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-   -   Maruti Suzuki Kizashi 2.4 CVT: Test Drive and Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/97050-maruti-suzuki-kizashi-2-4-cvt-test-drive-review-7.html)

Just a one question here :

If this car would have been from Honda or Toyota, people still would have said its costly? Because its from Maruti, i guess people are saying its costly. Same happened with Aria as well. Its a good car, people accepts but say its costly. If same would have been from any german manufacturer, people would have said its cheap ;)
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Just my thoughts. Nothing personal.

Thanks for the appreciation and 5* rating guys!

Right now on a tight schedule, so will reply to all queries by mid next week.

Cheers
sid :)

Space yes. But the other factors look like they are just added for the sake of argument, especially the drive and performance part. And if the K is quite near yet far to the Accord, how would you term the performance of Civic to the K ? Maybe "quite far, yet near" ?

BTW, the point I have made (even in the other thread with a comparo chart) was just that the K tends more towards the Accord than it does to the Civic. To clarify, if I were looking at the Kizashi, the other cars in contention would be the Accord and Camry, not a Civic or Corolla.

Hmm. The car has not yet rolled out here, but you already wrote it off as a resale disaster. And I would love to know how great the resale of a Sonata is. Heck it does not even sell, so what is the question of resale. And what issues do you see with availability and services for the K?

While most agree that the price could have been 1.5 - 2 lakhs lower, the OP went overboard with the 4-lakhs part. Maybe the agreement will help prices come down and a good car would get its due in the market.

All my points are made in respect to USA's sales and service network. And its a known fact it doesn't enjoy a great resale here. New sonata has similar resale as accord/camry.

And its a fact that premium sedans like this don't enjoy a good resale in India too. You know that, we have seen plenty of accords for less price on t-bhp.

While you may feel i added other points for argument sakes, its very important for me to consider a car as a whole(interior quality, space, drive, efficiency, ftd, living with it) and not only the engine and performance. So it looks like your requirements or thinking when buying a car is different than mine. You seem to be stuck on performance only, while i give importance to all aspects.

If you feel civic's 0-60 mph of 7.7s is quite far, yet near to kizashi's 7.5 second time, then i have nothing to say except, get your facts right.

source(civic): http://www.caranddriver.com/features...20_000-feature
source(kizashi): http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/...ad_test_update

man its just 0.2s of difference. You can't be serious when you say 'quite far, yet near'. If i put in a Civic Si, it will blow the covers of kizashi with a 7 second timing.

agree:

I thinks this can be best explained as the 'snob' value. The branding has a mojor impact on the pricing. Same goes for Bata and Nike comparision!

If this were launced by Merc or BMW, it would have been a bargain!

@chevelle, I thought we are discussing the Kizashi launch in India. BTW, Suzuki is almost non-existent in the US (in all my trips, I have seen more Hyundais than Suzukis) so the K would follow that line in sales, which is the opposite of Suzuki's presence here in India.

I agree that people buy a car with many factors in mind. Just that you seem to be negating the K on all counts - even those where it does good.

Some quick key factors:

• Mistaken by my comment on 4 lakh rupees price difference, I revise to two lakhs. The OTR price was high so taken into consideration.
• As compared top the vitara, this kizashi motor is smooooooooth yet raspy and sporty. Revving it is tremendous fun. The vitara was also driven prior to that but the motor seemed unrefined compared to kizashi. If you want, I'll drive the vitara 2.4 again and compare.
• Personally if I have to choose between the accord and kizashi, accord if you are chauffeur driven, kizashi if self driven. I am mostly self driven, so I'll pick up the kizashi for my use. Simply because of compact understated design, strong engine plus transmission combo (maybe manual for fun and high revving), balanced ride and handling and Maruti's service. But, it has to be priced between 14.5 top 15 lakhs, not more than that, ex showroom. The accord and superb have simply grown up and are leviathans by comparison. Yes, there are FTD skoda diesels but this motor is also too good.
• A little known but interesting fact was that at one time during the global economic crisis, the Kizashi programme was also cancelled by suzuki, but after 5 months, it was revived and the car saw the light of the day. Don't expect a second generation of this car in any time whatsoever.

Not sure about the state of tune of the Civic in the US, but the stock Indian Civic is not a very fast car, and it certainly can't do 0-60 mph (more or less same as 0-100 kmph) in anything like 7.5 secs. In fact, it is a good 2 more seconds than that. Civic may be fun to drive but you can't really call it quick, not at least in comparison with the Kizashi.

Refer article: Honda Civic 1.8 S MT specification - Know Honda Civic 1.8 S MT specs in India | CarDekho.com

Kizashi (MT anyway) is faster to the ton than Accord, Sonata, Camry, Laura TSI, Altis, Civic, Cruze and what have you (all Indian stock models by the way). AFAIK Kizashi MT is the only one in this gang that can get to a 100 kph from standstill in less than 8 seconds!

I think comparing the Kizashi to Civic/Altis on most parameters is quite unfair - It is definitely a segment above these cars. When I started following the launch of this car in India almost 6-8 months back, the value prop to my mind was Accord spec car at Civic like price from Suzuki stable, which sounded mouth-watering, but clearly the story has taken its turn another way.

Cant see many people calling it a Suzuki as opposed to a maruti :)

One question though, does it hold the revs in manual mode or does it auto-shift one's it is near the red-line?

Good expectation. But isn't it too much to ask for? :)

Great review sidindica.

One clarification. Is this not being made in India? Is this the reason for the high price point?

It is a CBU...Direct import from Japan.
And yes, thats one definite reason for the high price point. And I remember GTO mentioning (in elsewhere thread) that the being a CBU will result in higher On-Road price as well.

Yes, but we customers have the right to ask, right? And in a value-conscious society like ours, anything isn't too much to ask :D

Btw - SX4, is a very capable car - good engine, great space, appropriate GC, reasonable driving manners and fair amount of road presence. But a Honda Jazz (perhaps you'll agree that it belongs to a segment lower) sells for more than what SX4 does. Point is, Maruti/Suzuki have to compete on price and give phenomenal value if they want to have their products considered seriously.

Anyway, 10% more than Civic would have been OK for me to pay for Kizashi, 10% lower than Accord is not.

Yes. And yet not quite at the Accord/Camry segment, which reflects in the way MSIL priced it between both segments.

True. The pricing is clearly off by close to 2lakhs. I know that the K was on your list, but with the pricing gone awry, what are the options you are considering now ?

BTW, thanks for clearing out the performance part on how the Kizashi stacks against the competition. Looks like history will get repeated a la the Baleno, a good car screwed due to bad pricing. But then, it would be good if history also repeated for the KIzashi in the form of price-cuts, like it was done for Baleno and which made it a good option for many of us. Let's wait and see. :D

AFAIK, CBU has approximately 106% import duty as opposed to 60% for CKD. Hence the high prices. There was some news last year saying that the govt. is thinking of reducing these duties. But nothing has happened as yet.