Kizashi Club

Hey guys,

I haven't posted in a while but I used to be very active on this site. I am leaving the club to no fault of the Kizashi. I hope my departure gives some relavent facts and stats for any current owners. I did enjoy my time with the car, but I am moving on. About two weeks ago I hit a deer on a turnpike exit ramp going about 40 miles per hour. The car sustained heavy cosmetic damage to the hood, the front bumper, headlight assy, and drivers side quarter panel. My insurance, Traveller's, estimated the work to be 4,950 dollars to fix the car. I was driving an '11 SLS sport Manual Trans with the nav system, 55k miles on the odometer. After a week and a half in the shop I was told that it was totalled. The body shop was a Traveller's body shop and they explained that they could find no parts to fix the car and that they couldn't even find used parts. They totalled the car over 5k in costs??!! I purchased the car about 2 years ago with 28k miles on it for 14,750. Insurance gave me a check for 12.5k...not too bad. I am bummed that I am out about 2 years of payments, but I got to car shop again. I eneded up with a 2013 loaded Hyundai Azera. So thanks for a good online community and all of the info everyone! Good luck and I hope no one gets in an accident in this car...it might be their last time driving it!

Thanks for the input. Sorry to hear about the loss of the Kizashi. Especially sad given you had the "unicorn"; an SLS with a manual.
I am not too shocked to hear that fixing the Kizashi at extent is very hard given the lack of parts. It makes sense to me that if the car was to sustain considerable damage, it may get totaled because simply finding replacement parts is very difficult.
I agree that most of us are driving our first and last Kizashis given the limited number of them available and the lack of parts.
Lastly, I think the Azera is a good choice. I like that car. It's sort of like the Kizashi in that it's unknown, but is a pleasant surprise. I like it a lot more than the Sonata. With the V6 engine, it must offer more go than the Kizashi.

Interesting, last winter I too hit a deer. Seems to be very similar in nature to the amount of damage sustained as well. My insurance quoted my car at $8,000 in damages yet did not choose to total it but rather repair it. Mind you mine is also a basic S model.

Very sorry to here that another Kiz is gone.

Location, location, location. Even if you could locate the salvaged bulky parts needed (essentially nearly the entire front clip in this case) in another state, many yards won't/can't ship them. Cash and haul away is what they're after. Smaller stuff, no problem. No surprise to me either that they'd total it. I'd mentioned before on here that this off-handed totaling of our cars would be occurring more readily since Suzuki pulled out combined with the extremely low numbers of Kizashis in circulation on the road or in the yards. Sadly, this phenom appears to be picking up steam.

Sorry to loose your input. I live in deer country and am very cautious when driving at dusk or night. I had let my caution down about 8 years ago and hit a deer about a mile and a half from my home. I was lucky. The deer hit the drivers side front fender of my plastic body Oldsmobile Silhouette. Since the fender was plastic the only damage was a metal brace, that held out the fender, snapped in half. I welded the brace back together and my "Tupperware" van was as good as new.

Someone here needs to park all the totalled Kizashis in their field out back so that the club has a good supply of parts ad infinitum.

I'm not sure this passes the smell test. They're still selling new Kizashis in other countries. I understand parts might be difficult, but not totally unavailable. Still, since we are a 2 Kizashi household & purchased each for $12,500 it sounds like you did ok.

I don't think the issue is that there are no parts. I think it's the cost and time to get the parts that's making insurance companies/and or the body shops say it's totaled. I can order anything I need from Japan. It will cost 3 times as much and take 3 months to arrive, but I can get it.

Fritz2 wrote:Someone here needs to park all the totalled Kizashis in their field out back so that the club has a good supply of parts ad infinitum.

This is a good idea. Maybe a group of guy's here go in together on some land to do this.

There's a yard out in the Pacific N. West that had done just that many moons ago with Samurais, Sidekicks and the GM derivatives. They have a very unique collection with some of the most hard to find parts. I still get misc. used bits, pieces, nuts & bolts from them. I suspect if there was a larger Kizashi concentration out there, they'd end up with some. They'll take in anything with the super 'S' on the grill.