In a country’s automobile market, there always are cars that have some severe rivalry. In the case of Pakistan, the typical rivalry case got so severe with the launch of Suzuki Kizashi two days ago. So, with the match all set between Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Suzuki Kizashi, I consider it to be my utmost duty to present a detailed comparison, including pros and cons of the flagships of the 3 leading automobile companies of Pakistan.
I’ll begin with a summarized detail of the particular vehicles we’re talking about.
Honda Accord:
Revealed in USA in August 2013, the 9th generation Honda Accord made its way to Pakistan during mid-2014. Like its predecessors, the Accord is powered by a 2.4L iVtec DOHC I4 engine which makes 175HP at its peak. The styling of 9th gen Accord was inspired by the Honda Legend and without any doubt; the Accord has a class of its own. Every bit of detail that is put into the making of this car speaks for itself. The exterior is the main factor that makes the Accord stand out from the other vehicles of its class. Inside, the Accord is filled with all the tech-stuff of modern cars but that stuff has a particular uniqueness which makes the user feel very exclusive. Being the second to flagship of Honda, the Accord comes equipped with very high safety features such as 8 airbags, traction modes and very advance braking system. With all these features, the Accord would still carry 5 people and their luggage comfortably.
Toyota Camry:
The current Toyota Camry we can buy from Pakistan was launched in the US in August 2011 and wasn’t offered in Pakistan until the last year. Gaining an immense popularity in the Middle Eastern countries, the Camry is one of widest used cars over there and was offered in many variants. However, in Pakistan, the Camry was, and still is, offered with a 2.4l Dual VVTi DOHC engine and it makes a little less than 180hp at the most.
On the exterior, Toyota didn’t bother much to make it a looker as it was already a hit. What I find in the exterior of the latest Camry, is a feel of incompleteness. The Camry feels fake from the outside. It has that certain, wanna-be feel which is constantly trying to be a looker, but fails.
Inside the Camry, you find the elegance and class, but from the 1990’s. In the dark themed interior era, Toyota decided to give the Camry a beige tone which is, at least, boring to me. Camry is equipped with all the other goodies regarding safety and technology and is said to be a tough car, as Toyota’s usually are.
Suzuki Kizashi:
The Samurai named Kizashi came into existence in 2009. Suzuki Motors of Pakistan brought this car into the country just two days ago, after 6 years of its initial global launch. We still wonder what they were thinking since the last few years.
Anyways, the Kizashi comes with a 2.4l VVT DOHC engine and produces figures around 175hp. The Kizashi is surely impressive by the way it looks. The soft styling of the exterior with epic attention is at par with the two established guns mentioned above. Every bit of the material used outside has a blend with the other. Overall, the only word I have for the Kizashi is, it’s beautiful. Inside, the Kizashi is all black, just like a ninja. The interior isn’t flooded everywhere with tech-stuff but yet, it has everything that its rivals carry in them, that too, in a very simple manner.
What to buy:
The choice firstly is yours. Budget is not a question here since the cars under discussion can cost up to 10.1 Million PKR. The Accord is a fashion statement, the Camry has a reputable history and the Kizashi is under rated. All I can do is justify what you can get best out of your money.
The more serious question is, why to buy the Accord or Camry, when the Kizashi costs half as much and gives all the features like the others? In fact, a detailed and thorough research on the Kizashi has stunned me with the international ratings it got by the users. At an average, the Accord was rated 7/10, the Camry 6.5/10 and the Kizashi got a staggering score of 8.5/10, and these are user reviews. Now it would be baseless to give our verdict on the Kizashi by keeping in view the International reviews because there are a variety of variants offered but we still can get a vague idea of that because almost 80% of the car is still the same, even in different variants.
The response of the general public at the introduction of Kizashi in the local market was quite unpleasant. People were angry and sarcastic at the same time and everyone is supporting the point that this is a failure. Would anybody like to point out any defect or issue in the car? Would anybody explain why this car seems so overpriced, given its rivals cost twice as much? Is it because it is an old model? From what I remember, Toyota is still offering a brand new 2013 Prius in its showrooms for the open public. It’s not surprising that nobody is buying it because of a large quantity of Prius available in the imports market but still, I see a Prius parked inside the showroom, carrying a bag of Toyota Indus’s hopes, every day.
From what I’ve inferred, the Kizashi lacks nothing with respect to the looks, technology and comfort. All it lacks is a good reputation, which indeed is the fault of Suzuki Motors Pakistan. They’ve had a bad history here of selling poor quality cars. Poor after sales service management and defective spare parts.
Here, I’m not defending Pak Suzuki, we don’t bother about them. I’m defending a good car because at all levels, Kizashi has been better than its competitors. A simple Google search would reveal this but the fact that Kizashi is preceded by Suzuki’s poor reputation, that too in a market where you can get German saloons at the price they’re asking, we fail to logically approve that Kizashi is your car to buy.
Wtf? Article or shoving pak-suzuki’s market strategy into the throats of masses. Nobody is complaining about the quality of the car. Wouldn’t pak-suzuki be wise enough to release cars that would make more sense to the masses of Pakistan? Besides, kizashi is withdrawn in most of the markets. Why do you think is the reason (other than N.America). Well, even if I have that kind of money to splurge, I would go for a German vehicle.
Tell one thing, is the economic status of Pakistan same as any developed country of West? Here the minimum wage is Rs 12,000 which equals 120 $ approximately. And bringing a car that costs over half a billion or more is mere stupidity. Only 2 % out of whole population of Pakistan are capable of buying extra ordinary luxurious cars.
I’d love to know the logic behind the people who buy Camrys and Accords.
At PakWheels, it is our duty to compare and promote the cars provided by ou local producers. This article here, isn’t a proposal for everyone to spend their money on the Kizashi, but a comparison between the flagship models of Honda, Toyota and Suzuki and more likely, a verdict for the best bang for your bucks. Cheers.
Dear this car cost 5 million Rs and not half a billion rupees.
Five Million: 5,000,000 (US $ 50,000 approx)
Half Billion: 500,000,000 (US $ 5,000,000 approx)
I think its basically that they have money to waste and do not trust German cars (maintenance, repair cost ,etc.) that they but the Camry and accord.
The Issue with the Kizashi is that its a Suzuki for 5,000,000 Rupees! Look at the models suzuki has in Pakistan, not anywhere else, and you will see the reputation and image the brand has in Pakistan. It is a brand that produces outdated models that are overpriced and built cheaply. What PakSuzuki should have done was how Hyundia handled themselves in the US and Euro markets to improve their image. They where known as producing low cost cars that where built cheaply with low quality control. They improved their quality control and started producing good built cars at cheaper prices then their competitors which increased sales and then they produced more expensive cars like the Genesis and Equus. Suzuki should have followed that business model instead of bringing the Kizashi in to the market. A alternative should have been to reduce the price to around 3.0-3.5 million rupees and sell it a loss to improve their image. Yes they would lose money but they would also improve their image from budget to one like honda or toyota which would have been better long term strategy. Alas, I believe the company will be in trouble in the future, especially if Pakwheels reported correctly that Toyota will be producing two new models below the Corolla (the belta type car and the vitz type car), which will eat into Suzuki’s market share (at least in the Swift/Cutless) area. Lets see what happens and hope that the company adds some people with brains into the company that think like its main clients.
Well; you pointed out so many things going kizashi’s way but there are alot you missed. first of all its suzuki, a company who is cheating this nation for decades now and teaching others how to achieve that cheat level. an xli with no abs and power pack is the brightest example. so dont think they ll achieve a sales figure of 2 digits.
what i get from this cars outlook is senseless and ugly shape everywhere. inside can be expressed once have an experience with it so wont comment on that but i dont expect it better than mehran because suzuki cant think beyond that.
Coming back to design outlook and below are my observations about its front are
no symmetry whatsoever in anything…. look at the bonnet, lights and grill; they all give a feel as taken from some other vehicle and fitted in it. even both grills dont match with each other. same goes with 2 lights. and an over all look grabbed stuff from here and there. now think about shape of grill and lights and how do they match….
though i dont want to comment on interior but how would you differentiate dashboard controls from swift…. please say anything other than its color… LOLs
agree with with but on price; no, no way. although another class still Audi A3 sosts 3.8 million.
i dont think this car can sell anywhere above swift price. should be less than city and Gli to achieve anything… at mehran’s price it can be a success.
I agree but the Suzuki is bigger than the Audi A3 or bigger than the Civic or Corolla but smaller than Accord or Camry. If the car was priced like I said and its built by Suzuki Japan not Pak Suzuki (so quality and control will be excellent) and would be able to compete in the 3 million range market, especially against used cars. I think Suzuki wants to change its image from a budget and cheap brand to something similar to Honda or Toyota but with this I think they shot themselves in the foot.
Please compare it with pricing and features of Toyota Mark X and write a review.
Even if Kazashi had been launched by ‘Honda’ or ‘Toyota’ ……. it was a failure; ‘NOT As a Car’ but as ‘Sale Volume’ just like you mentioned about Prius … lunched by Toyota is a failure – or CRV or CRZ … | but since they’re not manufacturing this car in Pakistan (Kazashi) – there’s no investment involved thus it will only be failure for any poor buyer who actually buys it and then pays the price of not having after sales support of this ‘white elephant’ of suzuki. You see 1000s of WagonR … still it’s a failure because of ‘low sales’ thus PS had to reduce the price to make it’s sales better. | Suzuki Should focus on right sized, right engined, right priced cars for Pakistan if they want to have ‘good’ rating from us. Poor Liana, Poor WagonR, and now comes Poor Kazashi | BTW if they launch Suzuki swift with 1242cc engine …….. see how much impact there will be on price, sales, fuel economy etc….
O Suzuki – re-launch Kazashi with 1.6 turbo charged engine(produce 140 ~ 160 bhp) priced @ 2million. currently they’re paying around 2.5million only for custom duties. reduce the engine size – increase the power by adding turbo – and reduce overall selling price by more than half. / manufacture it ‘locally’ while keeping same features …
duty ?
Bring suzuki ciaz which will cost around 14 lac for manual and 15.4 for auto including all taxes which much better than toyota corolla xli, gli and honda city
they put the car in market just to compete with honda and toyota my verdict is the same as Mr. Farhad that this car offering almost the same features and luxuries likewise Accord and camry but the price is upto 50% less..the only thing kazashi lacking is status symbol which the other two holds………………Pak suzuki should have introduced the successor of Liana firstly
Brother, marketing techniques is to make market from lower price product to upper product…that same mistake is done by faw they launch sirius which is flop if you compare with apv and avanza its lot better than both these car reason is people don’t trust faw….same condition with suzuki in sedan segment still no any sedan is of suzuki is successful so how people spend 50 lac on this car….1st suzuki have to develop trust on their customers in sedan segment than have to launch such luxury car, at 1 tym we here news that suzuki going to discontinue its alone sedan car liana than we here they launching luxury car which compete with accord and camry which make non-sense…with news of discontinue they also have to announce some replacement car
The car is discontinued internationally, what I derive out of this is that they’ve just taken a chance. If they fail to sell any units, there is no less and they’ll send the cars back.
We cannot be sure of what custom duties they’re paying since we don’t know what year of manufacture of these cars is. Still, your idea is great.
We can do that but since the Kizashi is a car against Accord and Camry, there are very less chances that comparison would make any sense.
Everyone has their preferences over appearance so that is totally fine. Secondly, talking about Suzuki, the Kizashi is a CBU import, the chances that the quality would be low are negated.
Maybe they will reduce the prices later. Just like Honda did with CRZ and Toyota with Prius.
Exactly, hence our point, that there ARE potential buyers. We cant be sure though.
Do you think Suzuki cares about success, that too of a car on which they haven’t invested much? No.
Bad decision to introduce such type of cars i.e Camry, Accord, Kizashi in Pakistan, where at same price, people can get latest/older model of BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Lexus etc
Our market needs small car
Mark X came in same price category, its only 100 CC more powerful.
Camry is very over priced, in Pakistani market these 2 cars should be compared.
If ur source is rite….than if sum2 buy it mistakenly…its all money kill and its all loss of that customer not to suzuki
Lolz! Joke of the year! These cars will die out in showrooms!
we detail cars, and i asked the owner of a 2014 accord who’s car we just worked on the same question…. why not a merc e-class or bmw 5 series instead of this?? his answer was… “for the price you pay for an accord you dont get as many features in either of the german rivals”… i am still at a loss for words..
Well the topic and the details were impressive and you write good. But never the less why the general public is sarcastic and or angry was they were expecting something well under their budget. We have limitations due to economical pressures yet we love to drive and want good cars within our budget. Where others were giving higher priced vehicles we were expecting Suzuki to be on our side and fill the gap of a decent sedan at the price what they are offering in the shape of not too much talked about and less known to the Suzuki dealers themselves Liana.
So the car might be awesome because of anything but we won’t be able to buy and please consider we which is approximately 60% of the buyers present in the country. Why serve the niche when you have a bigger family to satisfy.
Well hope that Suzuki and or any other decent manufacturer comes up with a sedan which we can buy and enjoy.
Regards
100% right
Repute/Brand Name (which also contributes to resale value) matters a lot. I am not going to spend 5 Million on a suzuki
One question… and one question only.. did some / any half-brain, at Suzuki Motors Japan or Pak Suzuki bother to review the history and aftermath of the Kizashi launch in India ?? And supposing( read highly unlikely) they did, did they learn anything from it.. Guess not.
That goes a long way to shed light on the these dimwits & how much they understand Regional Auto Markets. Suzuki cars in Pakistan are synonymous with bringing out half built, over aged pieces of junk and charging premium prices by manipulating market demand. The Kizashi may be a head turner when it comes comparative analysis in markets that offer Options… by the way how many Honda Accords or Camry’s were sold in Pakistan last year ?
I guess it was Pak Suzuki’s turn to respond to Indus Motors absurdity of launching the Fortuner.. what a bunch of jokers this lot is…
interesting discussion! PLZ BEAR WITH ME AS I AM GOING TO SHARE POINT OF VIEW WHICH IS RELATED TO BELOW DISCUSSION TO SOME EXTENT BUT SOMEWHAT DIFFERENT AS WELL!
we are living in third world country and cars being introduced (with few exceptions) and especially produced in Pakistan are no way can be compared with any of European manufactured model or even of Thailand/Taiwan and Indian origin of same category and maker.
There is huge competition in that market and what we have Honda/Toyota/Suzuki which is not even close to Indian market! WHICH TO ME ARE COMPETING BUT IN REALITY NO! Seems there is hidden understanding between three of them and may be govt officials are also involved in this.(my personal view)
MEHRAN/CULTUS, no competition to this day, is it a coincidence? 1.3 L corolla out sell city, 1.8 L civic out sell corolla! what else is there? some may say corolla 1.8 L is doing better than civic, may be due to corolla new shape but in my opinion civic drives better than corolla! i believe opinion will change!
To bring some wow` factor, our manufacturers has brought some gadgets in new cars which frankly speaking seems to be using obsolete technology. for eg., rear view camera in civic 2013 (factory fitted) is so SLOW that by the time i see any image on it i had already reversed my car! Blue tooth mic is bad that one have to shout! and so to speak safety features are non existent (2 air bags).
coming to Engines, we are getting the worst and the ones which stop selling in other markets! Same manufacturers are offering cars with 1.0 – 1.6 L variants with fuel economy around 22-18 KM/L in city. In Pakistan we get 12/13 KM/L from 1.3L car in city, no body can do anything! what the!!!
Coming to below discussion, irony of situation is Suzuki has brought model here which flopped somewhere else! what do they do with production? So the idea is to launch here in Pakistan where there is no car in this category carrying that kind of engine power and price.They maybe sure it will not sell, but idea is to give it a try! Otherwise speaking not worth spending that kind! of course this car cannot be compared with the likes of Accord although one of my favorite and camry! value of even these cars does not make them good purchase against German rivals apart from one fact that they are much less costlier to maintain. German cars maintained by shahzawaz and Deewan, you need to have heavy pocket as they rip you off!
Biased article. Probably Suzuki funded..
Well the article is a non sense and is illogical. I’ll be honest that people who Own whether Camry, Accord or this Kizashi in Pakistan also has a Mehran parked somewhere in his home or garage and always uses that if he/she has to travel within the city.
Guys, don’t burn yourself out. The article is for the 2% exploiters with who’s assistance the monsters like car companies of Pakistan thrive. Its an attempt to pursuad them for spending the kickbacks and commissions on Kizashi. Staying short of calling Fahad biased, i must say that instead of thinking within the given paradigm of comparing the three pieces alone, Fahad should not have overlooked the environment that lead to arrival of Kizashi in Pakistan describing what lead to this sudden realization and customer care passion of Suzuki Pakistan. In Pakistan, its of particular importance to focus on who’s saying rather than what’s being said and the Kizashi’s place shall figure out automatically as opposed to world’s 8.5 rating
I used to go Suzuki motors for my cultus & was not satisfied i fear what will happen when Szuki Kizashi will go there for routine maintenance,,,,The staff is very untrained….
What is this fraud by Paksuzuki, The car is good but has been discontinued in all other countries. As per reports on international website production of car ceased in late 2014. They might be selling unsold stock in Pakistan.
Offering something for 50 million PKR and still a globally retired product…shameful
I highly doubt Suzuki ever targets any of its car to people like us who would come on a blog and comment about cars and compare them. Their target market is “yaar is ke resale ache hay, parts sastay hain” so we can do all the analysis and comparison on screens and the roads will continue to flood with Suzukis, not kizashis but Mehran/Cultus/Alto/Swift/Bolan the misery will continue until the mindset doesn’t change