2011 Suzuki Kizashi

It's the coming freshening of the couple-months-new Kizashi sedan, one of the quickest freshenings in automotive history. The Sport designation goes to the upper two of Kizashi's four models. The base S and volume SE models stay the same. The GTS and SLS are now called GTS Sport and SLS Sport. The Sport versions get new 18-inch wheels, a new front fascia from the concept car shown two years ago, new rockers and a new rear spoiler. The car is lowered 10 millimeters (0.39 inch), and those wheels are two pounds lighter apiece. Oh, and the steering wheel on the Sport is partly leather.

Suzuki set up a nice autocross course at the former El Toro Air Base and lined up a number of competitors. Assuming they didn't remove the springs, shocks and sway bars from the competitors, or lower the pressures in half the tires, the Kizashi felt much better around the crazy first- and second-gear course. Suzuki says the Sport gets "a little bit more nimble feeling" than the rest of the Kizashi line, listing a skidpad improvement from 0.90 g to 0.93 g. While the front-wheel-drive Sport we drove didn't feel like a BMW M3, it did corner more stably than the other cars we drove that afternoon, including a Toyota Camry, a Ford Fusion and a Mazda 6. The Kizashi exhibited better control of the understeer inherent in that class and there was little lift-throttle oversteer.