Kizashi Club

japanese cars should be quality, since they are popular b/c of their quality cars... but... I read kizashi break a lot....... not good.

I read kizashi break a lot....... not good.

Where did you get this idea? Everything I'm reading and experiencing is the exact opposite. Examples?

Woodie wrote:

I read kizashi break a lot....... not good.

Where did you get this idea? Everything I'm reading and experiencing is the exact opposite. Examples?

I agree with Woodie. I don't think the Kizashi is low quality or problematic at all. This USB thing was a disappointment, but a rather minor issue. It just popped out. Nothing really broke and the USB connector still works just fine.

Meanwhile, other more venerable Japanese brands have recall after recall for major issues (cough, cough, TOYOTA, cough). Honda has also seen huge recalls in the past few years. Many of them are related to vehicle fire risks and other serious shit.

They are also getting disappointingly low crash test scores even with their new models. In fact, I think the 2010 Kizashi (therefore all Kizashis) still reigns as having the highest overall crash test score for a midsize family sedan (this excludes the Acura TL and the Volvo S60 as they are higher scale.) The Kizashi also scores well in crash tests performed in other countries like Australia.
The Kizashi got the highest score of "Good" in IIHS's new small overlap front crash test while even the new Camry, Prius V, and the RAV4 got the lowest score. The brand new Corolla did not fare well either in recent tests.

I truly think the big Japanese 3's (Toyota, Honda, Nissan) reputations are overblown in comparison to other Japanese brands. They are no better than the other Japanese cars in quality or reliability and I've owned them all (Subaru, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, and Mazda).

Don't even get me started on Euro, Domestics, and Korean cars. They are finally getting better, but still have a ways to go to meet Japanese build quality and reliability.

I would have to agree I wrench on cars quite a bit now and the kizashi is a solid car from what I can tell. There are a few things that Suzuki cheeped out on but overall it is a solid car.

Thank you for the pictures on how to fix this! One way to avoid this will be to simply get a short usb extension cable. This will remove any load off the port in the car and avoid this issue in the first place.

So the USB housing plate broke again, although the USB port did not fall out, but only thanks to the USB cable in it.

I decided to redo the fix and superglue some critical points because the design of the apparatus is not good and very susceptible to breaking from normal use.

I removed the USB housing plate (square part with the USB logo) and re-superglued the broken hook on the rear (the actual reason why the USB port slips out). I then decided to actually superglue some parts of the USB's circuit board to its plastic housing that attaches to the USB housing plate.
This prevents the USB port and the circuit board from moving when the USB cable is pushed or pulled as the movement is what breaks housing plate's clip. I then also superglued the back of both clips on the housing plate and clipped it back on. Basically, the whole thing is reinforced with superglue at critical points.

Let's see how this holds up as I usually swap between USB devices that require different cables.

The photo below is of the USB port in its housing as it fits in the console. The red arrows indicate where I applied a drop or two of superglue to prevent unwanted movement when the USB cable is inserted or removed. I also applied superglue to the housing plate's clips which break easily (not pictured).

Hey KuroNekko, have you tried using a short USB extension cable to reduce the strain on the port?

SamirD wrote:Hey KuroNekko, have you tried using a short USB extension cable to reduce the strain on the port?

I could, but I don't want to. I rather improve/fix the apparatus until it becomes durable and reliable.

KuroNekko wrote:

SamirD wrote:Hey KuroNekko, have you tried using a short USB extension cable to reduce the strain on the port?

I could, but I don't want to. I rather improve/fix the apparatus until it becomes durable and reliable.

I completely understand where you're coming from. It's just that this is also an issue with computer usb ports as well, so an extension cable, while not ideal, fixes the issue once and for all. And if the cable goes bad it's a quick swap.

SamirD wrote:

KuroNekko wrote:

SamirD wrote:Hey KuroNekko, have you tried using a short USB extension cable to reduce the strain on the port?

I could, but I don't want to. I rather improve/fix the apparatus until it becomes durable and reliable.

I completely understand where you're coming from. It's just that this is also an issue with computer usb ports as well, so an extension cable, while not ideal, fixes the issue once and for all. And if the cable goes bad it's a quick swap.

That's true. I'm going to see if my superglue fix resolves the durability issue and then probably use a USB extension cable as I have an unused one in my office that came with a flash drive. The only bad thing is that it will create more cable clutter in the console box. I already have two cables in there.