Seriously, how's this for a cruel twist of fate? Suzuki got two accolades in a week, both of which should've been good news on the sales front. Problem is, American Suzuki filed for bankruptcy last month and is ending auto sales in the US. Great timing, guys.
The first bit of good news came on the heels of Honda's, in that both the Accord and Suzuki Kizashi were the only cars to get the top rating in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's tough front crash test.
In the results released Thursday, Toyota came out in the worst shape, with the popular Camry and Prius V pulling in Poor ratings, and even the VW Jetta and Hyundai Sonata coming off only marginally better.
The second piece of news is that the last 2,500 US-market Suzukis are on their way over from Japan because dealers here clamored for them. Apparently since news of their death spread, American Suzuki dealers have had a run on business from people hunting down a bargain, or just reminded of the fact Suzuki sells cars.
Sales in November were up 22 percent, according to Bloomberg and are also predicted to rise this month. Seriously, Suzuki going out of business here is probably the most press they've had in years. And there's no such thing as bad press, right?
Pretty much everyone is in agreement that the Kizashi is a damn good car, and not just among $25,000-ish cars. It's also available with all-wheel drive, for those of you in snowy areas. If you don't mind driving around a car from a dead-in-the-US brand, a Suzuki Kizashi sounds like a safe (no pun intended) bet right about now. Too bad this news wasn't here a couple years ago.
Are you going to jump on the Kizashi bandwagon while you still can?
Photo: IIHS