There are only a handful of 4WDs that can genuinely lay claim to being ‘cult’ vehicles. Most of them occupy price landscapes well north of $70,000.
Uniquely, Suzuki’s Jimny is truly cult and costs less than half that amount.
The cheeky three-door has no direct competitor and its sales in New Zealand have only been limited by stock availability.
Buy it, drive it around the city, love it for its wheel-at-each-corner practicality and excellent view of the road.
Buy it, drive it on soft-roading adventures like the South Island’s Skipper’s Canyon, love it for its light weight and agility.
Buy it, throw bars, all-terrain tyres and wheels at it, and it will go places most people never dare dream of going.
As a first 4WD, as a young couple’s adventure wagon, the three-door Jimny has no rival.
So now, the arrival of a five-door version opens up a whole new group of potential owners, those who need to transport up to four people and luggage – or toys.
Attention young families, this is the Jimny designed to do everything required by mum, dad and the kids.
The three and five door versions of Jimny have identical engines and both offer five-speed manual and four-speed auto transmissions. The five-door carries extra length in and behind the wheelbase; the wheelbase is 340mm longer at 2590mm vs 2250mm. To keep things rigid, the longer chassis has an extra crossmember and has been strengthened, mounts are also beefed up. The extra length is a sigh of relief for rear seat passengers; the Jimny 5 allowing only for two in the back. It also creates more luggage space. On the road, the five-door is smoother at the rear, the wheelbase boost giving a different dynamic to the back of the vehicle.
Other media have noted that the three-door’s ANCAP rating does not ‘umbrella’ across to the five, and that the existing rating expires at the end of this year. Almost every vehicle sold in New Zealand has a safety rating from either Australian (ANCAP) or European (ENCAP) New Car Assessment Programmes. The five-door could be tested, and the three-door retested, but that decision rests with Suzuki Japan. Neither rating system is compulsory, and other vehicles including the Chev Silverado and Ineos Grenadier have gone on sale here without ratings.
That lack of an ANCAP rating puts Jimny out of consideration for larger fleets, but it remains firmly in focus for a wide range of other buyers including small business owners who appreciate the 4WD’s value as a distinctive mobile billboard for their companies in three or five door form. Other customers will be trading up from the three-door in search of more interior room. Add in the young families, new arrivals to the brand, who will find the five-door entirely practical for urban and weekend adventure use. Then there are those who will toddle straight off to their local 4WD workshop to up-armour their Jimny for offroad use. Top that off with 50+ owners who like the looks and practicality of the Jimny, and the Gray Nomad set who have been buying the current Jimny to tow behind their motor homes.
It seems Suzuki will do just fine without the fleet segment that it never actually targeted in the first place.
As media have noted, it only took 50-odd years for a five-door to arrive. But then, Suzuki does have some of the longer model lifespans in the automotive world. The Jimny 5 was certainly worth the wait.
By NZ4WD Editor Mark Baker
