Kizashi Club

Hey guys, I'm new here and will hopefully be buying a Kizashi soon. I found this website by doing a Google search for some info on if the Japan natural disasters were going to halt production of Suzuki cars.

Over a year ago I bought a Forenza from Carmax because it was the cheapest thing they had and it was a fairly decent car. Funny enough I didn't know at the time that Suzuki even made cars, I thought they were just motorcycles, ATVs, and the like. Well, even though my little '06 Forena is lacking in most common amenities like cruise control, and the seats are hard as a brick, I have become a huge fan of Suzuki. My Forena has the best steering wheel, accelerator, and brake pedal sensitivities I've ever experienced in a sedan, truck, or SUV. Because those three things are the most important to me when driving a car (I'd rather have those than cruise any day), I decided to go look into a SX4. As soon as I pulled on the lot I saw two thing; how ugly the SX4 is and how sexy the Kizashi was. After talking to one of the salesmen for quite awhile, we got the price down down to be not too terribly much than what I am paying on my Forenza, AND my insurance would actually go down (go figure). So the manager went to go find me one as their lot is new and small, annddd...nothing.

I am looking for a Black, 6-speed GTS and apparently they just don't exist. I searched cars.com (not sure how reliable their info is) and they only found 7 in the entire nation. The dealer I went through scoured the east coast (I live in South Carolina) and all they could find were white ones in manual, or black in CVT. Anyone know what the deal is? Is it the Japanese natural disasters? Do people just not want manual transmissions anymore (I think I did read that only 10% of all the cars sold last year were) but hey, it's a sporty little car, who wouldn't want the MT. Is the manager at my local dealership just an idiot?

Also, I'm going to sneak one other question in here. As I won't be able to test drive a manual since the closest one is like 2 hours away in a S model, can someone tell me how the clutch reacts? I like a really sensitive clutch, meaning, it catches once I barely start to life my foot from the floor. Will the Kizashi provide this, or will I have to get adjusted to a late catch like in my ex girlfriends 97 Z3?

Thanks for any and all info!

Suzuki doesn't import many cars. There are 3 Suzuki dealers here in Houston, I have been to 2 of them. 1 gave up their dealership rights at the beginning of the year because they could never get any cars to have in stock. The other has maybe had 2 new Suzuki's on the lot at one time, and both of those were spoken for/sold.

My Kizashi had to be ordered from California.

I have heard that the clutch is VERY light. (Mine is a CVT, haven't driven the MT cars)

If you are not really stuck on the color, there is a RED 2011 GTS Sport 6SPD here in Maryland. Do check fitzmall.com and their Suzuki stock. I saw it last week when i went in for service.
It is a thing of beauty, thats all I could think of.

Most newer cars tend to grab toward the top on the clutch. I'm still hoping the bring back a manual AWD version... (The SX4 had a manual AWD version until 2008.)

@tc: funny that they complain about dropping sales over the last 4 years (sourced from one of the videos on this site I think), and yet, they aren't supplying cars to the people that do want to buy them.

@sj85: My dealer had a red SLS on the floor and I did think it looked gorgeous, however, it is a little loud for my personality and all I could think of every time I looked at is was speeding tickets.

@Moto: Even though it only snows once every 2-3 years down here, it definitely would be nice if they had a MT AWD. Even though I'm pretty frugal I would drop the extra cash on it.

I don't think I would drag all the extra weight around and pay the gas mileage penalty for a snow every 2-3 years.

With good tires and traction control on a FWD platform, AWD won't be too much of an advantage in those kinds of snows. If you lived in Colorado and were regularly driving on twisty snowy roads, the AWD would be a wise choice IMHO

Eric998765,

You now have joined the ranks of us that will not 'settle' for an automatic, and will need to either wait or look elsewhere. When I was looking for a new Kizashi I couldn't find a manual either (except for a couple in the midwest and I wasn't about to travel from the pacific northwest to buy a vehicle). So after the local dealer basically gave up, I asked them if I could contact someone from Suzuki about this lack of manual equipped cars. Amazingly, they put me in contact with the west coast distributor, and he basically told me they just do not import many manuals, as their is very little demand for them. What he DID do was let me know what was on a ship on its way to the west coast. At the time there were three, so I told him to tag one of them for me. By the way none of them were originally going to my dealer. About a month later it finally showed up on my dealers lot. And am very glad I waited.
Contacting a distributor (if your dealer will do that for you) might just help you find what you are interested in. At least he or she would be able to tell you where any 6 spds are. Whether you are willing to wait to get exactly what you want or you will compromise is entirely up to you. But from experience it is a B#$ch waiting!

The Forenza was a re-badged Daewoo, not a real Suzuki: here is a quote from Wikipedia:

"United States
Suzuki marketed a re-badged (Daewoo) Lacetti as the Forenza and Reno beginning in the United States in 2004 — following the end of Daewoo's North American operations in 2002 and replacing the Daewoo Nubira station wagon and sedan. The Forenza/Reno falls between the Aerio (later SX4) and the now-discontinued Verona. In the territories of Guam and Northern Mariana Islands, it was sold as a Chevrolet Optra, but it was only available as a sedan.
The US model line features the 2.0 L 4-cylinder E-TEC II made by Holden, developing a maximum power of 126 horsepower (94 kW) at 5600 rpm.
Automotive News says the Forenza and Reno will be discontinued within the 2008 model year, and the Reno has been replaced by the Suzuki SX4 sedan after the 2008 model year. The 2010 Suzuki Kizashi, a large compact sedan, replaced the Forenza."