Expected to touch down on local shores either towards the end of this year or in early 2019, the long awaited replacement for the near-on 20 year old third generation off-roader foregoes its somewhat cutesy image, in favour of a more aggressive appearance with a boxy design similar to that of the Mercedes-Benz G-class.
Sporting a retro-theme design, the Jimny does keep a number of its predecessor’s traits such as the five-slot grille and tailgate mounted spare wheel, but with a slightly lowered roof line, rounder headlights, flared wheel arches, squared off rear side windows, dark 15-inch alloy wheels and taillights moved to sides of the rear bumper.
Still riding on a ladder-frame chassis but with space inside having improved by 53-litres to 377-litres with the rear seats folded down, the Jimny’s biggest departure from the old model is a completely new interior claimed to have been designed for “professional use”.
Despite appearing basic and rugged, the “straightforward, practical and down-to-earth” interior boasts a scratch and stain-resistant finish on the new instrument panel with its dual square pods, a steering wheel lifted from the new Swift, square air vents and perhaps the most surprising, a second gear lever for the AllGrip Pro four-wheel drive system with 2H, 4H and 4L settings instead of the old model’s button setup.
A big addition though is the seven-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Bluetooth, USB and satellite navigation on higher spec variants, while safety comes in the form of Suzuki’s Autonomous Emergency Braking system known as Dual Sensor Brake Support, High Beam Assist, Traffic Sign Recognition, Lane Departure Warning and Electronic Stability Control.
As evident by the recently leaked brochure details, Suzuki has further improved the Jimny’s off-road ability with an approach angle of 37 degrees, departure angle of 49 degrees and breakover angle of 28 degrees, in addition to adding a limited slip differential and upgrading the various suspension components.
In its home market, the Jimny will be offered in kei car guise powered by 660 cc three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine developing 47kW/96Nm, or the upscale Sierra that will also be the official export derivative, which makes use of a brand-new 1.5-litre petrol making 75kW/130Nm.
Hooked to either a five-speed or four-speed automatic gearbox, Suzuki claims that the new mill is some 15% more efficient than the old 1.3-litre unit, with a further upshot being a 20kg reduction in weight to 1070kg for the manual, and a ground clearance raised by 20mm to 210mm.
In Japan, the Jimny Sierra will be offered in two trim levels, JL and JC with the option of the manual or automatic ‘box, and priced from ¥1 760 400 or just under R220 000. For South Africa though, Suzuki will likely only offer the Jimny in a single spec as before with both gearbox options, and priced from around R300 000.
