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32 Comments on “What’s Wrong With This Picture?: Saving Private Suzuki Edition...”
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Isn’t this the same car we saw with a Saab grille a day or two ago?
The problem is it’s a Suzuki that looks good.
“Isn’t this the same car we saw with a Saab grille a day or two ago?”
I’d agree with that. Better looking than that Saab tho.
Way better looking that the Saab. Somehow more authentically Japanese-looking than the Accord, Camry and a variety of other things they sell in our country. Too bad it’s a Suzuki.
suzuki’s outside of NA are typically great, competative cars…
think mazda like…
…it looks nothing like the concept car from 2 years ago.
Wow, if it didn’t have the badge on the grille, I would have guessed it was some kind of new VW…
looks like the firstborn of a coupling b/w an Audi + Lacrosse (in a good way).
What’s wrong with the picture? The car is so watered down from the concept, that it has lost virtually all desirability. Blame Bob Lutz’s 1990’s Chrysler Corporation for actually whetting the appetite and then actually bringing such cars to market.
Here’s one rendition:
http://www.egmcartech.com/2008/03/06/2008-ny-auto-show-preview-suzuki-to-unveil-kizashi-3/
Here’s another (in metal)
http://www.ridelust.com/suzuki-all-grows-up-with-kizashi-3-concept/
Looks like a Lexus IS with larger headlights.
I see some Lexus IS, some VW Jetta, some Nissan Sentra, and a little Toyota Corolla in this thing.
Good God, is that a Suzuki-badged Epsilon?
Please. Make. It. Stop.
What’s wrong with the picture? The car is so watered down from the concept, that it has lost virtually all desirability
I will never understand why people are disappointed by this. I mean, we all knew that the Kizashi concept was never, ever going to resemble the production car. You’re right that, aside from Chrysler, it never happens. Concepts are either superdeformed versions of the production “design language” (Mazda comes to mind) or a a designer’s intellectual masturbation wrought in steel, chrome and—usually—clay (the Volt)
When it became theory that the Kizashi was going to be an Epsilon, that should have been a hint that the end result would look a lot like a Malibu or Lacrosse.
Good God, is that a Suzuki-badged Epsilon?
It’s a better Suzuki than the Swift+
I think it’s the first good-looking Suzuki sedan I’ve ever seen, at least from that angle. Suzuki obviously forgot to specify wheels and tires two or three sizes too small. And what ever happened to Suzuki’s top-secret internal directive that sedans must look painfully bulbous and awkward from all directions? At this rate, I might be inclined to briefly turn my head towards the lot next time I drive by a Suzuki dealership. Go figure.
paris-dakar :
July 29th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Good God, is that a Suzuki-badged Epsilon?
Please. Make. It. Stop.
Why? If it’s a good car, what’s the big deal?
The worst looking part of the car to me is probably the Suzuki emblem in the front, looks funny, other then that, it looks good.
That you can’t see that the Chevy engine.
Or….
That I can’t see a $28,000 Suzuki.
Why? If it’s a good car, what’s the big deal?
I thought the whole point of GM’s ‘reorganization’ was to stop all of this badge engineering. Now we’re going to have two Chevy Epsilons in NA, two Buick Epsilons in NA, another Buick Epsilon in China, a Saab Epsilon for Europe (and NA?), an Opel/Vauxhaul Epsilon, a Holden Epsilon and a Suzuki Epsilon. No word yet on a Daewoo Epsilon, but surely that’s coming.
And this is supposed to be the streamlined ‘New’ GM?
But I do agree, the Suzuki Episilon is probably the best looking. Sad thing is, typical to GM Product Planning, it’s also possibly the most redundant in the market – Suzuki’s Global Dealership Network is probably the weakest one to market a $30K MidSize FWD Sedan.
Saabzuki doesn’t roll off the tongue like Saabaru did, but it’s close.
I like the looks a lot. I used to own a Suzuki. It was a cheapo car, but very reliable.
Are brown cars making a comeback? This really is the new malaise.
I like it. It’s far better than the GMDAT garbage that they’ve been selling. I’d like to see Suzuki do well here.
Nothing wrong with that picture, good looking car. If I could get a loaded version for mid 20’s with 100K mile bumper to bumper warranty I might consider it. Now I just need to find a Suzuki dealer????
Why? If it’s a good car, what’s the big deal?
Because the concept Kizashi was such a cool car, while the production model looks like Just Another Epsilon (“JAE” henceforth), barely distinct from the Lacrosse/Regal/Insignia and only a little different from the Malibu and 9-5. People lay into Toyota and Honda for making boring cars, but at least they’re visually distinct, as is Ford’s Fusion. There’s not a lot of distinction between the various JAEs.
This has nothing to do with platform sharing, by the way. The Altima and Maxima share bones and look quite distinct (tortured, in the Maxima’s case, but still interesting). Of the first Epsilons there was a decent attempt at design language differences. But these cars? They’re late-2000s generic.
The Kizashi is also doubly disappointing because it was being touted as Suzuki’s renaissance car. Everyone likes to root for the underdog, and it was supposed to be the vehicle that would make them a “real” make; the one that would draw the distinction between the “GX-R” Suzuki and the automotive company that, in North America, has been listless at best. The concept had some interesting bike-like detailing, absolutely none of which made it to the concept.
Consider the Furai and Nagare versus the Mazda6. You can see where the design language went, even though it’s been toned down for production. It’s a distinct, if polarizing, look. This is just so forgettable it’s truly sad. Nothing from the concept made it through; instead, we get the SX-4’s nose grafted onto a generic car.
There’s no point to this car. If they didn’t bother to differentiate the exterior, why should you choose it over the the inevitably-cheaper GM clones, let alone the rest of the field?
It was leaked one day before the Kizashi’s official North American debut.
Are brown cars making a comeback? This really is the new malaise.
Yep.
That said, there’s a lot of nice browns out there. check the Venza, EX35 or Rondo for examples. Really nice, really rich colour. Looks gorgeous, especially in bright light.
It’s quite amazing the impact that Audi has had on the most recent generation of cars. What will happen when they do something different?
That raises an interesting point: some people are complaining it’s just a re-badged epsilon shill but in the same thread you see many “it looks like a…” comments. The plain truth is that so many cars these days are converging on the same design elements, you can expect cars to look alike across different companies regardless of whether they share the same guts.
Some companies are trying to differentiate some models but that’s hit and miss and generates monstrocities such as the Acura TL.
Links to the official Kizashi NA reveal:
ASMC press release
Kizashi reveal video
The latest word is that the Kizashi is not on the Epsilon platform, and is instead on a home-grown Suzuki platform. At least that’s what the newly-released press blurbs are saying.
The latest word is that the Kizashi is not on the Epsilon platform, and is instead on a home-grown Suzuki platform. At least that’s what the newly-released press blurbs are saying.
But it looks so real!
And the J24B engine is apparently not the same as the GM 2.4L unit.