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In Japanese, “kizashi” means “something good is coming.” For Suzuki’s sake, its all-new
2010 Suzuki Kizashi – which took a long time to finally get here — had better be good if the Japanese automaker thinks it is going to make a dent in the cutthroat midsize sedan segment.
Latest-BMW is Also Telling you When It Release .
Despite being the 11th-largest automaker in the world and one of the few companies that has remained profitable worldwide during these hard times, Suzuki remains a fringe player in the U.S., with American consumers more readily associating the name with its popular motorcycles. The niche status doesn’t have Suzuki discouraged, though. The automaker sees it as a challenge, and to that end have upped the ante in recent years with the compact, sporty SX4 and the good-looking and capable (albeit Nissan-based) Equator pickup. Now,
Suzuki is making its boldest move yet with the new Kizashi.
A ground-up design from Suzuki, the Kizashi is an impressive player on paper. Suzuki is promising a car with standard AWD, the most powerful four-cylinder engine in its class, and a premium interior. Suzuki bills the car as a premium vehicle without the premium price tag, a world-class sports sedan that anyone can afford. In planning the car, the sights were set not on entry-level midsize cars, but premium midsizers including the Alfa Romeo 159, Acura TSX, and Volkswagen Passat, and, at first glance at least, it shows.
In order to stand out in the crowded midsize market, Suzuki is boasting that it’s upped the content for the Kizashi without upping the price. Under the hood is an all-new 2.4L four-cylinder engine with variable valve timing that Suzuki promises will out-gun any other four-banger in its class, though it’s not ready to reveal actual numbers yet. To live up to that claim, the engine will have to make more than 200 hp, which is impressive for a naturally aspirated four-cylinder. Suzuki likewise does not have official fuel economy numbers yet, but expects the car to easily crest 30 mpg with help from underbody trays that smooth out airflow under the car. For those who want more, the company is already developing a hybrid model and may add a more powerful engine in the future if there’s a demand for one.
The potent four-pot will be mated to either a six-speed manual or a CVT gearbox with steering-wheel paddles that will let the driver manually select six simulated gear ratios. More impressive, though, is that the Kizashi will come standard with the latest generation of Suzuki’s i-AWD system. What’s more, power delivery to the pavement is selectable. Normally, the car will send power to only the front wheels, but push the AWD button next to the steering wheel and the Kizashi will send up to 50% of the power to the rear for enhanced traction in inclement weather, or when you’re in the mood for some enthusiastic driving.
Enthusiastic driving in this case is not an afterthought, but a primary goal, Suzuki claims. Knowing full well just how cutthroat the U.S. midsize market is, Suzuki decided that performance and quality are the areas were the Kizashi needs to stand out from the crowd. To that end, the car was developed on the best and worst roads of Europe, Japan, and the U.S. to fine-tune the suspension for both every day comfort and sporting prowess. Suzuki engineers settled on an extremely rigid frame hung on a MacPherson Strut setup in front and a multi-link suspension in the rear with KYB shocks all around. All four wheels are clamped by Akebono brakes, and Suzuki assures us that its engineers set the threshold for stability control intervention quite high to allow for as much spirited driving as possible without deactivating the safety net. Rumor has it that the Kizashi prototypes were able to lap Germany’s famed Nurburgring in as little as 8.5 minutes, in the same territory as the 260-hp turbocharged Chevrolet Cobalt SS.
As much as the Kizashi is about performance, it’s also very big on safety. In addition to standard traction and stability control, the Kizashi also features a tire pressure monitoring system, LATCH points for child car seats, and electronic brake force distribution, and is programmed to transfer torque to the opposite end of the car that is losing traction to regain control. The Kizashi also comes standard with a class-leading eight airbags including front airbags, front and rear passenger side airbags, and front and rear passenger curtain airbags. In fact, the Kizashi is actually designed to meet just-announced 2014 crash test standards, which for the first time include a test that simulates crashing into a telephone pole.
As much attention as Suzuki paid to the Kizashi’s performance, a great deal of effort was also put toward crafting a premium interior for customers as interested in being comfortable as they are in driving fast. The interior is filled with soft-touch cloth and plastic materials that have been sculpted into a conservative but elegant design. The driver is treated to a keyless push-button starter and a nicely shaped, three-spoke steering wheel that, like the gear select and parking brake, has been wrapped in leather and features built-in audio and cruise controls and both tilts and telescopes for perfect positioning. Behind the wheel, the gauge cluster looks almost as though it could’ve been borrowed from a low-end Mercedes-Benz and features a multi-function display tucked between the primary gauges with fuel economy, range, and other information.
Over on the center console, Suzuki kept it simple with matte black controls and a very easy-to-use layout for the standard dual-zone climate control and Rockford Fosgate stereo. Other standard features include sport seats, rear A/C vents, automatic HID projector headlights, rain-sensing wipers, folding rear headrests for increased visibility and a USB port for MP3 player integration. Those willing to spend a little more will be offered an in-dash navigation system from Garmin, a back-up camera that displays on the nav screen, rear parking assist sensors for those that don’t need nav, an upgraded 425-watt Rockford Fosgate stereo with subwoofer suspended behind the rear head rests so as not to intrude on the cavernous trunk, Bluetooth connectivity for both your phone and music player, and heated leather sport seats.
While Suzuki did well trimming the interior, it isn’t completely devoid of foibles. Though easy to use, the center stack is a bit plain and boring, and the steering wheel could be a bit meatier. Rear seat leg and headroom are excellent, though there’s an odd bulge in the roof just ahead of the rear passengers’ heads needed to make room for the sunroof. The overhead lighting, meanwhile, looks very dated. For a first try, though, the Kizashi looks like an impressive offering.
Outside, we’re pleased to see that the slick styling from the Kizashi III Concept translated fairly well to the production car. While it isn’t the wide, low street fighter that the concept was, it retains sharp, modern looks and an aggressive stance. Larger headlights and air ducts around the fog lamps take away from the widebody look of the concept and make the car look taller and narrower, but the overall look of the car remains. The rear end has likewise been toned down, but it evokes the spirit of the concept. What really sets the Kizashi off, though, are the big wheels lurking below the bulging fender flares. Though 16-in. rollers will come standard, Suzuki will offer wheels up to 18-in. with low-profile tires. The models we saw wore sticky Dunlop SP Sport 7000 tires stretched to fit around the 18-in. alloys.
At the initial reveal, Suzuki showed two different Kizashi models. The silver car, with its less aggressive fascia and painted wheels, is the actual production car. The gold car, meanwhile, is a project Suzuki has been working on and may someday see production as a special edition car or higher trim-level. It featured sharper lines on the fascias as well as chrome trim below the fog lights, big chrome wheels, and some carbon-fiber trim bits inside. Suzuki plans to keep the number of trim levels relatively small by offering a large amount of features standard. The other trim levels offered, though, won’t just be groups of big-ticket items. Staying true to its performance promise, Suzuki says that buyers won’t, for example, have to order all kinds of extra equipment to match up options like premium 18-in. wheels with the manual transmission.
