The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: A Comparison of Kizashi, Accord and Camry
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.