The Suzuki Jimny is a tool and I’m not being derogatory when I say that. It is mobile utility in all its simplified glory.
The Jimny is in fact Suzuki’s successor to the once brilliantly named Samurai 4×4, which was also an ultra-small, three-door, 4×4 that achieved popularity in some respects locally, but mostly overseas.
With the Jimny, Suzuki has taken an idea and simplified it while keeping it small — the result is a bit like Japan’s Mini Cooper of all-terrain vehicles.
“The Suzuki Jimny is widely acknowledged as an extraordinarily talented 4×4. Because of its ultra-compact dimensions and its ‘cute’ factor, it is easily underestimated. But the reality is that it can take on, and beat, much larger and more powerful all-terrainers in sheer 4×4 terms,” said Kazuyuki Yamashita, MD of Suzuki Auto South Africa.
Hang on, that sounds like fighting talk from Yamashita-san, and when you look at what the Jimny has to offer as an off-roader, he may have a point.
It has a robust box section chassis, rigid front and rear axles with coil spring suspension, a low range transfer case and push-button rear and all-wheel drive. That’s pretty serious 4×4 stuff, but it gets even better, because the entire car weighs just over one ton, has 190mm ground clearance and astonishing approach and departure angles.
Now, I’m not an off-road driver by any stretch and would never want to be. Large-bellied men gesticulating and grunting at me as we bounced Renault Koleoses over a pothole course two months ago guaranteed that. (Get me on a racetrack with Mr Khaki and we’ll see who’s calling the shots.)
But taking this little Jimny off-road is simply classic. Like when you used to get the giggles in school assembly and just couldn’t help yourself. It’s fun and there is very little you can’t negotiate thanks to its nimbleness.
You find yourself going further and further off the beaten track over strange topography and through obscure farm gates on to people’s private property. The Jimny is a great way to get yourself prosecuted for trespassing or shot at. People who haven’t been off their farms in years will be greeted by its two round, bug eyes at the fence and have no recourse except to reach for the sawn-off shotgun.
And that’s where the party ends for the Jimny, because then you’ll have to make a quick getaway and, with a measly 63kW and 110Nm 1,3-litre under the bonnet, that takes 14 seconds to get to 100kph and tops out at 140kph, the offended property owners will get several shots off before you clear the horizon.
Although it says VVT on the side of the Jimny, the engine doesn’t sound very refined, which is fine on the farm, but it does get tiresome on normal roads. Although the 1,3-litre doesn’t feel as slow as 14 seconds on road, probably because of the light-weight chassis, even I know that off-road there are times when you’ll need more than the 110Nm on offer. Really thick sand and steep hills, when you can’t maintain momentum, feel like they can always catch the Jimny out. It’s got size on its side, but not the grunt.
As a pure 4×4 I can’t help thinking it’s a bit out of its depth in the rough South African climate. This is Hilux diesel country, remember, and could you imagine Mr Khaki with his big belly trading the bakkie in for a cute little Jimny? Me neither. What about Mrs Khaki? From what I’ve seen out on the farm, it’s even harder to get a woman out of her bakkie.
There is no doubting the Suzuki Jimny is a terrific and unique little car: simple, versatile, full of character and with loads more to offer than what is on the surface. But it falls in between the cracks in the khaki, South African market.
Those who will want it for its cute, lovable nature won’t care for the utilitarian interior, its lack of comfort on-road and that funny second gear knob that makes no sense.
Alternatively, those who respect and might use its 4×4 capabilities will never go as far as actually buying one to park it next to the Hiluxes at the weekend market. The Suzuki Jimny at the end of the day is a bit of a head scratch, a bit of a curiosity and I fear like Yamashita-san said, forever cursed to be underestimated.