MIMS: Kizashi V6 delayed, not deceased

Reports of the death of the V6 Suzuki Kizashi are premature. The mid-size car was unveiled in Sydney last year, but wasn't on the stand at the Melbourne International Motor Show. There's nothing suspicious about that though, says Suzuki's local MD, Tony Devers.

"We sent [the car that appeared in Sydney] back, I think it went to Spain... It does all the rounds, but production starts in June for Europe."

The Carsales Network asked the bleeding obvious question: would it not have been better to have the car here in Melbourne for the only capital city motor show in Australia for 2009?

"If we'd known... and closer to the launch, it would have been better," Devers responded. "It's an expensive exercise; about a hundred grand to air-freight it over, special packaging and things like that."

"The production model is due for the Tokyo motor show -- and whether the Tokyo motor show goes ahead is another issue."

Production for the Kizashi starts in the fourth quarter, making Australia one of the first export markets to see the car. This is a reflection of the importance of the Australian market to Suzuki, according to Devers.

"We're one of the few markets for Suzuki that is actually growing, so they have a lot of confidence in us and they're giving us a lot more support and emphasis. Our volume is still quite small, but everything helps -- and when they see us growing by 10 per cent a year, they're looking at us."

When the Kizashi arrives here, priced "ideally $30,000 to $45,000", it will be pitched by Suzuki against "Mazda6, Euro -- and probably at the bottom end, Camry," Devers advised.

"We want to have a broad spread; we're going to have an upmarket model."

Suzuki will be following a marketing strategy similar to that employed by Mazda for that company's Mazda6.

"Mazda6 is probably the benchmark, in that segment. If we can get a tiny share of that, we'll be happy," says Devers.

"As you're probably aware, we're launching with the four-cylinder variant first. [The V6] is postponed.

"Hopefully, there'll be two variants; we're looking at all-wheel drive and the standard [FWD] car. That will be the first quarter of next year; our production is November/December."

All-wheel drive was to be the preserve of the V6 variant -- definitely not killed by Suzuki, according to Devers, just waiting for a more propitious time to appear. There's a possibility that we'll see the all-wheel-drive system in the four-cylinder variants that will arrive in Australia first.

"Whether we can get [the four-cylinder AWD variant] into our market is an issue, but the engineers are working on it. They've got the all-wheel drive model set up, but whether we choose to bring it in..."