Maruti Suzuki Kizashi to be launched

The fact that almost the entire portfolio of India’s biggest car maker rests in the sub-Rs 10 lakh price bracket goes to say a lot about our automotive preferences and culture. Gargantuan successes in that space have given Maruti Suzuki its 45-percent market share – almost unbelievable in a free market economy. Rising aspirations have however meant that old and faithful Maruti customers have had to move on to larger cars with more substance and stature, and into segments where India’s most trusted car brand does not have representation. The Kizashi should arrive just in time to solve that problem with grace and pace.

When the car was launched in the Japanese, American and Australian markets in 2009, it came as whiff of fresh air in the neither-performance-nor-luxury mid-sized car segment, dominated by the likes of the Toyota Camry. The Kizashi came in with its great blend of style, performance and comfort and presented an aspirational sports-sedan option to masses used to buying simple, large, practical but generally unexciting cars for grocery shopping.

Just the fact that the Kizashi comes with a six-speed manual gearbox in a space that has over the years come to prefer automatic ‘boxes is a simple but straightforward sign of the sort of people the car is aimed at. The single 2.4-litre petrol engine for now is a cracker too, with 185hp and 230Nm of torque on the throttle. A CVT option is available in some markets, and if Maruti Suzuki decides to bring it in the car will be a prime competitor to the Nissan Teana in India, a very underrated but highly competent entry-level luxury car.

The first reported drive impressions of the car have been positive – most reviewers have liked the balance between the car’s agile handling and comfortable ride at the rear. The biggest challenge for Maruti Suzuki however will be to leverage the car in order to change its own brand perception and move towards the plusher end of the Indian automobile sector. The Baleno tried to achieve the same trick a few years back, but then those were different, less exposed times when the market found it difficult to appreciate the qualities of the car.

Like most Japanese words, the Kizashi means a lot of things. A hark for good tidings, a sign of better times, an omen and in some cases, a warning. Whether the car manages to send out a warning to the competition, or signifies better times for buyers and ups Maruti Suzuki’s image quotient in India, we’ll have to wait and watch. Watch this space for more hot blazing first drive of the Kizashi in the February issue of the ZigWheels magazine.