advertising a lot more recently. I've been seeing more and more of them. Maybe Suzuki is back ordered because they're trying to ramp up production to meet demand.
shinyapgh
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Jul 30, 2012 1:04 am

ipaxman, what issue were you having? It sucks you're going through similar experience with your Kizashi. This experience has totally turned me off from Suzuki. And I'm from Japan originally. Suzuki is a third largest car company in Japan, but they sell mostly 3cyl sub-compacts, and sub-compact trucks (very popular in Japan). There is nothing semi-lemon about mine. It's under 12mo/12k miles. And it's been in the shop for just about 30days.

Dellireus, why are you trying to hijack a topic? You want to discuss a different topic, open a new one. Forum etiquette 101.

Atlas: i don't think that's how it works. They have to keep so many % of parts for repair. People do wreck their cars, some right after they get the car as they're not familiar with the car.

atlas: my point exactly. i gave them a chance, and now I'm forever bitten. Get me out of this POS!

kizashi_va: I wasn't very clear. This dealer in particular is a large dealer, and the service depart for Suzuki is taken care of by the Nissan. So most of the mechanics are familiar with the Nissans, while they are not that familiar with a Kizashi. They've worked on it enough to know that there was a software update for the CVT for 2010/2011. But not enough to know that it doesn't apply for 2012. They did tell me they never had a Kizashi come in for a major repair since they started selling, but just in the past few weeks, they got three Kizashis with various issues, that had to be towed into the dealer to get warranty work done. One, the engine doesn't start (may be an ignition issue?), and he didn't tell me what the third one was.
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DelliReeus
Posts: 118
Joined: Wed May 23, 2012 3:49 am
Location: Burbs of Chicago.

shinyapgh wrote:ipaxman, what issue were you having? It sucks you're going through similar experience with your Kizashi. This experience has totally turned me off from Suzuki. And I'm from Japan originally. Suzuki is a third largest car company in Japan, but they sell mostly 3cyl sub-compacts, and sub-compact trucks (very popular in Japan). There is nothing semi-lemon about mine. It's under 12mo/12k miles. And it's been in the shop for just about 30days.

Dellireus, why are you trying to hijack a topic? You want to discuss a different topic, open a new one. Forum etiquette 101.

Atlas: i don't think that's how it works. They have to keep so many % of parts for repair. People do wreck their cars, some right after they get the car as they're not familiar with the car.

atlas: my point exactly. i gave them a chance, and now I'm forever bitten. Get me out of this POS!

kizashi_va: I wasn't very clear. This dealer in particular is a large dealer, and the service depart for Suzuki is taken care of by the Nissan. So most of the mechanics are familiar with the Nissans, while they are not that familiar with a Kizashi. They've worked on it enough to know that there was a software update for the CVT for 2010/2011. But not enough to know that it doesn't apply for 2012. They did tell me they never had a Kizashi come in for a major repair since they started selling, but just in the past few weeks, they got three Kizashis with various issues, that had to be towed into the dealer to get warranty work done. One, the engine doesn't start (may be an ignition issue?), and he didn't tell me what the third one was.

Not at all... I'm not changing/stealing the topic.
2010 AWD/FWD Kizashi S Black Pearl Metallic
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Moto
Site Admin
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Joined: Sun Aug 23, 2009 7:08 pm
Location: North Dakota
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Shinyapgh don't switch to a JUKE. I also run a website for that car, and engine replacement is the problem there (and the gas mileage is lower than advertized). It is about as common as the major transmission problems that this car seems to have.

Sorry to hear about your trouble.
lookin
Posts: 328
Joined: Thu Mar 18, 2010 1:48 pm

    To meet what demand atlas,,,,
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