Having owned my Kizashi AWD Sport for just over 18 months I have to say I developed a love/hate relationship with the car in the end. Overall, I would say this is an amazing car spoilt by a mis-matched transmission. I just hated the CVT box from the outset and whilst adapting my driving style to suit, I never really found it to be better than a manual box. Once the CVT started whining after moderate motorway runs, I decided to cut my losses and part-ex it.
So, a couple of weeks back I traded the Kizashi in for a new Suzuki Swift 3dr Sport. Great little car with excellent handling and good petrol consumption to boot.
My Kizashi is now a 3dr Swift Sport
I wish we had the swift over here... I've always wanted one.
I've argued for a while that Suzuki bringing the Swift in 2008 would have saved them in North America. This is around the time the Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris were available and selling steadily to folks who wanted a reliable car that was and ran cheap. The Swift is commonly regarded as the best car in the segment over in Japan yet Suzuki wanted to go big instead of small so gave us the Kizashi when they should have given us the Swift. As good of a car the Kizashi is, it came at the worst time. It debuted when the global economy was struggling and people sought small and cheap cars, not a flagship model.
The Kizashi's failure is a consequence of that. The Kizashi was the wrong car at the wrong time. The Swift would have been the right car at the right time.
The Kizashi's failure is a consequence of that. The Kizashi was the wrong car at the wrong time. The Swift would have been the right car at the right time.
2025 Mazda CX-50 Preferred Hybrid
2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS 6MT (Sold)
2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS 6MT (Sold)
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paininthenuts
- Posts: 411
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2014 4:38 pm
I love the CVT box in mine. The best auto I have owned by a mile. My only complaint with the drive train is the fuel economyphaeton1 wrote:Having owned my Kizashi AWD Sport for just over 18 months I have to say I developed a love/hate relationship with the car in the end. Overall, I would say this is an amazing car spoilt by a mis-matched transmission. I just hated the CVT box from the outset and whilst adapting my driving style to suit, I never really found it to be better than a manual box. Once the CVT started whining after moderate motorway runs, I decided to cut my losses and part-ex it.
So, a couple of weeks back I traded the Kizashi in for a new Suzuki Swift 3dr Sport. Great little car with excellent handling and good petrol consumption to boot.
Yes, please pics!bootymac wrote:Post some pics of the Swift! A lot of us wish we had it here