If we were Suzuki, the eye-catching/mind-boggling Kizashi would have been here. In fact by now, Honda would have scampered back to the drawing board to make a new Accord and Toyota would have likely slashed Camry prices. Segment leader Skoda Superb would have been discontinued, and the company would have declared competing in this segment was not viable anymore.
As we are not Suzuki, sadly, the Kizashi isn’t here. It won’t be here anytime soon we’re told. Suzuki officials have confirmed that they will take the final call on the Kizashi’s Indian inning in the next two years.
They say there would be no point in launching it here if the demands are not satisfactory, a lesson they learned by launching models like the Vitara, Versa and the Baleno.
The 2.4-liter engined Kizashi is the Japanese car manufacturer’s first time model in the segments ruled by Honda, Toyota, Mercedes and BMW. The Kizashi uses the old and effective formula – every other feature, at a price less than anything else – a similar formula adopted by the successful Hyundai in conquering European and other far away lands.
Suzuki is known for its powerful spine chilling Gixxers and Hayabusas. In Europe, you would relate Suzuki to the Alto or the fun Swift. In India, you would relate them to the 800 and Omni, two cars that bolted wheels to India. When such a car maker opts in to play in the segment where there are no prisoners, you start to question to ideology behind the move. Sure, you could give a dozen airbags and a 1000 kilograms of electronics, but would the Americans, who love their Mercs and Beemers, want to trip in Suzuki luxury sedan?
Our sources in Japan tell us Suzuki’s D-Segment Kizashi project has been put on hold. Suzuki announced it had scrapped the 3.5-liter V6 engine in favour of a 2.0-liter engine, but now that engine’s development has also been halted. Don’t expect the Kizashi in India till 2011 or 2012.
Auto blogs in the blogsphere yesterday flashed news of Suzuki killing off the Kizashi project due to the poor economic conditions and that Osuma Suzuki had already hinted it’s ending last year- We too got you the story but we warned you it could all be horse shit bollocks as an official confirmation had not been made by the company then.
The company has made an official announcment, not to confirm that the project is dead, but to say it’s very much alive and kicking!
The Suzuki Kizashi will be Maruti Suzuki’s first D-segment car in India when it arrives in 2010. The Suzuki Kizashi is a stylish sedan, with so many Suzuki trademarks all over it’s body. Be it the raised boot-lid placement or the steeply raked windscreen, it’s oozing SX4 or Dzire from which ever angle you are looking.The twin exhaust that comes out the rear bumper adds to the aggression and is a nice touch.
These photographs are from Japan, the test mule was putting in some quick laps at the local race circuit. Will the Suzuki have the might to take on cars like the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry? Your question is answered if you know the answer to how many 20 lakh-car owners would like to run shoulders with Suzuki Alto and Omni owners.
Kizashi buyers will no doubt benefit from the ample availability of spares and unmatched Maruti Suzuki service back-up. Peace of mind, and lots of it.
The 2009-2010 Suzuki Kizashi has made earlier appearances when it was masked heavily under vinyl padding and when it was spotted sporting zebra stripes at the Nurburgring. Now, we have pictures of the Kizashi in a very distorted form – a crash test, to be precise. The 2009-2010 Suzuki Kizashi is eager to attack it’s D-Segment competitors like Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla Altis, Hyundai Sonata, Skoda Octavia and Volkswagen Jetta [ Read More ]
Well, well, look what we have got here- The 2010 Suzuki Kizashi which we were speaking about earlier the other day. Spotted sporting zebra stripes, the Suzuki Kizashi is eager to attack it’s D-Segment competitors once it steps on to India some day in 2009-10. It’s name might be changed, it might be the same, but we think it hardly matters. The Suzuki Kizashi was photographed by spy photographers at [ Read More ]
