Short Take Road Test
Suzuki’s press materials say the Japanese word kizashi “tells that something great is coming.” In English, it sounds more like Snoop Dogg adding some of his “izzle” dialect to the Kashi brand of health foods, as in, “I started the dizzay with a bowl of Kizashi Go Lizzle, fo’ shizzle,” but maybe that’s just us. At any rate, the Kizashi name is stuck in our head.
Ambitious—but Anonymous
Aside from the name, the Kizashi has “anonymous” written all over it. The styling is handsome but inoffensive, the spec sheet is solid but unremarkable, and Suzuki isn’t much of a household name unless you dig motorcycles. In spite of that, it’s a car that sticks in our brain as much as the catchy name. A lot of that has to do with the Kizashi’s size. As we’ve mentioned in a previous road test of a front-wheel-drive model, the 183-inch-long Kizashi comes in 11 inches shorter than the Honda Accord. Size-wise, the Suzuki is closer to the Acura TSX, BMW 3-series, and Volkswagen Jetta.
Suzuki wants you to think of the 3-series and the TSX when you look at the Kizashi. And for the most part, it does an admirable job of playing the “luxury bargain” card. The interior surfaces feel solid, and padded inserts in the doors and a leather steering wheel (standard on all but the base S model) show that Suzuki is serious about selling a car that feels nicer than its sticker price. That image falls down in a few places, though, particularly the center stack. The radio and climate controls (an automatic dual-zone system is standard) use black-and-white LCDs that look as if they had come from competing ’80s-era clock radios.
Have Patience
For now, the Kizashi comes equipped with a 2.4-liter four as the only engine option, although its 185 hp puts it in the upper bracket of four-cylinder family-sedan power. A six-speed manual is standard, and a continuously variable transmission is the optional choice if you can’t work a clutch pedal. We suggest you stick with the stick unless you insist on all-wheel drive—which can be engaged or disengaged by a dash-mounted button—as it can only be had with the CVT. Our loaded SLS AWD tester took a ponderous 9.4 seconds to hit 60 mph, 2.2 seconds behind the front-driver. Not even the steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters, which simulate fixed gears for you to select yourself, could elicit a feeling of straight-line sportiness.
Fortunately, the ride and handling tell a better story, even with the slow and flabby AWD CVT model, which weighs about 200 more pounds than a front-drive manual version. The steering is nicely weighted and responsive, and the ride has a well-damped solidity rare in this price bracket. If it were 1989, we’d say the Kizashi has a European feel, but now we’ll just express that the Kizashi is satisfying to drive.
Charmingly Inoffensive
The bad news for Suzuki is that the Kizashi competes against the Volkswagen Jetta, which offers a similarly upscale feel at a lower price point (base prices are $18,355 for the Jetta versus $19,734 for the Kizashi). But in the Kizashi’s favor are a long list of standard features plus options that the Jetta doesn’t have, stuff like keyless ignition and that all-wheel drive (the cheapest AWD Kizashi starts at $22,484). Suzuki would rather compare the Kizashi to the TSX, which is a bit of a stretch. But this car is solid, unpretentious, and plenty of fun to drive. The name might be more memorable than the car itself, but we can’t help being charmed by the Kizashi.
