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2018 Suzuki Jimny Review and Test Drive

The Suzuki Jimny will be familiar to just about everyone that graces these pages as it’s been in production, in its current form, all the way since 1998! That’s a record and there’s a very good reason why.

The Jimny is a car that you’ve probably never considered owning since its tiny and comes from a time when SUVs were utility vehicles meant for working in environments that you wouldn’t take your family hatchback to. Get yourself well out of town and you’ll still see plenty of them on the roads – probably covered in mud.

Along with cars like the Subaru Forester, the Suzuki Jimny was bought by people that want to be able to go anywhere without the worry of damaging £100k worth of luxury off-roader. It was made for a life on farms, in forests and getting people to where they need to go without any fuss.

Coming back to 2018 and that’s not necessarily what many of you will want from a car. So, does it still qualify as something you might want to have on your driveway?

We were very lucky to have the Jimny delivered to us just after the biggest snowfall of the year – perfect timing. With the combination of off-road focused wheels and tyres, elevated ride height and low weight, the Jimny couldn’t have been better placed to transport the family around without any fuss….or maybe just a little.

If you stick two children’s seats in the back of the tiny Jimny then it doesn’t exactly leave you much room in the front – something I learned the hard way after pulling a back muscle while having the seat too upright. A bit of reconfiguring of who sat where (don’t worry, the children weren’t driving) solved this to a certain extent. Still, this isn’t a load lugger and the boot is so tiny that you might as well discount it completely.

No, what the Jimny is all about is getting you anywhere and that’s what we attempted to do with it. On the Sunday morning, after a bit of fresh snowfall during the night, we went out early for a drive to see how the tiny 4×4 handled the white stuff.

Since most of the roads weren’t that bad we headed to the Blackhill View Point (give it a Google) as it’s steep, high, single track and therefore unlikely to be clear.

Although a tractor had cleared the road slightly, you’d still not have got over the pass in most soft-roaders. Even the Discovery 5 we’d had a few weeks earlier would have struggled with its normal road tyres and 2.5T of weight.

The Jimny, however, just tiptoed on top of the snow like an elf. The lack of weight really made the difference and it made it’s way up the hill with very little effort needed. The only thing that made you notice the difference in road surface was the vibration from the tread pattern left by the tractor.

The descent at the other side was hardly any different with the Jimny not breaking a sweat. In fact, it was so easy that I was tempted to ask one of the farmers if I could take it into one of the snow-covered fields to see if there was anything it couldn’t do.

Should you go out and get yourself a Suzuki Jimny for doing the school run or for commuting into the city? Unless The Day After Tomorrow goes from fiction to weather forecast then the Jimny is probably still something to be reserved for those who travel from their house in the country to the local village. It’s not exactly at home on the motorway and the lack of any tech like Bluetooth might put off one or two people.

However, if you want to try out real offroading, without blowing the budget on a Land Rover Defender, then the Jimny is definitely worth considering. It’s cheap to buy, cheap to maintain and can do 90% of what it’s British built rival can do. Yes, it might not quite have the street cred, but those in the know will realise you made a wise choice…

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Tea maker, car tester and event organiser. I must do other stuff too...daddy and DIY #fail master