sx4rocious wrote:I talked with Mr. Suzuki (a renamed, reputable source) this morning. I really learned a lot of insider stuff from him. One of the most interesting facts I learned today is that yes, the Kizashi was designed to be sold in NA from the start, but ironically so was the Swift. According to Mr. Suzuki, both cars were originally spec-ed for sale in NA with all the safety and emissions features added to the car to make sale legal in the US. When crash-testing examples were sent to the US for the Kizashi (with the Swift soon to follow), corprate decided the expense was too great and the market simply wouldn't support two new offerings from Suzuki since their foothold in the market was already miniscule. Suzuki then decided that they had already spend MILLIONS in R&D to develope the Kizashi specifically for the 'murican customer (since all Americans want big, fancy cars because we're all rap stars or country singers), so thier thinking was that the Kizashi was the best offering of the two.
According to Mr. Suzuki, worldwide production of the Kizashi will most likely cease if and when they break even on it. It's slow sales in other markets and fast sales of the Swift have shown thier mistake. Apparently, the Swift needs nothing other than the initial crash and emissions tests to be sold in the US. Given the sales figures of both cars compared to the sales figures of other cars in thier segments, I believe the Swift would have been a MUCH better seller in the US than the Kizashi. This notion was seconded by Mr. Suzuki who stated that the Swift has FAR surpassed Suzuki's expectations and the Kizashi has proven a failure in thier eyes. I know we all love the car, but honestly, between the two, I'm not the only one that thinks the Swift had a better chance of saving American Suzuki...
None of this info was very exclusive if you've followed Suzuki automotive news or known about Suzuki models from other markets. I've read all these facts before and even discussed it in this forum. Automotive blog sites like jalopnik, autoblog, and truthaboutcars have written about the demise of Suzuki and the factors involved. Truthaboutcars even had a "Suzuki Deathwatch" series of articles and in one of their last ones, had disgruntled Suzuki Motor of America corporate employees revealing from the inside how Suzuki was falling apart. They revealed that some contributing factors of Suzuki's demise in the US was due to Japanese executives trying to dictate how to run the company in the US market. It was basically Suzuki in Japan telling them no to the Swift until it was much too late.
It was reported that Suzuki was developing a US-spec Swift and was considering importing it. The Swift long pre-existed the Kizashi so it's not like they were co-developed. However, they decided to go with the new midsize Kizashi and spent not just millions, but an estimated 1 billion US dollars on it.
Despite the expense and great hope for it, it was an international failure. I'd say it wasn't so much the car, but Suzuki's failure to market it properly and the fact that they went about dealership networks in the most pathetic way.
Suzuki also had very bad luck with timing. They basically released the Kizashi to the world when the economic crisis hit. Right when Suzuki was releasing their most upscale and expensive car is when everybody was looking to buy cheaper economy cars... like the Suzuki Swift. Sales for cars like the Mini and Honda Fit rose while sales of larger cars and SUVs plummeted. The combination of bad timing with the wrong car delivered the fatal blow for Suzuki in North America.
In many ways, they should have sent the Swift first for much less cost to them. Had the Swift succeeded in the US and brought Suzuki's name and reputation back from "Suzuki still made cars!?", that's when they should have released the Kizashi.
Suzuki chose to do the opposite and combined with the bad economy, the result was an epic failure and exodus of North America. Sadly, the Kizashi was a global failure.
I have little doubt the Kizashi will be discontinued in the near future given it's such a pathetically poor selling car everywhere. As I've already wrote, it's on an order-made status in the JDM and is pretty much a fleet car there.
murcod wrote:
Sadly, it's very under powered and uncompetitive (even on price) against cars like the Fiesta ST. Like the Kizashi, it desperately needs more power to fulfill the "Sport" description.
The Swift Sport is outdone by turbocharged rivals like the Fiesta ST, but the Ford is rather new and the Swift is not. Also, the Fiesta ST has dismal reliability ratings thanks to the EcoBoost engine. Ford has experienced reliability issues across their entire fleet with these EcoBoosts. Not surprising given Ford's a newcomer to mass production gas turbos.
The Swift Sport is to subcompact hot hatches what the Civic Si is to Sports Compacts and Hot Hatches. It's outperformed by the newer turbocharged models, but is a lot more reliable and will actually be running with over 150,000 miles on the clock.
The Fiesta ST? Don't count on it. Ford needs a while to work the kinks out.
I've posted this link before but it's a testament to the Swift Sport's reliability and durability in performance-oriented driving.
http://www.autoblog.com/2012/12/12/its- ... ental-car/
, however, freedom of speech isn't dead in my life, friend, despite what's at the helm of the country for the moment.
Back to our regularly scheduled topic....
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