LexFather

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/s...-camry-malibu/

Most carmakers are rushing to launch new models in the burgeoning crossover and lifestyle vehicle segments but Suzuki still sees significant room for growth in the crowded and competitive midsize sedan market. The carmaker rolled out two new sedan concepts in the past six months, the previous Kizashi 1 and Kizashi 2 concepts, and is now planning a third variant for the upcoming New York Auto Show.

The midsize sedan market in the U.S. for instance has seen more than 20 new models introduced in the past couple of years. The competition proved so tough that Suzuki pulled out its previous Verona sedan (a staid Daewoo-based model) back in 2006 but now it plans to fight back, American Suzuki vice president Gene Brown revealed to Ward’s Auto. “Verona was not a Suzuki-built product, and it didn’t necessarily represent our brand as well as we’d like,” Brown explained. “If we do move into a larger sedan category again, as we are looking at, we would do it with our own product.”

Suzuki realizes it can’t compete with segment leaders like the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, and Chevrolet Malibu, so to differentiate its new model the carmaker is thinking of fielding a slightly smaller model than the rest of the competition. “Average midsize is right on the cusp of fullsize,” Brown said. “That’s probably a larger vehicle than Suzuki needs.”

Brown said expect to see a production version of one of the Kizashi concepts, a future D-segment sedan that will eventually be available with a hybrid option.

mmarshall

Well, I won't claim to know more than Brown does about his own company, but I reviewed and test-drive a Verona several years ago (not on CL), and I fund nothing wrong with it other than the fact that its in-line 6 (yes, a transverse-mounted in-line six, the only one in the American market at the time), produced only 155-160 HP...about what many large fours did. Other than that, though Daewoo-built for Suzuki in Korea (it was a reworked version of the Daewoo Leganza), it was a perfectly good car with good fit/finish, MANY standard features for the price (the one I drove was only about 16K if my memory is right), an extremely long warranty, and reasonably good assembly quality. It was no sport sedan, though...it drove and handled like an appliance.

I still think it ws a mistake for Suzuki to drop it, though, admittedly you can't argue with the poor sales....Brown has a point.

Nextourer

And the Verona was slow as hell even with the I-6 IIRC.

So basically a Mazda6-sized sedan? That could work. He's right though, the current midsizes are very close to fullsize cars.