I frequent another place where there was some chat about the 'HJ backroom' , so I thought I'd log in for the first time in a coupla years, and resurrect a thread ;-)

I've got one of these and it's not too bad.

Well built, all the toys except SatNav. Doors shut with at least as much solidity as a VW.

Gearbox is perfectly adequate, if a little slow off the mark.

28-30mpg in town, 32-34mpg cross country, 38-40mpg on mimsing cruise.

4wd works fine - no drama pulling out of greasy T-junctions, no issues on last year's snow.

Headroom is tight if you're a lanky sod.

Paid about £12k for it at 4 months old and 4,000 miles. Now 17,000 miles and just over 2 years old and WBAC value it at £9k on the nose.

Think of it as a cheap Legacy saloon, or a 4wd Jetta if they existed, and you're pretty much there.

Suzuki got the car wrong for the UK - 2.4 litre petrol when the market was moving to diesel and the smaller petrol market was moving to turbo engines in performnce cars. However, Suzuki cars still exist in the UK with their small runabouts & their Vitara.

The last hundred or so Kizashi cars were sold off around £13/14,000 with del miles about 2 years ago - tremendous value & you were unlikely to spot another one in the supermarket carpark - a plus for some who want to be different.

In the USA Suzuki cars are no longer - exited the market - Bikes & outboards are still big business but the car division closed down their network.

Apparently the name is Japanese for something like "A sign that something great is coming".

Um, ok.

Sales were weak in almost all markets although the car was well regarded by most reviewers.

Suzuki over-engineered the car - it has running gear capable of handling 250hp but lumped in a tuned Vitara engine with around 175.

I reckon they should have aimed for retired gents/ladies and shod it with 16" wheels rather than 18s, and given it a 5-10 year warranty to get the sales in if they really wanted a 'halo' model.

I suspect Subaru are only hanging on here because their 5 year warranty has kept attracting private buyers (although they are apparently selling record numbers in the US).

Suzuki on the other hand are still selling a decent number of good small cars (and the new Vitara looks like value for money from £14k and realistic 40-45mpg from the petrol version).

I still reckon it was a bargain and am pleasantly surprised it doesn't have Citroen XM levels of depreciation!

10 speaker stereo (inc subwoofer) is very good, and even has a tilt/slide sunroof (although it's rather small compared to the one on my Forester).

Kizashi is to Suzuki what Phaeton is to VW I guess!

Edited by Lygonos on 20/12/2015 at 18:56