LAST week Suzuki revealed its tiny giant, the new Suzuki Jimny, at the 2018 Joburg Festival of Motoring in Kyalami.
The earlier Jimny was responsible for creating a new market for compact, affordable, capable and most importantly, fun off-roaders. In fact, this ladder-framed, low-range vehicle became such an iconic brand for Suzuki, it is only the fourth new launch since the LJ10 was launched in 1970.
The iconic Jimny
- It has the boxy design of the first LJ and second generation SJ model.
- It keeps the round headlamps and separate round orange indicators of the original LJ10.
- The side-bonnet slits and rectangular front windscreen comes from the SJ series – the first Jimny to be nicknamedgiant killer by the 4X4 community.
- The GA trim level gets steel wheels similar to the SJ series.
- It has a clamshell bonnet and upright grille similar to the SJ.
- It has moulded rear bumper with lights in the furthest corners like the SJ.
The new features of the Jimny include a full drip rail which allows for the easy fitment of a number of roof rails and other accessories.
The 2018 model is built on a new ladder-frame chassis with a patented X brace between the axles for 1,5 times the flexible rigidity of the older frames. Both axles stay rigid – needed when driving over sand and mud – but with the coil springs and shock absorbers, Jimny now has higher ground clearance.
The new ladder frame system has left the Jimny slightly wider but the moulded bumper has shortened its length.
Under the bonnet, Suzuki has out a new 1,5 litre, four-cylinder K15B petrol engine.
The new engine is 15% lighter than the older 1,3 litre unit and uses 14% less fuel than both the manual and automatic gearbox-fitted versions of its predecessor.
The engine is fitted with a five-speed manual gearbox but there’s an optional four-speed automatic gearbox in the GLX optional features.
Jimny also gets a 4x4 system called AllGrip Pro which allows the driver to comfortably switch between the front-wheel 4X2 drive, the high-range 4x4 and low-range 4x4 with an easily accessible second gear lever.
This system is supported by electronic stability control which is standard on the model. Electronic stability control self-adjusts the power sent to the wheels based on which of the three drives are enabled and the current terrain conditions.
The new brake-enabled limited-slip differential system detects which 4X4 wheel is slipping and distributes extra power to the paired wheel or axle or it slows the spinning wheel.
Other driver-specific features include the merged hill-hold function and hill-descent control.
Lastly, the new design has allowed Suzuki’s engineers to improve on the Jimny’s already legendary off-road status.
Suzuki South Africa will release both the GA and GLX versions of the Jimny.
While not confirmed yet, estimated pricing – which includes a service plan and mechanical warranty – is:
Suzuki Jimny 1,5 4X4 GA man – R265 000
Suzuki Jimny 1,5 4X4 GLX man – R300 000
Suzuki Jimny 1,5 4X4 GLX auto – R320 000
The new Suzuki Jimny will be available to Mzansi customers from 1 November.
