It’s tough to think of a car on sale at the moment that packs as much universal appeal as the Suzuki Jimny.
Straddling that perfect line between Pokémon cute and Camel Man tough, this pint-sized off-roader is popular with everyone from dyed-hair pensioners and stay-at-home housewives right through to hand-rolling Bree Street hipsters and suave-suited yuppies who want the world to think they have an adventurous side (they don’t).
Seriously, I have yet to meet somebody who genuinely doesn’t like this blocky 4x4. And how could you not?
In a world where vehicle design is becoming increasingly same-same and homogenised, the Jimny stands out with its unapologetically straight-edged aesthetic that harkens back to a bygone era. Personally, I’m a big fan of the little Suzuki and it’s one of the few new cars I might consider spending my own cash on. Or would I?
I recently spent a week with this 1.5 GLX Automatic Rhino Edition and found once you get past those awesome looks you are left with a compromised package.
Well, at least not when it comes to everyday driving. With its dinky Kei Car dimensions the Jimny is an absolutely cracking city commuter, one that zips in and out of traffic with the immediacy of a bumble bee and can be squeezed into the tightest kerbside parking spot without breaking sweat.
The latter is made even easier thanks to excellent all-round visibility and a commanding seat position that lets you place every corner with ease. Which, in a city like Cape Town where you spend your life parallel parking, adds to the Jimny’s daily driver appeal.
The softly sprung (and when I say soft I mean soft – just sneezing hard makes this little fella rock from side to side) suspension is also brilliant at smoothing over any road scars or poorly maintained tarmac. Admittedly there’s not much of that in Kaapstad but in Johannesburg – aka Pothole City – the Jimny’s cushy compliance and squishy 195/80 R15 profile Dunlop Grandtrek tyres will be of serious benefit.
Automatic climate control. A seven-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Cruise control. A multifunction trip computer. Electric windows. A leather-wrapped multifunction steering wheel. Yes, it’s all present and accounted for. This flagship model also gets a rear 12-volt power socket, automatic LED headlamps and a small flip-up “stash” box in the luggage area.
The driver’s seat is comfortable, and thanks to a rake-adjustable steering wheel it’s fairly easy to find a suitable driving position – even if you measure in at 1.88m, like I do. So, yeah, on the daily drudge to and from the office this Suzuki was a joy to get behind the wheel. Ditto at the 4x4 course.
While I’m not a very accomplished off-roader, I did steer the Jimny in the direction of Doringlaagte, a self-catering resort 3km outside Montagu that has routes of various difficulty levels criss-crossing its vast Karoo-scrubbed property. I avoided the gnarly stuff, shifted the Jimny from 2H to 4H (there’s also 4L for when s*** truly gets real) and spent an hour or so exploring rugged jeep tracks.
Needless to say the Suzuki shrugged them off like a mountain goat energised from gnawing on ginseng-heavy jungle root. I could sense it sighing and rolling its eyes as I pussy-footed about with all the confidence of a learner driver in rush hour traffic. It felt like a waste to be honest, like I wasn’t doing this off-roader any of the justice it deserved (seriously, visit YouTube and you’ll see how capable these things are).
Right, so let’s have a quick recap. The Jimny is great around town, a proper slayer of the non-beaten track (in the right hands) and as enduring in personality and character as it was when it first drove onto the scene in 2018. So where do the negatives creep in then?
For me the biggest single issue lies in the way this machine strings the city with the country. It’s a roughly 190km commute from Cape Town to Montagu and in it the Jimny started to feel like hard work after about 50km.
There’s discernible drivetrain whine. There’s wind noise. There’s a lot of sideways shimmy and steering correction when you catch a crosswind or are passed by a truck in the oncoming lane. There’s that feeling you shouldn’t be travelling at speeds over 120km/h. Not because the Jimny isn’t good for it, but because as soon as you do this diminutive off-roader starts sucking back fuel with a thirst that belies its proportions.
Fast facts: 2022 Suzuki Jimny 1.5 GLX Rhino Automatic
Engine: 1462cc four-cylinder petrol
Power: 75kW at 6,000rpm
Torque: 130Nm at 4,000rpm
Transmission: Four-speed auto
0-100km/h: I stopped counting
Top speed: Do you really care?
Fuel: 7.4l/100km (achieved combined)
Price: R385,900. (Add an extra R12,926 for the Rhino Edition Kit that adds rhino decals, a rhino-branded soft spare wheel cover, Suzuki heritage grille, red mud flaps and a set of rain and wind deflectors).
Indeed, that squared-off front section might look amazing but, good lord, it bestows this Suzuki with the aerodynamics of a house. The quicker you go, the more drag you’re fighting and the higher that digital fuel consumption readout climbs.
You soon learn to maintain a steady GPS-indicated 110km/h (roughly 3,450rpm in fourth gear) and perform the shoulder-line shuffle whenever a faster vehicle appears in your rearview mirror. Even when you do this, you will struggle to get the automatic Jimny to sip less than 7.6l/100km – a figure more than our larger and lardier long-term Ford Everest XLT 2.0 BiTurbo 4x4 averaged cruising at above the national limit. Not great.
Less of a problem but worth mentioning nonetheless is that the front seats are a bit lacking in the lumbar support department, something you’ll start noticing at around the 100km mark. In order to carry anything other than a packet of crisps, you will need to fold those rear seats flat to access meaningful boot space. This means without fitting external storage solutions the Jimny is basically a glorified two-seater.
Despite these considerable flaws (and its somewhat iffy three-star Euro NCAP crash test safety rating) I would garage one in a second if I had the financial wherewithal. There are better, more rounded alternatives to throw your money at, this is true, but none can come close to matching the enormous feel-good factor the Suzuki Jimny offers. It’s a cubist anomaly that shouldn’t exist in 2022 but I’m hell of a glad it does. Long may it rumble on.