Wow CLLee - bit of an ordeal! interesting that I am also in Australia and I got a way different experience with a battery under 3 years old..... am in Adelaide, but you'd think this would be a nation-wide type of deal....

I agree with Murcod. my battery started dying a few weeks back. the first thing I noticed was: a) increased cranking on start b) the trip computer / mileage etc all reset every time the car was switched off and restarted. I recommend taking it to a suzuki dealer with a service centre to get checked....

Totally different class of car though! True! Though I was recently suprised by the low(ish) price of the Toyota.. I think If that was around at the time I was buying the Kizashi.. I'd have seriously considered it. The current Toyota and Subie are what I wished the Kizashi had have been in some ways...

Ahh ok cool- thanks. The battery was not dead.. the car was still cranking.. just very very very slowly and for a long time. I guess because the only error raised was the yellow exclamation mark and "service start system" error which in the book is rather non-descript (just says to take it...

In the last 2 days, my '10 XLS had been hard to start. It didn't crank at all. You try again and it would crank very slowly then stop. Then youd try again and it would crank slowly then start. Would drive fine but noticed all the data it had gathered on MPG and Avg Speed etc had all been wiped out. ...

Hmm if I was in the hunt again at the moment I'd be seriously looking at a Toyota 86 or a Subaru BRZ i think. But I agree the new Mazda 6 looks good!

Ive done a mutual acknowlegement wave to other kizashi drivers a couple of times.

it's like we are part of a secret group that only know the pleasures of the Kizashi

.. the only model ipod I've ever used on mine is a nano, and that has produced the error as well (if its of any help narrowing the issue down).

these days I just keep a usb drive permanaently plugged in and never have any issues.

Cheers

That sucks! I hope

a) You are ok?!
b) The Car is repairable?

I suspect the way this would be dealt with will depend on how wide rangign your issue is. The biggest thing to note will be: Does this happen ONLY on AM radio.. or do you notice it on FM radio, CD's and MP3's as well? if its across the board and your AVC is off, to me it sounds like classic 1st gen ...