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By
Michael Karesh on February 9, 2011
Maybe it was my lukewarm review. Or maybe it was because Suzuki’s most ardent attempt to date to appeal to Americans connected with only 6,138 of them last year. Despite the unintended acceleration media circus, Toyota sold more Camrys in the average week. Whatever the reason, Suzuki revised the Kizashi after just one model year, transforming the two top trim levels into “Sport” models. Substitute a six-speed manual and front-wheel-drive for the previous test’s CVT and all-wheel-drive, and the 2011 Kizashi certainly deserves another look.
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By
Michael Karesh on January 18, 2010
The dominant Japanese car companies remain uncomfortable with their nationality, doing their best to seem somehow American lest they provoke a political backlash. Even as unabashedly Japanese products have become prevalent in the intertwined worlds of TV, gaming, and toys, I cannot recall a car with so much as a Japanese name prior to Suzuki’s new Kizashi. Why Suzuki? Well, they’re too small in the U.S. to fear a backlash. And tagging a motorcycle Hayabusa didn’t exactly harm its popularity. Why “Kizashi?” The name means “something great is coming.” Well, is it?
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Recent Comments
W.Minter - +1 (except mls/km ;)) The XL1 shows the truth about vw engineering. They need more than 10 years to develop a 250 units halo car no one will ever buy...
jimbob457 - As you are from the Great White North we feel for you in our hearts, but we also are so sad. We weep for you and all your dreadful issue....
jimbob457 - Or if owning the little brute of a real Porsche 911 frightens you, buy a new dick.
PCP - Why should anyone want a specific iStuff connector? And which one, old or new? Look at the numbers first: http://techland.time.com/2013/ 04/16/ios-vs-android/...
Summicron - “Don’t you think it is odd that not one foreign car maker builds in Japan…?” What an excellent elephant-in-the-room question. But...
Scoutdude - You whipersnappers tuning your carbs with WBO2s, back in the day we new how to read spark plugs to see how the mixture was. Idle mixture...
CamryStang - Nobody mentioned VW’s “Unpimp Ze Auto” series?
porschespeed - As there’s Beetles running in the mid-8s, you might want to ignore the illiterati…
porschespeed - EFI “took off” in the early 70s. It was not a “black art” it just required tools that cost serious $100s of Ks...
porschespeed - Uhh… the ‘tuner’ crowd is still there in the hundreds of thousands. And guys still ride bikes like idiots on public...