Kizashi Club

They're already widely used IMHO - some manufacturers I can think of using them are : Subaru, Suzuki, Toyota, Honda, Nissan/ Renault, Mitsubishi, Audi, Mini...

If they prove widely problematic I'd imagine an exchange system would start up. I know Mazda did exactly that with the Mazda 6 when they had widespread problems with their older 4 spd autos. Dealers could order rebuilt transmissions and swapped them straight over.

I don't know if there are CVT specialist workshops starting to appear locally?

This is interesting to read: http://www.torquenews.com/1083/how-2014 ... nsmissions

Nissan started the ball rolling but it seems Toyota are producing the best cvts at present. It would be good if the Toyota cvt was in the Kizashi. Having said that I've had my Kizashi for almost two years now and up until recently I've probably been overly careful with it. I'm now starting to push it a bit harder and understanding the cvt better and with that I'm also enjoying it more.
As far as insurance goes the Kizashi does'nt seem to be overly expensive in fact from memory when I first insured mine the premium was less then my 2000 Camry despite value being much higher.

This is worth a read: http://www.kizashiclub.com/forum/viewto ... =12&t=3158

tarheelmt wrote:Hello all, I'm new to the forums and on my first post I would like to say that I think the Kizashi is a really awesome car! That being said, I've had some issues as of late with my CVT. I noticed within the last few weeks that if I do a lot of stop and go around town on hot days, my transmission will start to have a whine sound. I know there is already a post about this extensively but I wanted to see if any one else had heard of the solution that Suzuki's technical support told my certified Suzuki mechanic. After taking it in, the mechanic ran all the diagnostics on it and found nothing wrong. However he called Suzuki and they stated that the problem is it needs an update to the transmission which includes a deeper drain pan, longer dip stick, new gasket, and new fluid. They stated that the drain pan on it doesn't hold enough fluid and therefore on hot days or when the tranny is running hot on long trips, it is cavitating the fluid in the drain pan and sucking air up into the pump. This is where the whine is coming from. So therefore they say it needs this "update so it will have enough fluid to run correctly. My car has over 100k miles however my mechanic argued to Suzuki that they should be responsible for paying for this because it wasn't made right from the factory and there are no bulletins/recalls on it. Suzuki's tech support apparently became smart with the guy and told him absolutely not. I called Suzuki myself and got the same answer saying that it wouldn't be covered because it is over 100k. Has anyone else had this same exact issue and did you have any luck with Suzuki? Thanks!

I read this, it's quite interesting and concerning at the same time. Should we and can we push Suzuki Aus to update out cvt's? It would be good if we could get something in writing from Suzuki.

Yes it is very concerning. It would be good to get a reaction from Suzuki Australia.

On reflection, it seems strange the problem only showed up at 100 k kilometres. If it is a fundamental problem why didn't it show up earlier? I drove mine last February in Melbourne when the temp was in the mid 40s and nothing like that happened. David, do you know if this was raised when the issue first surfaced?

I've got no idea- mine's a manual, so I just sort of skim the CVT posts out of interest. I agree with you that it's strange the problem surfaced at that high a distance.

PS: My bet is Suzuki Australia will deny all knowledge of any CVT update/ TSB.

I just phoned the Suzuki Australia 1800 number and I guess predictably was told they are not aware of any issues with the cvt. To be fair he seem to be quite open and genuine and said this was the first enquiry he had received in relation to possible problems with the cvt. He also said the same as my dealer mechanic in that he hadn't heard of any issues with any Suzuki transmissions and sometimes local mods can cause issues. I pointed out to him that Suzuki does not want the mess that VW found themselves in and he seem to agree and said Suzuki are proactive with fixing faults and quoted a recent minor issue with a bolt on the Swift. He told me if a problem does develop with my Kizashi by all means take it to my dealer for investigation.
I also agree it's strange this problem would take so long to develop. I mostly dive my Kizashi on long distance trips including from Sydney to Gold Coast and return four times in the last 12 months and Sydney down to Murray river out to Broken Hill, Adelaide, Great Ocean road then back up to Sydney in the middle of summer all with no hint of any trouble.
I guess we have to wait and see.