Respect for the Kizashi

paininthenuts · Thu May 01, 2014 4:59 pm

I am from the UK, and only bought a Kizashi recently. The car was introduced to the UK about 2 years ago, and only came into the country in the top of the range version (the sport). As it happens I live only a half a mile from the UK head office, and a friend of mine got one as a company car. I was knocked back by it's outstanding appearance and asked him about the car. He told me it was incredibly quick, as well as having nearly every extra invented. I instantly fell in love with the car, but after being told the price tag was £23,000 ($34000) I wrote off the dream. Suzuki only brought in 500 cars into the UK, and fortunately for me they didn't market it. As a result the average car driver in England has no idea what a Kizashi is. Suzuki have given up the idea of selling the car in the UK now, and sold the last few to a large car supermarket. As a result of this I bought my Kizashi sport for £14000 ($21000). Now, I don't know much about car prices in the U.S. but in Britain $21000 won't buy you much of a car. I love this vehicle, especially it's ability to be a sheep in wolf's clothing.

Now stop your moaning about it's rubbish fuel economy, as you must have known that when you bought it. It is a well equipped and very fast car. It looks great (especially in white) and is very comfortable. The sound system knocks my socks off, and people stop and stare at it in supermarket car parks.

Please please please, enjoy the Kizashi, it deserves it !!

paininthenuts · Thu May 01, 2014 5:01 pm

Whoops, I meant a wolf in sheep's clothing LOL

Thu May 01, 2014 5:37 pm

Welcome! UK or not, that's a great price for a fully loaded Kizashi. Any pics?

paininthenuts · Thu May 01, 2014 6:08 pm

How do I do that, I tried to use a picture as my avatar, and couldn't even manage that ?

Thu May 01, 2014 6:27 pm

You can attach pictures to your posts under the message box

paininthenuts · Thu May 01, 2014 6:59 pm

Looks great in white

Thu May 01, 2014 7:25 pm

The Kizashi is a great car overall. It's not necessarily fast nor efficient, but overall, it's pretty good. One thing unique about it is that it's actually pleasant to drive. Many cars in the segment are not fun to drive and were built as transportation appliances. Many focus to isolate your from the road and driving experience. Suzuki did not want to go that route and deliberately focused on having the car handle well. I consider the Kizashi among the best handling FWD-based cars.

The Kizashi was criticized for being a bit overpriced at the higher trims when new. I would have to agree, but since then, the prices have fallen so they make great used cars for a really good deal.

Another aspect that is really under-appreciated about the Kizashi is its safety. It is really among the safest cars on the road. It has received the highest crash test grades in every IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, based in the USA) test except for the roof. It received an "Acceptable" which is the grade below the top-scoring "Good". However, when I reviewed the actually numerical data on the roof test, I saw that the Kizashi was merely decimal points from scoring "Good". It scored 3.92 and the "Good" threshold is 4.00. Yup, a 0.08 margin on a scale from 0.00 to 8.00. 0.08 from having the highest crash test grade in every test.
See it for yourself: http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/vehicl ... ki/kizashi

The Kizashi not only did exceptionally well in American crash tests, it did well in other ones like in Australia.
We've sadly had a number of members total their cars in accidents, but the photos of the Kizashi's safety components and engineering working to keep the occupants safe are very impressive.

Simply, the Kizashi is a well-made car that is quite rewarding, especially for its value. Yeah, I wish fuel economy was better but it's not bleeding me dry either, especially considering the grip of cash I saved on the car itself.

Suzuki has great engineers however, their business management is a mess. The Kizashi could have done a lot better in the market had Suzuki made better business decisions.

paininthenuts · Thu May 01, 2014 8:49 pm

We must have a different idea regarding "fast". Only today the child came out in me. I was driving the Kizashi quite gently, and a high spec'd Astra appeared up the arse of my car. I was doing about 40mph at the time, but decided to have some fun. I floored the gas and the Kizashi hit 95mph before I could take a breath. It's not an M3, but there aren't many saloons that can keep up in the UK.

Thu May 01, 2014 9:16 pm

paininthenuts wrote:We must have a different idea regarding "fast". Only today the child came out in me. I was driving the Kizashi quite gently, and a high spec'd Astra appeared up the arse of my car. I was doing about 40mph at the time, but decided to have some fun. I floored the gas and the Kizashi hit 95mph before I could take a breath. It's not an M3, but there aren't many saloons that can keep up in the UK.

I'm better acquainted with slow. My project car is a VW bus. Need I say more?
The Kizashi is not really a fast car; it's simply not slow either. However, it will easily be dusted by more performance-oriented cars that have larger displacements or forced induction. I'd say the 2.4 liter inline engine in the Kizashi is very adequate but more power would be fun.

nikrahiman · Fri May 02, 2014 9:15 am

paininthenuts wrote:I am from the UK, and only bought a Kizashi recently. The car was introduced to the UK about 2 years ago, and only came into the country in the top of the range version (the sport). As it happens I live only a half a mile from the UK head office, and a friend of mine got one as a company car. I was knocked back by it's outstanding appearance and asked him about the car. He told me it was incredibly quick, as well as having nearly every extra invented. I instantly fell in love with the car, but after being told the price tag was £23,000 ($34000) I wrote off the dream. Suzuki only brought in 500 cars into the UK, and fortunately for me they didn't market it. As a result the average car driver in England has no idea what a Kizashi is. Suzuki have given up the idea of selling the car in the UK now, and sold the last few to a large car supermarket. As a result of this I bought my Kizashi sport for £14000 ($21000). Now, I don't know much about car prices in the U.S. but in Britain $21000 won't buy you much of a car. I love this vehicle, especially it's ability to be a sheep in wolf's clothing.

Now stop your moaning about it's rubbish fuel economy, as you must have known that when you bought it. It is a well equipped and very fast car. It looks great (especially in white) and is very comfortable. The sound system knocks my socks off, and people stop and stare at it in supermarket car parks.

Please please please, enjoy the Kizashi, it deserves it !!

Paininthenuts...thanks for sharing...I'm getting delivery of mine this Sunday...can't wait ....