Kizashi Club

Hi All,

I was hoping to get some candid feedback on your experiences with owning a Kizashi. Would you recommend buying one to someone new? How has reliability been for you since owning it? How many miles have you racked up thus far?

YouTube videos pretty much capture acceleration/CVT as the main gripe.

I live on the west coast in USA.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

seetharr

I would, but I'm capable of doing a lot of my own maintenance/repairs.

I would absolutely NOT get one with a CVT, under any circumstances.

I have found my three Kizashis to be the most reliable and durable cars I've owned.
Since 1972........

Frankly, even though I've had three, and added over 300K miles to them, I figure I'm just lucky.

Your results may vary.



2011 AWD S 164K
2012 AWD GTS Sport 135K
2013 AWD SE 74K (and climbing....)

Not unless I could find a very low-mileage, 1-owner complete w/ service records (not CarFax's BS either) somewhere. I'm not a big fan of buying OPP used (other peoples problems) to begin with. But, under the aforementioned circumstances (slim to no chance), yes I'd buy another one, and, preferably an AWD CVT again. Great car. Exceptional car.

I would. I'm on my 2nd one. I found a low mileage 2013 SLS and it's just an amazing car. If you take care of it, it'll take care of you. But, I would not buy one unless it had low miles, (ie 50k or less).

Short story Yes and i would recommend any suzuki over any other car to anybody. (only "trouble"= rear shocks and I am not 200% convinced about the electrical power steering rack but future will tell).

Ok, thank you all for taking the time to leave your 2 cents based on specific experience.

seetharr

The Kizashi is a great car for the money and I would recommend it in any form. As others have stated, try to find one that's lower on the miles if it has a CVT. For a manual transmission version, the car is virtually worry-free. The engine is of older but tried-and-true technology that should deliver 300,000 miles on regular maintenance. It's a straightforward inline 4 cylinder with multiport injection with a timing chain. It's the transmission that is the weakest point of this car (really any car) but a manual trans basically negates that worry.

As some others have alluded to, it has a very low resale value and parts are harder to find but if you plan to keep yours a while and can do some maintenance and repairs on your own, it's a phenomenal car for the value.

I would. Matter of fact, I was looking at one in the MD area a few weeks ago. 2011 SLS AWD with about 40K on it. It ended up gong for about $8500 I think. I'd give it a good going over and make sure the CVT is not making any unusual noises. Then I'd get the fluid changed right away. If you get a 2013 with less than 100K miles, it would still be under warranty until sometime in 2020 as it has a 7/100 power train warranty. I've had mine roughly 70K miles and the only thing that's been done to it other than normal maintenance was... wait for it... The CVT was replaced under warranty at 76K miles. Without any hassles from Suzuki.

Absolutely man! It is an amazing ride, mine has a 100k miles on it and runs better than it did when bought new. Every year, I test drive the latest BMW 340D and the c class, and let me tell you, that the Kizashi is not at all inferior to those cars, if you take into account the sound insulation, acceleration and the breaking. I felt the Merc has the noisier cabin among the three.
The new 3series and c class have some weird gear shift levers, which I would never want to get used to.
Also, I am not sure if going with any German car for a 100k miles would have been as trouble free and cheap as it has been for me with the Kizashi.