Kizashi Club

About this topic I have found out an interesting info:

According to Suzuki Canada president Seiichi Maruyama, the Kizashi was styled in part by Giorgetto Giugiaro’s Italdesign studios but completed in-house. Suzuki has used Italdesign’s services before, with the Verona sedan, and the result this time is a muscular-looking, compact body style with the same approximate dimensions as the Honda Accord. During the R&D process, the car was apparently put through its paces on the Ní¼rburgring track in Germany and back roads in the U.K., and Suzuki’s benchmarks were comparable sedans from Alfa Romeo and Volkswagen. Indeed, you can see some stylistic similarities with the VW Jetta and the Alfa 159. “The Kizashi lets us leverage our all-wheel-drive heritage,” Maruyama adds, “and it has an all-new platform.”
https://www.straight.com/article-280524 ... ze-kizashi

What do you think?
I didn´t know anything about this italian connection. About the homemade final design it´s hard to find out any info.

Eh, hard to say for certain. I don't really trust the article for a number of reasons. First, it's a pre-release article so it's based on a lot of speculation and word-of-mouth. Reading the article, you can see how it got some things wrong about the base equipment vs. options. Also, the engine is a tuned version of the Grand Vitara's 2.4 liter and makes about 20 more HP than in the GV.

Also, the Suzuki Verona wasn't even a Suzuki product. It was a rebadged Daewoo Magnus. While that car was indeed designed by ItalDesign, that had little to do with Suzuki and more with GM that controlled both Daewoo and Suzuki at the time.

Lastly, the Kizashi was the production vehicle from actually three different Kizashi concept cars. One was a crossover, another a wagon, and the last was a sedan that the production vehicle took after. If ItalDesign was involved, they were likely involved from way back with the three concepts. However, the article below states that Suzuki designed it themselves.
"The Concept Kizashi series was developed by Suzuki's Advanced Design Group to reflect a dynamic athlete in motion, taking design cues from a strong, honed physique while displaying the performance, strength and style befitting a flagship vehicle."
http://jalopnik.com/370105/suzuki-kizas ... le-in-2010

I personally believe the Kizashi was designed in-house. A lot of early articles and reader comments got a lot wrong about the Kizashi, claiming everything from it having a GM-sourced chassis to parts and platform sharing with Nissan. It was in fact a completely 100% Suzuki product built in only one new Suzuki factory in Japan. It was the car Suzuki was counting on to turn things around in North America. It was even named with that in mind as Kizashi means "harbinger" in Japanese. When it failed to do so, Suzuki exited Canada and the US markets and shortly after, the Kizashi was retired globally having failed to succeed in sales anywhere. It's ironic but Kizashi does also translate to "omen".

"It was the car Suzuki was counting on to turn things around in North America. It was even named with that in mind as Kizashi means "harbinger" in Japanese. When it failed to do so, Suzuki exited Canada and the US markets and shortly after, the Kizashi was retired globally having failed to succeed in sales anywhere."

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KuroNekko wrote:I personally believe the Kizashi was designed in-house. A lot of early articles and reader comments got a lot wrong about the Kizashi, claiming everything from it having a GM-sourced chassis to parts and platform sharing with Nissan. It was in fact a completely 100% Suzuki product built in only one new Suzuki factory in Japan.

The service 'advisor' at the ex-zuk dealership has tried to convince me more than once that the K was basically a Nissan chassis. Tells you all you need to know about the folks tasked with knowing all there is to know about what they sell and service eh?

I recall that the SX4 marketing stuff mention its Italian design roots.

KuroNekko wrote:Eh, hard to say for certain. I don't really trust the article for a number of reasons. First, it's a pre-release article so it's based on a lot of speculation and word-of-mouth. Reading the article, you can see how it got some things wrong about the base equipment vs. options. Also, the engine is a tuned version of the Grand Vitara's 2.4 liter and makes about 20 more HP than in the GV.

Also, the Suzuki Verona wasn't even a Suzuki product. It was a rebadged Daewoo Magnus. While that car was indeed designed by ItalDesign, that had little to do with Suzuki and more with GM that controlled both Daewoo and Suzuki at the time.

Lastly, the Kizashi was the production vehicle from actually three different Kizashi concept cars. One was a crossover, another a wagon, and the last was a sedan that the production vehicle took after. If ItalDesign was involved, they were likely involved from way back with the three concepts. However, the article below states that Suzuki designed it themselves.
"The Concept Kizashi series was developed by Suzuki's Advanced Design Group to reflect a dynamic athlete in motion, taking design cues from a strong, honed physique while displaying the performance, strength and style befitting a flagship vehicle."
http://jalopnik.com/370105/suzuki-kizas ... le-in-2010

I personally believe the Kizashi was designed in-house.

You were right: Italdesign never worked with the Kizashi drafts.

However and as LPSISRL says, it seems they are related to the SX4 (or Fiat Sedici): The SX4-Sedici project dates back to the beginning of the 2000s when GM (a shareholder in the Japanese company) and FIAT decided to build a 4 wheel drive or front-wheel drive car jointly in order to enter the emerging SUV market.
http://www.italdesign.it/project/sx4/

I check it´s almost impossible to get any information about the Suzuki's Advanced Design Group, for CS! looks like they are a kind of secret society or something.

Onikarge wrote: You were right: Italdesign never worked with the Kizashi drafts.

However and as LPSISRL says, it seems they are related to the SX4 (or Fiat Sedici): The SX4-Sedici project dates back to the beginning of the 2000s when GM (a shareholder in the Japanese company) and FIAT decided to build a 4 wheel drive or front-wheel drive car jointly in order to enter the emerging SUV market.
http://www.italdesign.it/project/sx4/

I check it´s almost impossible to get any information about the Suzuki's Advanced Design Group, for CS! looks like they are a kind of secret society or something.

Yeah, it's well known that the SX4 was jointly designed by Suzuki and FIAT. In Europe, they were offered with FIAT-sourced diesel engines. When I was in Rome earlier this summer, I saw a few of these FIAT Sedicis running around.

As for Suzuki's Advanced Design Group, I think information is hard to come by because it's probably based entirely in Japan so nearly all the information would be in Japanese.

Jes fiatdiesel for sx4. PSA diesel for old grand vitara. renault diesel for newer grand vitara from 2005 and on. 1.3 diesel fiat engine for swift 2005-2010

I remember reading before that the Kizashi was entirely in house and over engineered. So much to the point that Suzuki didn’t make any profit with the Kizashi platform. Not sure how true that is but that’s what I heard

golftango wrote:I remember reading before that the Kizashi was entirely in house and over engineered. So much to the point that Suzuki didn’t make any profit with the Kizashi platform. Not sure how true that is but that’s what I heard

I've read the same. I've read in multiple sources that Suzuki spent over a billion USD on developing and producing the Kizashi. It was supposed to be a game-changer for Suzuki as a first of a line-up of larger vehicles for the brand to expand into the midsize sedan and CUV segment. They were counting on the Kizashi to challenge the Camry and Accord much like how the Hyundai Sonata and KIA Optima came to do so. However, instead of eyeing them directly, they set their sights higher and chased the Acura TSX and the like as their benchmark. Hence, they really spent a lot of time and money into the vehicle. While some would say the powertrain was lacking for such an endeavor, keep in mind that Suzuki was eyeing a partnership to supply the engines for the Kizashi. They wanted VW engines but that never happened so the Kizashi was stuck with a dated carry-over engine from the Grand Vitara though they tuned it for the Kizashi. What was intended as the base engine became the only engine. Mixed in with bad timing during the global economic crisis, it just failed to catch on. The Kizashi then ironically came to serve Suzuki as it was named for: "Kizashi" means harbinger but also can mean omen in Japanese. When the Kizashi failed to succeed in the US, Suzuki took that as an omen and scrapped their plans to expand into larger vehicles (as they hinted at with the Kizashi wagon and Kizashi CUV concepts) and retreated back to their small car expertise. It was such a blow that they pulled out of the US and Canada given the car they were counting on failed so miserably. They then doubled down on their niche as a small car maker with strengths in Asia.

The Kizashi was a costly mistake for Suzuki but the car itself wasn't really at fault. It was bad timing mixed with other shortcomings in business decisions. While it was a global flop, the Kizashi was a vehicle specifically designed for America. Hence, it didn't really make too much sense in other countries (gas-only engine, too expensive, Japan-only production, etc.) and it was obvious Suzuki wasn't too eager to sell them elsewhere since pulling out of the US. It seemed that Suzuki became complacent with dwindling the global sales of the Kizashi after landing a fleet contract with the Japanese government. This is why Kizashis are used as marked and unmarked police cars in Japan for various cities.

If there is any real fault with the car, I'd have to say it's the quality of the paint. From the body to the wheels, the paint is way too thin and soft so it chips easily. Other than that, the car is truly a product of Suzuki's best efforts and in my opinion, it shows. It's a car of sad circumstances and orphaned status in the US, but even after owning it for 5 years, I can't say I regret getting one at all. It's rewarding to drive, reliable, and a stellar value on the used market.