RE: Suzuki Jimny versus... the Lake District

[Exclee]

SydneyBridge said:

Are Suzuki spending much on advertising/PR?

it seems to pretty much advertise itself..

They’ve said they won’t be an advertising campaign, they don’t need to, internet only no tv

[Exclee]

300bhp/ton said:

Yes and no.

I believe Suzuki only provisioned 1000 units for the UK this year. All are sold, but I suspect they could have sold a lot more with a little more foresight. I believe you can't or couldn't even place a factory order, only get on a waiting list at a dealer and hope for one to turn up next year.

When I got mine I was told 600 only coming to the UK in the first batch an another 600 later in the year, the dealer said something about emissions, they can’t sell too many as it effects the total emissions on their range of cars (something to do with EU limits), if they go above the limit they get massive penalties or fines, just what I was told, could be rubbish

[andyj007]

great cars, but epic fail on the non existant boot space.. even worse we wanted jungle green, after seeing the pre production pics / info, waiting a year, rushed down to the dealers when they got one in, went to place the order.. no jungle green, oh ok will take the grey, no grey either. in your face green or wacky blue white or black... walked out dealership so disappointed... to be fair, way overpriced for what it is.. , its a town car / off roader thats all. utter rubbish on the motorway sitting at 3500 rpm at 70 reving its nuts off, absolutely zero interior luggage space if 4 up... .. still wanted one and would have purchased, a car that the world needs, not these overpriced unreliable range rover ste..
will hopefully pick one up second hand in four years time for 8k ish

[Exclee]

andyj007 said:

great cars, but epic fail on the non existant boot space.. even worse we wanted jungle green, after seeing the pre production pics / info, waiting a year, rushed down to the dealers when they got one in, went to place the order.. no jungle green, oh ok will take the grey, no grey either. in your face green or wacky blue white or black... walked out dealership so disappointed... to be fair, way overpriced for what it is.. , its a town car / off roader thats all. utter rubbish on the motorway sitting at 3500 rpm at 70 reving its nuts off, absolutely zero interior luggage space if 4 up... .. still wanted one and would have purchased, a car that the world needs, not these overpriced unreliable range rover ste..
will hopefully pick one up second hand in four years time for 8k ish

They have thought about the luggage, if you look at the roof you notice the Antenna is off set to the side so you can fit a roof rack and it won’t be in the way, the car is sold in Japan as a K car so the can’t make it longer for a boot, the plastic arches are removed to get it to the maximum width for a K car.

[Snozzer]

andyj007 said:

great cars, but epic fail on the non existant boot space.. even worse we wanted jungle green, after seeing the pre production pics / info, waiting a year, rushed down to the dealers when they got one in, went to place the order.. no jungle green, oh ok will take the grey, no grey either. in your face green or wacky blue white or black... walked out dealership so disappointed... to be fair, way overpriced for what it is.. , its a town car / off roader thats all. utter rubbish on the motorway sitting at 3500 rpm at 70 reving its nuts off, absolutely zero interior luggage space if 4 up... .. still wanted one and would have purchased, a car that the world needs, not these overpriced unreliable range rover ste..
will hopefully pick one up second hand in four years time for 8k ish

Overpriced, Really!? I bought a white SZ4 for 15.5k and love it. With the back seats down there’s a huge amount of boot space, much more than in my IPace. As a second car that doesn’t need to carry more than 2 people often it’s perfect. We use it to carry the dogs around locally and it’s more than fit for purpose. Fit and finish is pretty good IMHO. This thing cost less than the extras on my last Range Rover!

[HTP99]

Whilst these look fantastic and clearly work off-road, I can't just help thinking that a Duster 4x4 will do everything that this does (doesn't look as cute, granted) it is still classless, it is bigger, more practical has a better range of engines and is better priced too.

[Shermanator]

I do wonder what people mean when they start moaning about it revving its nuts off on the motorway, are they aware that thousands upon thousands of cars on the road today do exactly that? My 2014 C1 is at 3000rpm at 60, about 3600rpm at 75. Once you get used to it, it's perfectly fine.
My commute is 16 miles, about 13 miles of that is motorway, plus another mile of dual carriageway. Guess what? Yes, I use my C1. The rpm is not the hardship that people are making it out to be.

I'd love a Jimny, would be on my list of replacement cars should my C1 ever be written off. Only issue; you can't actually get one! (Well obviously that is an over exaggeration but everyone else has already talked about supply etc)

[anonymous-user]

Duster is better as a family car, Jimny is better as an offroader. Duster looks like every other boring SUV blob though, just cheaper.

I really don't get people who say "oh I wish it were bigger/faster/handled better". No-one wants their McLaren Senna to be better offroad.

It's a basic offroader, not a city car or family hatchback. If you want it to change in some way to meet your needs, then you're probably not the right target audience and the Ford Kugas are thataway ---->

[tim0409]

HTP99 said:

Whilst these look fantastic and clearly work off-road, I can't just help thinking that a Duster 4x4 will do everything that this does (doesn't look as cute, granted) it is still classless, it is bigger, more practical has a better range of engines and is better priced too.

We considered a Duster before we bought the new Jimny; I appreciate it's a better, more suited, all round car for 99% for the driving we do but in hindsight I'm so glad we went for the Jimny. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, there is a real "feel good" factor with the Jimny that I wouldn't get with the Duster; it's just a great looking car and I'm continually amazed by the positive feedback from random people when it's parked up. It terms of driving/practicality, we don't have kids and rarely have any passengers, although we've just put a deposit down on Vizsla so the rear seats will be permanently down. You quickly get used to the handling/driving style; I find it's great in town with the higher driving position and for mixed shortish journeys. As others have said, it really needs a 6th gear for motorway driving but I'm happy at 65mph in the inside lane; the upside is that I avoid the endemic, idiotic levels of tailgating which is a good thing and I'm happy just bumbling along. My mum suffers from dementia and I frequently take her out for a drive in it as she loves the higher driving position which enables her to see more; we were stuck in town last week and there was a G Wagon opposite and my mum pointed to it and said it looked similar to my car, which made me raise a smile.

We are driving from Edinburgh to Norwich (and back) at the weekend, which may test my love for the car though; I think my wife wishes we had something more suitable for longer journeys like a Mini or a diesel Porsche SUV

Random picture on a trip up North...

[loveice]

fido said:

schaeffs said:

Love these as well and am in the market for a relatively cheap and cheerful car for my soon to be 17yo son. The one thing that stops me pulling the trigger is the frankly awful EuroNcap crash test result. Maybe I'm being over-critical but how can a similar sized Polo be so much safer?

Cute little 4x4 but it would put me off as well - guess the ladder chassis doesn't cope with impacts as well as a modern deforming monocoque structure. If only they made it a tad bigger.

The low score new Jimny has doesn't come from the front impact though.

[anonymous-user]

andyj007 said:

great cars, but epic fail on the non existant boot space.. even worse we wanted jungle green, after seeing the pre production pics / info, waiting a year, rushed down to the dealers when they got one in, went to place the order.. no jungle green, oh ok will take the grey, no grey either. in your face green or wacky blue white or black... walked out dealership so disappointed... to be fair, way overpriced for what it is.. , its a town car / off roader thats all. utter rubbish on the motorway sitting at 3500 rpm at 70 reving its nuts off, absolutely zero interior luggage space if 4 up... .. still wanted one and would have purchased, a car that the world needs, not these overpriced unreliable range rover ste..
will hopefully pick one up second hand in four years time for 8k ish

I get that most people that are buying these don't really need one, but they want one.

Totally understandable.

But if you need a car that'll seat 4, plus have some decent boot/luggage space, to drive at 70mph up and down the motorway, this probably isn't the car for you.

[300bhp/ton]

andyj007 said:

great cars, but epic fail on the non existant boot space.. even worse we wanted jungle green, after seeing the pre production pics / info, waiting a year, rushed down to the dealers when they got one in, went to place the order.. no jungle green, oh ok will take the grey, no grey either. in your face green or wacky blue white or black... walked out dealership so disappointed... to be fair, way overpriced for what it is.. , its a town car / off roader thats all. utter rubbish on the motorway sitting at 3500 rpm at 70 reving its nuts off, absolutely zero interior luggage space if 4 up... .. still wanted one and would have purchased, a car that the world needs, not these overpriced unreliable range rover ste..
will hopefully pick one up second hand in four years time for 8k ish

I don't understand people thinking there will be more boot space, it's not a TARDIS ffs

[300bhp/ton]

HTP99 said:

Whilst these look fantastic and clearly work off-road, I can't just help thinking that a Duster 4x4 will do everything that this does (doesn't look as cute, granted) it is still classless, it is bigger, more practical has a better range of engines and is better priced too.

For off road ability no, not even close. It's a bit like comparing a Focus ST to a Carterham for track use.

[300bhp/ton]

teleidoscope said:

Duster is better as a family car, Jimny is better as an offroader. Duster looks like every other boring SUV blob though, just cheaper.

I really don't get people who say "oh I wish it were bigger/faster/handled better". No-one wants their McLaren Senna to be better offroad.

It's a basic offroader, not a city car or family hatchback. If you want it to change in some way to meet your needs, then you're probably not the right target audience and the Ford Kugas are thataway ---->

Well said!

[Shakermaker]

BathyThermo said:

I get that most people that are buying these don't really need one, but they want one.

Totally understandable.

But if you need a car that'll seat 4, plus have some decent boot/luggage space, to drive at 70mph up and down the motorway, this probably isn't the car for you.

Its the same as all those who say that electric cars don't work because they can't charge it at home, or have to drive 400 miles a day regularly enough that they need to refuel every day.

[fido]

loveice said:

The low score new Jimny has doesn't come from the front impact though.

“Although dummy readings indicated good protection of the knees and femurs of both driver and passenger, structures in the instrument panel and dashboard were thought to pose a risk of injury to occupants of different sizes, and protection was rated as marginal."

It's not exactly great though is it. Look all i'm saying (and it seems i am not alone) is that it is too small for modern usage - 3.6m length might have been okay 50 years ago - but people (and their stuff) have got bigger since then. The MX-5 or A1 are small cars and around 4m in length - just make it 10% bigger and stick in a 1.8 diesel - it would still look cute and have decent boot space. Sigh.

Edited by fido on Tuesday 21st May 12:13

[300bhp/ton]

fido said:

loveice said:

The low score new Jimny has doesn't come from the front impact though.

“Although dummy readings indicated good protection of the knees and femurs of both driver and passenger, structures in the instrument panel and dashboard were thought to pose a risk of injury to occupants of different sizes, and protection was rated as marginal."

It's not exactly great though is it. Look all i'm saying (and it seems i am not alone) is that it is too small for modern usage - 3.6m length might have been okay 50 years ago - but people (and their stuff) have got bigger since then. The MX-5 or A1 are small cars and around 4m in length - just make it 10% bigger and stick in a 1.8 diesel - it would still look cute and have decent boot space. Sigh.

Edited by fido on Tuesday 21st May 12:13

So basically you want a completely different vehicle.

[caelite]

Shermanator said:

I do wonder what people mean when they start moaning about it revving its nuts off on the motorway, are they aware that thousands upon thousands of cars on the road today do exactly that? My 2014 C1 is at 3000rpm at 60, about 3600rpm at 75. Once you get used to it, it's perfectly fine.
My commute is 16 miles, about 13 miles of that is motorway, plus another mile of dual carriageway. Guess what? Yes, I use my C1. The rpm is not the hardship that people are making it out to be.

I'd love a Jimny, would be on my list of replacement cars should my C1 ever be written off. Only issue; you can't actually get one! (Well obviously that is an over exaggeration but everyone else has already talked about supply etc)

I think what you're seeing is a twofold issue;
1. People parroting what automotive journalists are saying, droning on the motorway is on the shortlist of things they say about pretty much every small car.
2. People who aren't the Jimnys target market. I would wager the folk complaining about the revs aren't coming from a C1 or Micra, but tend to drive something much more substantial & are looking at the Jimny as a fun 2nd car for when it snows.

I would love a LWB one though, but unfortunately the 80s is over, type approval is a thing, and stretching a chassis 40cm & adding a set of doors isn't something that is as easily done for a manufacturer as it was in the SJ410 days.

Edited by caelite on Tuesday 21st May 13:21

[anonymous-user]

fido said:

“Although dummy readings indicated good protection of the knees and femurs of both driver and passenger, structures in the instrument panel and dashboard were thought to pose a risk of injury to occupants of different sizes, and protection was rated as marginal."

It's not exactly great though is it. Look all i'm saying (and it seems i am not alone) is that it is too small for modern usage - 3.6m length might have been okay 50 years ago - but people (and their stuff) have got bigger since then. The MX-5 or A1 are small cars and around 4m in length - just make it 10% bigger and stick in a 1.8 diesel - it would still look cute and have decent boot space. Sigh.

Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 21st May 12:13

No.

[HeadForTheHills]

I think dropping the 3 door ladder chassis Vitara was a mistake on Suzuki’s part.
The Jimny remains true to its off road roots, for which I’m grateful, but the slightly larger 3 door Vitara was a more refined choice for covering road miles with some track work thrown in.
I spent 5 years using the Vitara carrying 100kg of radio test equipment around Scotland to hilltop radio stations; long days and many miles in all weathers.