The Suzuki Jimny isn’t available for sale yet, but that hasn’t stopped Liberty Walk (a supercar tuner in Japan) from creating a widebody design for it.
In our minds, that basically goes against the idea of a Jimny, but to each his own we guess…
The wider wheel-arches make it possible to fit wider tyres, but we reckon the main aim is to get the all-new Jimny to look as much as possible as a Mercedes G-Class.
You can see in the Facebook post below exactly what G-Class they modelled it after.
‘Cute’ is one of those descriptions that is bandied about far too often in the automotive realm when talking about something like the Jimny. However, this little Suzuki’s looks had me floundering to come up with an alternative…until I drove it.
Time (and space on the web page) is short, so we’ll settle on ‘cute’ when describing the Jimny’s styling. The latest iteration of the company’s Samurai takes that instantly recognisable boxy styling, buffs off the sharp edges, and places headlamps with an almost dewy-eyed expression either side of the model’s trademark five-slot grille. The roof rails and spare wheel mounted on the back give the Jimny a slightly more purposeful air, but it’s the 190 mm of daylight beneath the car that came to the forefront of my drive in Calitzdorp.
Suzuki’s top brass were determined that the gathered press would not stand around ‘ahh-ing’ and making coochy-coo noises about the Jimny’s appearance. So, they pointed at a ridge of mountains bordering our camp and plainly stated that was our next stop.
Now, I’d driven this model on the road in the UK and, although it was a somewhat roly-poly affair, I was assured this trait was the product of surprising off-road ability. So, when the dirt track gave way to tyre-unfriendly looking loose rock, I was not quite as nervous as I thought I’d be. Depressing the brake and clutch, a prod on the ‘4WD-L’ button, and suddenly Jimny was beginning to change its character.
Our path comprised some serious axle-twisters, inclines that you’d hesitate tackling in diesel Land Rover, let alone a 1,3-litre car, and a middlemannejie replete with fynbos high enough to be swatting our bonnets the whole way. Okay, so it wasn’t the most comfortable drive I’d ever undertaken – the combination of rigid axles, long-travel shock absorbers and gas struts saw us being bounced around something awful at times – however, the cabin itself was basic but was well-equipped and roomy enough for 6 feet of me to fit behind the wheel without undue drama and the high seating afforded a great view all round. The steering is light enough to twirl effortlessly, and the Jimny’s diminutive proportions were a boon on the sharp corners of our track which would have had the owners of longer SUVs performing 32-point turns in a location where a drop of one hundred feet was just an ill-judged reverse manoeuvre away.
The multi-point fuel injection 1,3 engine never felt out of its depth and there was none of the expected scramble and stall on steep smooth rock sections that would make a klipspringer say ‘nah, forget it…I’ll stay put’.
Despite the constant clonk of rock on tyre and scrape of vegetation against underbody, the Jimny felt solid and did not shed any of its underpinnings on the course. Having tackled such terrain, another look at the Jimny almost dispensed with the cute styling – if anything, the Jimny sits there with the likes of the Fiat 500 and Beetle as a retro-inspired modern offering. It may not be as instantly recognisable as the aforementioned motoring icons, but where the modern Fiat and VW are mere pastiches of their ancestors (read bigger, heavier, costlier and basically far-removed from the traits that made them so popular), the Jimny retains the cheerful looks, lightweight build, cracking off-road ability and wallet-friendly price tag that made the Samurai such a hit back in the late 70’s and 80’s.
This car is compact and frugal enough to happily potter around town, the roof rails and folding seats endow it with a modicum of practicality, and beneath a cuddly exterior it hides off-road ability that will humble most SUVs…All of this with a price tag matching a medium-sized hatchback (R 149 900)– can you say ‘hot cakes’?
Get all the details on the Suzuki Jimny in our New Car Gallery.
