Here’s the story of an automaker, long famous for making affordable transportation for the people. One day, it decided to add a new sedan to their line-up. This sedan would be bigger and more expensive than anything that came before. Despite the distractions with a potential takeover from a German competitor, they went full speed ahead.
Many previews and exciting concepts later, the car finally arrived, to the delight of every car reviewer, praising the car very highly, but also bemoaning in the same articles how no one would buy this car, how no one would know about it and the car is positioned on a higher market with better brands on a size it doesn’t belong to. As expected, sales didn’t happen according to forecasts. Sadly, the car doesn’t even last 4 years for sale in the U.S. market.
Soon after, the automaker’s executives describe the car as a headache and as an investment that hasn’t paid off yet. CEO remains silent.
What is the car in the story?
And the answer is: What is the Suzuki Kizashi?
The Kizashi concept, released in 2009, was gorgeous. Suzuki really went hard on it. The real production model was nowhere near this good looking. Remember this?
Many Moons ago, in 2015 the wife’s car had a nasty fender-bender. There were some candidates and criteria, and based mostly on budget, I settled on a 2013 Accord base Auto CVT and was about to get it, when a random search on that price range via CL (yeah, rookie move there) popped a unicorn car – This was a 2012 Suzuki Kisashi SLS AWD fully loaded with 60K miles in the odometer & about 60 miles away from me. 2-owner clean Carfax. I had to go see it.
The Kizashi had been reviewed and highly praised on their 2010-2011 versions, and the six-speed manual was the weapon of choice of every reviewer – and on that version, this car was better than excellent. However, no one reviewed the fully loaded AWD model with Navi, it wasn’t available until late 2011. There is a FWD CVT, which performs ok from stop-to-go, but has better gas economy, then you can have the fully loaded SLS AWD Auto with manumatic and shift-paddles and with all the bells and whistles: Parking sensors, rearview cam, BT for phone, dimming rearview mirror, memory seats. This one was the fully loaded model – the sticker was $29,800 in 2011 That’s nearly $39,000 today! Sold from MY 2010-2013 in the US until Suzuki bid adieu the US via bankruptcy.
My weird car cravings took over my rational brain too soon when I saw it back then. I hadn’t seen a Kizashi in the flesh, besides at a car show around these parts, so it was certainly very unique. I did a 5-mile test drive, and the car performed very well, however, there are day-to-day things that one cannot test on a test-drive. The car was immaculate, clean, and the interior was, as promised, a revelation. I overpaid by over $1,200 over average prices out there (lack of recent pricing research), but since I had apparently decided that the world needed more “cool” cars and less Honda Accords, I pulled the trigger.
Let’s chat about the car itself, The Suzuki Kizashi is a 4-door sedan, AWD on-demand equipped with a 2.4L 4 cyl engine, (only one available) that puts 180hp with the CVT – which has a 6-speed manumatic with shift paddles available. You get maybe 2-3 very loud extra horses of horsepower when merging in highways and frantically jerking the manumatic. Use the shift paddles instead, they do work very well despite this being a CVT. I really liked this CVT, which is strange because is a close cousin of the one in the abysmal Nissan Sentra and the Mitsubishis of that vintage.
No other car shared this platform, it was an all-new chassis developed by Suzuki. It was sitting awkwardly in size between small and mid-size. Neither there, nor here. Visually, in profile, it looks like a shrunken version of the 2nd gen Infiniti G35 sedan but it makes it work.
The rest of the car, is indeed, a new level for Suzuki and earns its unicorn status – 180HP and great driving feel, a quasi-Teutonic interior, good looking materials, amazing steering and a very composed chassis. The steering wheel is a revelation, and its controls feel a grade or two above its class on the fully loaded SLS. The extra body bits and bumper makes it a bit sharper than the base model. Also has larger tires, the seats are comfy and have warmers, very decent rear seat space and a large trunk. The dual climate unit is a study in great car design – works as intended, no manual needed to operate and looks great. Simple and efficient. It eats highway with ease and it’s composed at 90-100 MPH. The Rockford Fosgate speaker system is great and loud. Keyless entry and Keyless Start/Stop button with wireless keyfob are very nice touches in this class.
Once it gets going, (0-60 in almost 9 seconds on auto) the car is darty, fun and drives very composed in the highway, although the AWD button has no consequence in the driving dynamics and drive feel. This AWD is for work, not fun. The few toys that work are OK, but frustration lies ahead with them. If you were expecting a Japanese version of an Audi A4 2.0T Quattro here, you will come up short, but still will have fun anyway. It’s a very solid contender, but a LOT less than the sum of its parts with the AWD setup.
Reliability wise, it was nearly spotless: Only issues were some paint spots where the paint and clear were fading like the spoiler. Mechanically, the car only needed regular maintenance. The only extremely annoying part was that it would blew its front light bulbs every year, and the process does require taking the bumper off. By the end of the 3 years I could do the process myself in 30 min. But it is ridiculous that you do need to take the bumper off to do this.
However, all the goodness mentioned above can be had in the base versions of the Kizashi, and having your friend manuel along for the ride will (for all I’ve read) put a smile to your face for sure. It has the same hp as an Audi A4, and the driving dynamics are above its class. So, what’s wrong? Where does the Kizashi SLS AWD go wrong?
1) VERY LOW MPG – Here is the dirty secret of the AWD – it adds over 300 lbs of weight to the vehicle with little benefit. This translated to a city MPG of 19~! Yes, that’s from a 4-cyl engine made in 2012 with a CVT in 2WD mode. In the highway it may get to 30MPG, but usually you are gassing the car a lot more often than expected (small 15 gallon tank doesn’t help). Yeah, the SLS has 18″ wheels vs. the 17″ standard size, but the MPG is way too low still. Keep in mind that the manual will give you 24MPG and the FWD CVT 26MPG in the city. It is a thirsty car. This is supposed to be our daily driver for Bay Area traffic, and it only does 2MPG better than my 2005 VW Phaeton did in city driving – WTF?
2) OEM NAV/INFOTAINMENT (Late 2011-2012 only)– The worst offender in the uselessness sweepstakes is this Kenwood-sourced OEM navi unit. It has completely unnecessary shit (e.g. customizable backgrounds, video aux, DVD player) yet it lacks basic Bluetooth streaming and simple audio AUX ports (get this, it has an external video port plus, the iPhone cable solution here the one before the iPhone 5 – so it’s useless now) No amount of firmware updates will help. Also, there are NO inputs allowed to the Navi while driving, not even with a passenger. Again, it offers DVD playback but only works when the car is at a full stop (emergency brake required- WTF?) and the unit has the shittiest UI available. Lots of functions are crippled.
The Infotainment UI is very confusing, with multiple menus within the screen. The NAV is a Garmin system from 2008. I went out of my way to but a Kiz with Nav, and I should’ve not. That head unit lacks bluetooth for music (only calls) The 2013 Navigation unit is slightly better I’ve read. But I wouldn’t get it. Avoid the Navigation Infotainment if you can, it’s that bad.
3) CAR COMPUTER CLUSTER – The speedometer and rev counter look very nice, but there is a black and white dot-matrix screen in the middle of the cluster, made with the best technology sourced from 2002 – All it can display is the always-wrong computer MPG results, The always-wrong Trip speed average, inaccurate range left in tank, and has a useless ‘real time’ MPG bar chart that goes up and down from 0 to 60 MPG like a child’s toy and has no bearing in reality.
It is also duplicative, as all it does it deliver bad news, by adding a descriptive sentence to the dashboard icon light that lits up on top. So, you get 2 ‘diagnostic’ lights for every error, one on top of the digital screen (with regular dashboard icons) and the same one in the digital screen. It looks cool but delivers so little in real value and except for trip odometers, open door indicators, and tranny gear count, and odometer, the rest of the info you get is wrong. Really, Suzuki’s weak spot here is electronics, they can’t do’em right and they can’t source NAV right. Get the Kiz without Nav – it will do all you need and will be less frustrating.
4) FIT & FINISH – The interior is excellent so far, but avoid the sunroof, it robs your rear passengers out of two inches of height. The Kiz had a couple of slight dashboard rattles when we sold it at 118,000 miles. The exterior could use better workmanship for sure. The panel gaps and panel alignments are no better in the Kiz than in your average Suzuki Esteem. This car was supposed to be better. Specially the trunk hatch alignment, that looks off. Also, the trunk hatch feels so light and fragile in one’s hands. (The doors feel good though) The hood needs an old fashioned metal pole to hold it open. It also comes with some questionable auto body decisions, such as requiring the bumper to come off to change lightbulbs on the headlights. Some earlier 2010-2011 had some paint problems. So check yours closely.
5) EASY TO TOTAL – Eventually, after a good 4 years and after providing another 60,000 miles of service, where the only thing that went wrong was just needing 2 batteries and being a pain in the ass that needed new front light bulbs every 18 months with the bumper having to come off every time, the Kiz had a small accident and hit the rear of a car at around 5-6 mph – The front bumper with parking sensors cracked, along with a bit of the grill, and pushed the radiator back slightly. It looked easy to repair, but it lingered 4 weeks at the body shop, where no progress could get done because new Suzuki body parts weren’t available, and the used ones weren’t a match. So, the insurance eventually totaled the Kiz. I fixed the radiator and I bought it back from the insurance, and taped/tried to repair the bumper as best as I could, until we sold the car, still running very well.
I know that you must be thinking – “Your fault, you moron – why didn’t you pick the manual?” But this was the wife’s car replacement (she hates manual), we live in the Bay Area and that means taking family & friends to visit SF regularly, and those hills kill clutches faster than anything, so for this car, even I was on board for an Automatic. Plus, we wanted AWD if possible, for the 4-5 visits to mountains in the Tahoe area a year. The Kiz check marked the Japanese, 4CYL, AWD, with Nav boxes, in a budget, delivered a lot less than promised, but still had enough great qualities to earn some love. The engine is peppy, the paddles do work and make the car feel fast. The looks and interior are great. The tech is non existent in this car, barely and afterthought, but if that is not important, the car is a great, if flawed vehicle. Long live the Kizashi.
