Kizashi Club

Date : May 20, 2017.


I the undersigned am the customer of Maruti since last 19 years. My first car was Maruti – 800, Second was SX4 and now I am holding Kizashi and Alto K10.

Last Experience of Driving Kizashi

I would like to share my recent experience of driving Kizashi. On May 16, 2017, I was driving my car Kizashi from Ahmedabad to Baroda expressway. While reaching towards Baroda expressway toll gate I found steering to be too hard to move, dash board screen was showing yellow symbol of non-working of power steering. For a moment, I was under tremendous tension and missed a heartbeat. Second moment I controlled myself, slower down the car and stopped gradually.

I was fortunate enough that I was nearby toll gate and the speed was very less.

What should have happened, if power steering stopped working when I was driving the car at the speed of 100 KmPH?

The answer is none of the 5 travelers could be saved out of death.

Is this the quality and reliability of Maruti Suzuki, on which I was relied and proud since last 19 years???


It was also informed to us that there are hardly around 30 cars sold in India and Suzuki is not interested in supply the spares. It would be better to sell the car and get rid of it.


Questions
I have few questions to the corporate official of Suzuki Global.
1. Did Suzuki Global wants to convey us that it was a big mistake by purchasing Kazashi, for which Suzuki was having a pride for development???
2. Is it our mistake that we support Suzuki in their global mission and corporate team could not drive the mission of selling this car in the market???
3. There is no sentence ‘Not to provide services to existing customers’ in the mission statement of the company. Are these actions in line with your mission statement?
4. Did Suzuki mean a customer means – To die with pain?
5. What is the life cycle of control unit? What should be the causes of failures? “When and what” the control units to be checked during preventive servicing of the car – is that a part of check list guideline?
6. Is your Product development / design team has assured that automated system is in line with international designed standards and will not malfunctioning while driving?
I will not be able to drive this car as I have seen death while sitting on the driving seat of the car. I would like to request you to call the car back and stop playing with the life of your customers.


Most unfortunate and unbelievable attempt of Maruti Suzuki.

First, I want to make it clear that this is a Suzuki Kizashi car forum made up of mostly owners. This site has no relationship with Suzuki corporate. The opinions and content here are unofficial and do not represent Suzuki. I just wanted to make that clear given your post.

Did you investigate the cause of the issue? You were simply told that you should replace the power steering unit and that because parts are hard to come by, that you should junk the car. That's an absurd response in your country in which about 40% of all cars sold are Maruti Suzukis. The Kizashi is extremely rare in India and the Kizashi was built in Japan unlike most Maruti Suzukis, but at least you have dealers. I'm in the US and we no longer have Suzuki dealers since 2013, but I still could source parts. The Kizashi is also used as government fleet vehicles in Japan therefore, there are certainly parts in circulation from Suzuki. It's a matter of finding competent people to order them.

About the issue: Sounds scary and all but this is uncommon with the Kizashi. This is the first time I'm hearing of complete power steering failure while the vehicle was in motion and I've been on this forum since 2012. I think it's likely an isolated incident with your car and a not problem with Suzuki's manufacturing and quality control. The cause could be as simple as a short or wiring damaged by rodents. Keep in mind the Kizashi uses electronic power steering and not the conventional hydraulic power steering.

asitjoshi wrote:What should have happened, if power steering stopped working when I was driving the car at the speed of 100 KmPH?

The answer is none of the 5 travelers could be saved out of death.

Please, you're overstating the point here a bit. The failure you experienced is a very bad one and quite disconcerting, but to suggest that there is no way to avoid death is stretching the facts a lot.

First, I doubt very much that the steering was locked. It most likely just lost power assist, so the effort required went up drastically. I've driven vehicles much larger that the Kizashi which never had power steering, P/S is a luxury, not a necessity.

Second, the car can be stopped from 100kph in 35 meters, less than ten seconds.

It was also informed to us that there are hardly around 30 cars sold in India and Suzuki is not interested in supply the spares. It would be better to sell the car and get rid of it.

Here is where your legitimate complaint is. If someone who works for Suzuki or Maruti told you this it is certainly a bad thing for the company. If they were selling the car at their dealership, then they need to support it, especially when it comes to something as important as the steering.