Kizashi Club

Yessir, the K is much fun to hammer on it in the snow. Amazing how well all the tech works together to keep you going where you point it. Just be aware, that at some extreme point, the electronics had failed to overcome my ridiculous antics while testing what it's capabilities are and aren't. TSC, AWD and Auto shifting were all enabled. My only input was throttle, steering, stupidity and zero braking. The point at which it 'broke', for lack of a better term, was quite abrupt and while not unexpected, how really out of control the car ended up becoming was (speed: stupid fast, roadway: 2-lane country road, sweeping RH bend). It was holding really well and just gave up. Up to that point, extremely impressive. I ended up well off 'the road' and into a large smooth grassy field/yard during my trials out here in Amish land. Mission accomplished, I know where it's limits are which are far beyond any way I'd normally be driving in foul weather. This was back first winter after I'd purchased it riding on the OE Dunlops. Now I garage it as much as possible in the winter so as to reduce the exposure to others harming my most favorite, irreplaceable car. The Heep can get wrecked, I don't care they're a dime a dozen, and it's better at slogging through drifts.

If you're driving at a reasonable speed, in the snow and something unexpected happens, the car is quite capable of handling itself and you. Seeing you're from Wisonsin, I imagine you are def. no foreigner to winter escapades. WESHOOT likes to blast around old school w/ the TSC disabled, his year-round daily travels are epic Kizashi fan fare.

I reattached my roof racks. I ordered some security Torx bolts a while back to replace the Allen bolts that came with the racks because I had to drill most of them out. With the roof racks back on, I hauled a Christmas tree home.
Happy Holidays!

I would have got a little chuckle out of that. It looks like it worked well.

Where do you buy a roof rack like that?

suzuki wrote:Where do you buy a roof rack like that?

Mine is a Suzuki accessory roof rack. These are incredibly hard to find now but you should start by searching OE Suzuki parts sites under their Accessories pages. I bought mine shortly after Suzuki announced their pull-out of the US market, anticipating that these kinds of parts would be hard to find in the future. I was right.
However, these aren't custom to the Kizashi. They are actually Suzuki-badged Whispbars which is a series made by Yakima. If you can match the size and then shop around, you'll probably find a decent deal.

Thanks. I found a set, but they are $479. I'm not sure if this is a good price, but seems kind of high.


https://www.etrailer.com/Roof-Rack/Suzu ... 0111237955

suzuki wrote:Thanks. I found a set, but they are $479. I'm not sure if this is a good price, but seems kind of high.


https://www.etrailer.com/Roof-Rack/Suzu ... 0111237955

That's steep. I think you can get them around $300 or so if you look around. What you want to do is find out the model specs or part number that fits the Kizashi. Then search with that instead of searching by car. REI has these for under $400 with a sale but you need to find out which ones will fit the Kizashi.

I forgot how much I paid for my set but it was really cheap because the online parts dealer was obviously liquidating their Suzuki accessories inventory shortly after the Suzuki pull-out. The site is no longer up as they don't deal with Suzuki anymore. I have found that most accessories on various Suzuki parts sites are now out of stock.

KuroNekko wrote:
I am certain you are the unluckiest Kizashi owner here.

And the streak continues.

Dealer called me yesterday, the part Suzuki sent was wrong. He said the correct part is on national backorder...for one month. He strongly advised not driving the Kizashi as it sits so I'll be wheeling in a new Taco for a month.

Hit 55,000 miles on the clock yesterday morning. Oil changed and tires rotated.

GET SNOW TIRES.

(I learned my driving style pulls the studs right out of the front tires, so I've switched to "Performance" snows.


I usually leave VSC enabled when snow-blasting (kept it juuuust under 110MPH this morning), but not always (it, too, has saved my over-cooked bacon WAY too often).

Good snows should permit progressive break-away and benign behavior otherwise.