Kizashi Club

New Kizashi owner here. Just bought a 2011 Sport GTS 6 speed with 120k on the odometer about 3 weeks ago. Has plenty of nicks and dings, but I just needed something reliable with descent mpg for my daily commute. Turns out, I love this freakin car!! It’s so fun to drive I actually like going to work now! LOL
Anyways, just ran across this club and thought I might as well join up so I have help from you professional long time owners of anything goes wrong. Happy to be a Kizashi guy.

Welcome LifeBlind!

The biggest thing to worry about on a Kizashi with 120K miles is the CVT transmission, you've already dodged that problem.

Welcome!
I also have a 2011 Sport GTS with a 6 speed. Love it!
What color?

Azure Grey Metallic

Yeah. I always run away from anything that has CVT. Although it doesn’t seem that Kizashis have as many CVT issues as Nissan, Toyota. and all the others. I guess there’s no where near as many of them either.

LifeBlind wrote:Yeah. I always run away from anything that has CVT. Although it doesn’t seem that Kizashis have as many CVT issues as Nissan, Toyota. and all the others. I guess there’s no where near as many of them either.

The CVTs in the Kizashi were made by JATCO who is Nissan's supplier. They weren't particularly problematic well under the powertrain warranty period but have shown issues in higher mileage as the cars aged out of warranty. Combined with overly-optimistic claims of zero maintenance for too many miles, these things are more prone to failure now. Having a manual transmission is the best insurance in a Kizashi lasting a very long time without expensive and inconvenient repairs to the powertrain.

I also have a distaste for CVTs and will avoid vehicles with them unless it's electrified like a hybrid.

Welcome to the club.
Are the headlights stock? Or have they been upgraded to HID or LED? If they’re still stock halogen, you might want to consider getting a spare pair of halogen H7 bulbs or maybe an upgrade kit to HID or LED. The Kizashi’s notorious for burning through the stock halogen headlight bulbs lol.

Welcome
Enjoy your new ride

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Still just regular Halogen. I have read about the Kizashi burning through bulbs quickly. Sure enough, here I am on week 4 of ownership... blown bulb :/
I’m going to save up a little and upgrade to LED soon. I hope.

LifeBlind wrote:Still just regular Halogen. I have read about the Kizashi burning through bulbs quickly. Sure enough, here I am on week 4 of ownership... blown bulb :/
I’m going to save up a little and upgrade to LED soon. I hope.

Bummer - it took me more than two years for a bulb to go. Will you replace the bulb before getting an upgrade or just stay with one headlight? There are videos on YouTube as well as threads here that can help with the replacement process if you want to try it yourself.
Unrelated to bulbs, I’d also check the air filters, particularly cabin air filter, to see if they’re (relatively) clean. Since it’s summer, I’d imaging you might be using your air conditioning more, and you don’t want a musty smell in the cabin from an old and dirty cabin air filter. Getting to it is rather simple, thankfully.
All you have to do is open the glove box and it’s right behind a white plastic cover in the way back. If your car still has the service manual case in the glove box (unlike in my car) you’ll have to remove that first, but that’s no big challenge. There are videos on how to do this, and while they often include removing the glove box altogether, it’s not necessary if you don’t have huge hands or don’t mind sitting at weird angles.
I managed to find both cabin and engine air filters on Amazon with relative ease, although it may be more difficult now if people have been buying them. Even if you’re not a DIY person, there’s no way replacing either type of air filter is worth what dealers and mechanics charge, considering how inexpensive the filters are and how easy it usually is to reach them. For the engine air filter you just have to pop a couple of metal clips and pull the cover off from an angle and you’re there. Easy as cake.

Here’s a video on how to reach the cabin air filter:

This YouTuber has a lot of other Kizashi maintenance videos that will probably come in handy for you sooner or later.