Suzuki Jimny Review

It’s easy to get charmed by the Jimny’s cutesy appearance and, on the face of it, it might not offer bad value for money (certainly compared to bigger off-roaders like the Land Rover Defender). But it takes a sense of humour and surprising levels of commitment to drive a Jimny every day, especially if you plan to cover long distances.

If extreme off-roading isn’t on the cards, most buyers will find a more conventional crossover SUV like the Suzuki Vitara will do the job a lot better than the Jimny. It’ll be better to drive, cheaper to run and you won’t need to decide between your children or the weekly shop.

On the plus side, if you do fancy a Jimny, Suzuki is limiting the number sold in the UK and demand is showing no sign of dropping. That means you could buy one, run it for a year or two, and you’re unlikely to lose a significant amount of money when you come to sell it. There aren’t many modern cars we can say that about.

Engine choice is easy as there’s only one: the 1.5-litre petrol. Whether you should look for one with the manual or automatic gearbox comes down to personal preference, but we think the manual transmission suits the mechanical nature of the car. Besides, the four-speed automatic torque-converter gearbox isn’t exactly civilised.

There are two trim levels to choose from on the used market. There’s something really cool about the SZ4 model with its steel wheels, CD player and primary colour pallet, but most buyers opt for the SZ5. This means there are more available, and you can get the SZ5 in funkier colours, too. Plus, it means you get navigation rather than having to rely on traditional maps (or a TomTom stuck onto the windscreen). From 2021, the Jimny is only available in LCV flavour, based on the SZ4.

There’s nothing else quite like the Suzuki Jimny. In some ways, it’s a scaled-down version of rugged off-roaders like the Land Rover Defender, Mercedes-Benz G-Class and Jeep Wrangler. You could also compare it to small crossover SUVs like the Suzuki Vitara and Honda HR-V - these are better to drive, more comfortable, yet don’t quite have the same amount of character. If you’d like a small SUV that puts functionality over style, you should also look at the Dacia Duster.

If you plan to drive through a quarry at the weekend but need a car that looks presentable on Monday morning, carpeted surfaces and padded interior trim are a nuisance more than anything. The Jimny’s cabin is functional yet little more.

There are hard plastics on the dashboard and door trims, designed to withstand harsh wear and tear while being easy to wipe down rather than look pretty.

In the back, you’ll find a lot of exposed metalwork finished in the same colour as the Jimny’s exterior. Start to prod and poke around the cabin, and you’ll soon come across exposed screw heads and hard edges.

It’s not totally bleak. The leather-trimmed steering wheel (on SZ5 models) looks and feels pretty smart, as does the gear lever. There are some nice chrome interior trim highlights, too, which provide a small but much-needed lift in terms of style.

The infotainment system is probably the most appealing feature of the top-spec SZ5 model. It’s a seven-inch system which does the job with little fuss. No, you don’t get slick graphics or fast responses, but it does come with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. That means you can connect your phone and mirror apps like Google Maps onto the car’s display. This is useful as Suzuki’s standard navigation system is a bit pants, frankly.

The display is positioned high up on the dash, which is great for glancing at while driving, although we’d appreciate some physical shortcut buttons rather than relying on the unresponsive touchscreen, which can get irritating when on the move - especially in a car as bouncy as the Jimny. At least you can do things like adjust the volume or skip tracks on the steering wheel, though.

Rather than the seven-inch touchscreen media display, SZ4 and Commercial models get a big slab of plastic in its place. In the centre of that is an old-fashioned CD player surrounded by buttons. This isn’t an entirely bad thing - we like being able to use old-fashioned buttons to change radio station, but you’ll be relying on old-fashioned maps for navigation. Bluetooth is standard, as is DAB radio.

There’s no tardis effect here: the Jimny’s small on the outside and even smaller on the inside.

Things are OK in the front. There’s plenty of headroom, although the Jimny’s narrow dimensions mean you’ll get used to banging your arm on the (rather hard) door card.

The door bins are next to useless, although weekend adventurers will find you can just about fit a folded-up Ordnance Survey map in there. There are two cup holders between the front seats, awkwardly positioned for lifting up a cup of coffee without spilling it everywhere.

Getting into the back is tricky thanks to the Jimny’s three-door body style. Kids will relish the challenge, though, and even adults will find it’s surprisingly roomy once you get back there. Big windows and thin pillars mean it isn’t too claustrophobic, either.

Legroom’s a bit limited and most people won’t be happy in the back of a Jimny for long journeys. It’s strictly a four-seater - it doesn’t make any pretence of squeezing an extra person in the middle rear seat. There are ISOFIX points for fitting a child seat, but access isn’t the easiest.

With the rear seats in use, the Jimny’s boot is comically small. Officially it’ll carry 85 litres of luggage, which is a third of the Kia Picanto city car’s capacity. In reality, most owners keep the rear seats dropped most of the time and use the Jimny as a two-seater.

The rear seats split 50:50 and can be folded really easily to provide an entirely flat floor. This leaves a usefully square boot, which can be protected by a rubber boot liner as an aftermarket accessory. Even with the rear seats dropped, the boot isn’t huge - but then, this isn’t a huge car.

From 2021, the Jimny is only sold as a van. You get a bit more luggage room than a standard Jimny with the rear seats folded flat – there's 863 litres of space, in fact, which is more than adequate for weekend luggage for two people.

Access to the boot is fairly easy via the side-hinged boot, although access could be tricky if you’re parked close to other vehicles. Or a wall.

There’s just one engine available in the Suzuki Jimny: a four-cylinder 1.5 petrol. There’s just 101PS on tap, and Suzuki doesn’t even bother quoting a 0-62mph acceleration time. It’s leisurely, that’s for sure. Oh, how we wish Suzuki had offered the Jimny with its turbocharged BoosterJet engine.

The manual gearbox has very short ratios, too. That means you’ll get into fifth at around 35mph, and there isn’t a sixth gear. By 60mph, the engine will be screaming away at around 3000rpm and you’ll have no desire to go any faster.

Searching for one with the automatic gearbox isn’t going to help matters. It only has four gears and it’ll hold onto each for as long as possible, not changing up until it reaches more than 4000rpm.

With that in mind, we’d stick with the manual transmission. You’re not going to fool anyone into thinking you’ve bought a luxury car by letting it change gears on your behalf. The gear change is about as precise as a blancmange and you’ll be changing gears a lot to maintain momentum, but at least the clutch pedal is light enough.

If you’ve read this far, you’ll probably have already gathered that the Jimny isn’t a refined choice. Its bluff dimensions mean there’s quite a lot of wind noise, and it seems that Suzuki hasn’t spent a penny on noise insulation to absorb that.

There’s a considerable amount of tyre roar, too, while the engine needs working very hard to actually get anywhere - something which doesn’t make for a relaxed drive. As a package, there probably isn’t a less refined modern car you can buy today.

That said, there’s a charm to it. Sure, you’ll be cranking up the radio to drown out the background noise and a long journey will leave you exhausted, but some people like that. Some people buy classic cars because they enjoy the blunt driving experience.

You might be surprised at some of the clever safety assist features provided in the Jimny. All models come with Suzuki’s Dual Sensor Brake Support, which monitors the road ahead and alerts the driver if it detects a potential collision with the vehicle ahead or a pedestrian. If you don’t respond in time, it’ll even apply the brakes to mitigate, or even increase the braking force if you hit the brake pedal.

A Lane Departure Warning system will notify you if you start to stray from your lane on the motorway, while Hill Hold Control makes rolling back during a flustered hill start a thing of the past.

Despite these features, the Jimny scored a disappointing three out of five stars when it was crash-tested by Euro NCAP in 2018. It scored just 50% for its safety assist features, with testers criticising the lack of a lane keep assistance feature (the Lane Departure Warning notifies the driver rather than nudging the steering back into the lane).

They also noted that the autonomous emergency braking system could only operate in daylight, and couldn’t react to faster-moving road users like cyclists. This contributed to the Jimny’s 52% score for protecting vulnerable road users.

If you’re looking to carry children in your Jimny, you’ll be pleased to read that it scored a better 84% for protecting child occupants. The Jimny’s protection of children in a crash is generally good, while the front passenger airbag can be disabled to allow the fitment of a rearward-facing child seat. ISOFIX child-seat mounting points are fitted to the outer rear seats.

NCAP gave the Jimny a 73% rating for adult occupants, saying there was insufficient pressure in the driver’s airbag to prevent it from ‘bottoming out’, allowing the head to contact the steering wheel. It also noted that the Jimny’s passenger compartment was extensively deformed in certain tests.

The Suzuki Jimny is a fairly affordable little car to insure. The SZ4 falls into insurance group 13, while the SZ5 is insurance group 15. The difference in your annual premium is likely to be minimal, but new drivers may wish to shop around for quotes.

After the first year, you’ll pay a flat rate of £150 a year in VED car tax for the Suzuki Jimny.

There were initially two Suzuki Jimny models sold in the UK: SZ4 and SZ5. The SZ4 was soon dropped, meaning most used Jimnys will be SZ5 trim, while the Suzuki Jimny LCV van is based on the SZ4.

The SZ4’s kinda cool, in a rugged sort of way. Highlights include 15-inch black steel wheels, a CD player with Bluetooth connectivity (modern…) and air conditioning. Cruise control is a surprising standard feature, as well as automatic headlights with high-beam assist.

The SZ5 adds some desirable features, such as a navigation system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. There’s heated front seats, too, as well as a leather-covered steering wheel and climate control. LED headlights look the part, as does the rear privacy glass, body-coloured food handles and 15-inch alloy wheels.