Back in 2024 I decided to purchase a Suzuki Jimny after my previous car started to show its age. As a city-dweller, this seemed kind of impractical and a waste of money and I agree with this statement. If you're going to be commuting between home, the office, and shops I wouldn't recommend this car.
Another reason I decided to buy this car and not some other kind of SUV, is because I have family living on farms with awful roads for city cars and I couldn't visit when the weather damaged the gravel roads.
It's not too bad in the city though, because of its compact size. I have no problems parking in smaller spaces whereas people with their Cruisers and Ford Rangers seem to struggle a bit. 😂
I love this car and have so much fun driving it, however there are a few things that nobody tells you when you purchase one of these.
1. The petrol tank is not very big and it sucks on the highway
It's a 40L tank, which means you can't travel as far as other 4x4's or city cars, and you need to keep this in mind when going on a longer trip into uninhabited places. I purchased a 20L jerry can for this reason, and if I do go on longer trips, I will probably not go by myself in case I make the stupid mistake of forgetting about my car's range and not planning the distances driven. Now, the vehicle is relatively light on fuel consumption with its 1.5L engine but driving in 4H or 4L on bad terrain will increase the fuel consumption somewhat. I get about 13.1 km/L in the city.
Driving on highways at speeds over 110 km/h is not fun. The wind resistance is bad due to its box-ey shape, and it burns fuel frighteningly fast when there's a head wind and you're trying to maintain 115 - 120 km/h. Just slow down and enjoy the ride, Driving a Jimny is not driving a BMW, they're built for different purposes and once you accept this reality, you'll enjoy being in the slow lane.
2. Jimny drivers wave at each other
I remember just after I picked the vehicle up from the dealership other Jimny drivers would wave at me when driving past me and at first I was a little confused, do I know this person? Why are they waving at me? Is there something wrong with my car?
Nothing wrong, we're just so happy driving our Jimny's we have this kind of weird hive mind mentality going on, only a Jimny driver will understand. 😉
3. You're gonna want to spend a lot of money on mods
The Jimny I drive has amazing features, but once you drive around with it for a month, you're gonna get a little annoyed at the lack of storage options inside the car. Luckily there's a huge Jimny aftermarket parts market, and my list of mods keeps growing. I have since bought a centre console storage tray that fits around the gear levers as well as rear window defogger guards. I find it bizarre that Suzuki would ship a vehicle without wiring protection.
Get yourself read window defogger guards as soon as you buy this vehicle! This is absolutely essential.
4. It looks so good when it's dirty
For some reason a dirty Jimny looks like a lot of fun, mud splashed on the front fender and sides tell a story of a driver who probably giggled with delight all the way through a muddy pool. I know this, because this is what I experience when I get to drive through a shitty patch on a dirt road. Excitement awaits!
On New Year's Day, we were driving back to the city from the farm and it had rained heavily for the last week, so the main gravel road to the tarred road from the farm was quite rough. It started raining heavily as we made a corner on a notoriously bad spot and at one point I made a stupid, uneducated decision to drive halfway on the side of the road where it isn't that muddy. It was grassy so I ended up stuck in some reeds. The water was up to the door in the road, so I switched to low range and slowly crawled out, not realising my front number plate got caught in some reeds loosening it.
Further on the road at a particularly gnarly rocky patch, the plate fell off after rattling itself off its screws. I suppose this happens to all offroaders at some point. Thankfully it wasn't expensive to replace. 😅
The rain washed most of the exterior mud off, but the engine bay was filthy. Just make sure to clean the vehicle thoroughly afterwards to prevent mud build-up in hard to see places.
A squeaky clean Jimny is a Jimny that isn't being used what it was designed for.