Another week, another "debut" of sorts at Irvine's Cars & Coffee show. Last week we brought you pics of the Ford Ka and the Dunkel Brothers' luxury 4X4 RV, but this week it was Suzuki's turn to show off something new. Folks from the nearby Suzuki facility brought over an perfectly adequate SX4 and the car we were hoping to see in person, the all-new 2010 Suzuki Kizashi. The lighting was pretty harsh, but hopefully you can see what we saw while there: namely, one handsome sedan.
It could easily wear a VW badge on that grille, but the car we heard it compared to more often was the Saturn Aura, itself a smart-looking four-door. While the Kizashi doesn't seem as big as the Saturn, it's being pitched as an alternative to the even larger Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, VW Passat and Ford Fusion. The fit and finish looked good on this pre-production car, and the Suzuki's interior looked pretty well turned-out. Glancing inside, we might have mistaken it for a 2010 Mazda3. Nice materials and textures, with simple, straightforward controls and gauges.
Although Suzuki has targeted the Accord and Camry with this new segment-stretcher, the Kizashi seems closer in size to the Civic and Corolla in the flesh. It's perhaps a bit bigger than those benchmarks, but at least in this color and in this setting it didn't seem like the large midsize vehicle the class leaders are. At any rate, the Suzuki Kizashi is a good-looking sedan that should drive pretty well if reports are to be believed. It ought to be a bargain, too, with prices starting in the low-to-mid 20s. Hopefully, it won't be a case of too little too late if Suzuki can't draw more customers into its dealerships.
Suzuki has big plans for its new Kizashi midsize sedan. Not only is the Kizaski going up against the best selling automobiles in America (the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, that is), it's also reportedly tipped to carry the Japanese automaker's environmentally-friendly ambitions to new heights here in the States.
According to Japan's Nikkei newspaper (via Bloomberg), Suzuki's new midsizer is slated to offer an optional hybrid powertrain for 2011. A gas-electric motivator has been mooted for Kizashi for some time, but this is the first time a firm timetable has been established for the vehicle. If there's any truth to the rumor, this will make the Kizashi Suzuki's first hybrid automobile.
