Maruti Suzuki’s pavilion was for sure a favourite pit stop for many visitors who came to the 10th Auto Expo held at New Delhi.
The reason behind this was that the country’s largest car manufacturer has lined up an array of cars at the pavilion. There were concept cars, cars for the mass and then the once car which everybody wanted to see it in their own eyes. The Suzuki Kizashi.


Maruti Suzuki has been a master of the small car segment on India since long now and they are very happy and proud about it. But Maruti is still to conquer the bastion of luxury cars and premium cars in India. They have not met with much success in their previous outing with the Baleno. But then Maruti Suzuki re-charted their strategy to bring in the SX4 as a replacement for the Maruti Suzuki Baleno which met with moderate success.

The company also bought in the sedan version of the popular Maruti Suzuki Swift called the DZire and went on to be the market leaders in that segment. Now Maruti Suzuki wanted to ply in the segment where the big players of the automotive world in India play, the D-Segment. Keeping the D-segment as a strategic entry point for its luxury models in India, Maruti Suzuki conceived a car which the world would WOW at. So along came the Kizashi.

Kizashi in Japanese means “A sign of great things to come” and true to the name the Kizashi is a new synonym for Sportiness and elegance. This car is a combination of Japanese quality and European style flair. Suzuki Kizashi is the sixth World Strategic model from the Suzuki Motor Corporation’s stable. Suzuki bills this car as the new stimulant for D-segment choice with engaged driving and lifestyle enjoyment.

There were two Suzuki Kizashi adorning the Maruti Suzuki pavilion at the Auto Expo. The first Kizashi was draped in Snow White Pearl colour body paint while the second Kizashi wore Star Silver Metallic body clothing. Suzuki Kizashi is powered by a 2.4 litre VVT petrol engine coupled with a six-speed manual transmission and equipped with Continuously Variable Transmission which delivers a huge peak power output of 131 kw @6,500 rpm. The cars showcased at the Expo had a 2-wheel drive and 4-wheel drive options as well.

Design Concept of Kizashi

The design concept of the Kizashi that was envisioned by the designers was that of a dynamic athlete in motion. And therefore the designers had to keep three points in mind and those were
• A body honed through daily training for victory.
• Consistent great emotional strength and willpower for tackling
New challenges
• Powerful presence of a winner.
As the designers started working on these three points to churn out a car that could be a clear winner they also came up with Suzuki design philosophy characterized by expressions of solidarity, stability, quality, and thematic clarity.

Styling, Comfort, and Convenience

Suzuki Kizashi has a bold and aggressive styling that imbibes the Japanese craftsmanship and European-style design. This car is tailor made for driving enthusiasts and is complemented by 18’’ aluminium wheels. The styling is contemporary which communicates both sophistication and performance.

The cabin reflects Suzuki’s expertise in space efficiency in proportions that optimize roominess and comfort by extracting maximum benefit from the space afforded by the D-segment dimensions. This certainly was a task that Suzuki Motor Corporation did with precision though this was the first attempt of Suzuki to dabble in the D-Segment car building.

The interior design is upscale which falls in line with Kizashi’s performance characteristics. Driving enthusiast certainly will appreciate the sporty, chic instrument panel, and customers seeking luxury will be pleased with appointments that include high-quality upholstery and an automatic air conditioner with independent left and right controls.

The luggage bay is also not compromised with Kizashi’s optimal proportions. The immense boot, offers huge space for all the bags for a long holiday drive with the family.

Performance and Handling

Suzuki Kizashi has an exceptionally rigid steel uni-body and reinforced Macpherson-strut front suspension and multilink rear suspension that afford a crisp and nimble handling with excellent stability and low chassis vibration. This technologically brilliant car is engineered to accommodate all-wheel-drive. Customers can choose a newly developed i-AWD system that evokes driving enthusiasm while promoting control. Kizashi’s braking is also a state-of-the-art with all-round disk brakes that include 16’’ ventilated front discs that deliver confidence-inspiring stopping power.

Suzuki Kizashi is a product of constant testing and tuning conducted in diverse conditions around the world. Kizashi was tested in extreme conditions like coldest Minnesota and hot-weather Death-valley in North America. The handling of the car was tested in challenging country roads of United Kingdom and on autobahns and the Nurburgring in Germany. The i-AWD system of the Kizashi was tested and tuned in New Zealand.

The superior body rigidity and suspension efficiency of the Kizashi is just marvelous as the noise and vibrations are extremely low thanks to the optimized aerodynamic efficiency.

Safety in the Kizashi

Suzuki Kizashi sports an outstanding range of safety technologies to ensure high levels of driver confidence and control. The standard Active-safety equipment in the Kizashi includes an anti-lock braking system, electronic braking-force distribution, and an ESP with traction control that heightens driver confidence by promoting stability during cornering maneuvers, acceleration, and emergency maneuvers and on slippery roads.

Passive-safety features include a light, energy-absorbing body in which structures that absorb and disperse impact energy are combined with a deformation-resisting cabin in line with Suzuki’s proprietary Total Effective Control Technology (TECT) concept. The front seatbelts have pre-tensioners and force limiters. Suzuki Kizashi also features six to eight airbags, depending on market needs for further protection.
Maruti Suzuki has made no official announcement of the pricing of Suzuki Kizashi, but it is expected to be in the range of Rs. 10 Lakhs to Rs. 13 Lakhs based on the options. It is going to be a good competition for Honda Civic , Toyota Corolla , Skoda Octavia and Chevrolet Cruze.

No doubt, Maruti Suzuki India right now has a product it always wanted to serve as a launch pad for the D-Segment in India. With the Suzuki Kizashi, Maruti Suzuki has a clear winner in their hands.