Suzuki Jimny SZ5
Discussion
A couple more mods.....
Today's job was to fit some diff guards from Jimnybits. These were kindly bought for me as a birthday present recently
Rear guard, looks simple enough to fit:
Up on some ramps for better access:
It fixes via two bolts on the diff to diff housing, then a U bolt over the axle tube at each end. Nothing more than a 12mm sock, extension and deep 17mm socket required. One of the easiest off road mods I've performed:
All done
Now onto the front diff. Sadly no instructions were included with the guards, although once ushered up, they are fairly obvious how they fit.
The front guard is of distinctly different design. No bolts included part from a single U bolt. Looking at the front diff, you can see the bracket for the front radius arm as some studs that the bolt passes through. The guard is designed to hang onto those.
Only one radius arm bolt need undoing, just enough to move the threads inside the stud, then the guard slipped up and into place.
Tighten the U bolt and job jobbed!
Jimny vs Jeep:
Today's job was to fit some diff guards from Jimnybits. These were kindly bought for me as a birthday present recently
Rear guard, looks simple enough to fit:
Up on some ramps for better access:
It fixes via two bolts on the diff to diff housing, then a U bolt over the axle tube at each end. Nothing more than a 12mm sock, extension and deep 17mm socket required. One of the easiest off road mods I've performed:
All done
Now onto the front diff. Sadly no instructions were included with the guards, although once ushered up, they are fairly obvious how they fit.
The front guard is of distinctly different design. No bolts included part from a single U bolt. Looking at the front diff, you can see the bracket for the front radius arm as some studs that the bolt passes through. The guard is designed to hang onto those.
Only one radius arm bolt need undoing, just enough to move the threads inside the stud, then the guard slipped up and into place.
Tighten the U bolt and job jobbed!
Jimny vs Jeep:
Why do the tyres have that horrible blue writing?
I had to get new tyres for my Freelander once, and they came with white writing. Felt like such a jerk driving round with those on, but the blue is even worse.
You might need to let you insurers know about all the mods as well.
Have you undersealed it yet? That seems to be a very good idea.
They are very cool little cars though. Hope you’re still enjoying it.
I had to get new tyres for my Freelander once, and they came with white writing. Felt like such a jerk driving round with those on, but the blue is even worse.
You might need to let you insurers know about all the mods as well.
Have you undersealed it yet? That seems to be a very good idea.
They are very cool little cars though. Hope you’re still enjoying it.
Mercury00 said:
I really can't believe how much Suzuki f
ked up with these, they were a licence to print money. How did they not have the foresight to realise that emissions would be a problem? I think the design is so good they'll still look decent in 20 years.
The regs are constantly changing, and the need for lower fleet averages means that the Jimny was going to need to be priced even higher (to cover the fines) and I guess they felt the market wouldn't take it. Sales outside of the home market were probably always going to be small in any case, but they sold as many as they could secure from Japan.ked up with these, they were a licence to print money. How did they not have the foresight to realise that emissions would be a problem? I think the design is so good they'll still look decent in 20 years. Agree that it is a classic shape. They nailed the exterior styling. Interior looks a bit plasticky, but fairly rugged. Shouldn't forget it is a reasonably cheap car though.
Mercury00 said:
I really can't believe how much Suzuki fked up with these, they were a licence to print money. How did they not have the foresight to realise that emissions would be a problem? I think the design is so good they'll still look decent in 20 years.
I'm not sure I understand the emissions problem myself. I wonder if it is just being used as an excuse, due to the fact they can't build enough of them for the markets outside the UK/EU.ked up with these, they were a licence to print money. How did they not have the foresight to realise that emissions would be a problem? I think the design is so good they'll still look decent in 20 years. Lets face it, a 1.5 litre petrol making 100hp doesn't pollute all that much. And almost every other car maker sells bigger engines, especially in 4x4's. e.g.
Parkers claim a Jeep Wrangler (not sure which engines) are 195-209g/km. My Jimny is something like 154g/km. A petrol Focus ST is 179g/km.
595Heaven said:
Why do the tyres have that horrible blue writing?
I had to get new tyres for my Freelander once, and they came with white writing. Felt like such a jerk driving round with those on, but the blue is even worse.
You might need to let you insurers know about all the mods as well.
Have you undersealed it yet? That seems to be a very good idea.
They are very cool little cars though. Hope you’re still enjoying it.
The blue is just for transport. The letters will be white. Personally I rather like the white lettering. For those that are offended, tyre makers only put the white letters on one side, so you just need to mount them with the white letters on the inside. I won't though.I had to get new tyres for my Freelander once, and they came with white writing. Felt like such a jerk driving round with those on, but the blue is even worse.
You might need to let you insurers know about all the mods as well.
Have you undersealed it yet? That seems to be a very good idea.
They are very cool little cars though. Hope you’re still enjoying it.
Underseal is a job on the schedule now the warmer weather is here.
Scrump said:
Great thread and an interesting car.
I am enjoying reading this, looking forward to the next update.
Thanks.I am enjoying reading this, looking forward to the next update.
I have plans, but the lockdown has put hold to most things. All the tyre fitters locally seem to be shut, so I haven't got those mounted yet. And while there is some uncertainty in the current climate, I didn't want to splash out for some new bits. Once we are through this I have other bits to buy and fit.
Also I've only done about 100 miles in it for the past 3-4 weeks. But watch this space...
300bhp/ton said:
I'm not sure I understand the emissions problem myself. I wonder if it is just being used as an excuse, due to the fact they can't build enough of them for the markets outside the UK/EU.
Lets face it, a 1.5 litre petrol making 100hp doesn't pollute all that much. And almost every other car maker sells bigger engines, especially in 4x4's. e.g.
Parkers claim a Jeep Wrangler (not sure which engines) are 195-209g/km. My Jimny is something like 154g/km. A petrol Focus ST is 179g/km.
The emissions issue is to do with corporate fleet compliance. All (a few exceptions exist) manufacturers have to achieve 95g CO2 as an average across their passenger car sales, or pay fines per gram over the limit for every car. Some OEMs can partially absorb or pass on these costs, or have bought ‘credits’ (Fiat bought a lot of credits from Tesla who have a 0g fleet), or have introduced with PHEV or full BEV products which help massively to achieve compliance, or at least to get them closer to achieving it, thus making the fines manageable.Lets face it, a 1.5 litre petrol making 100hp doesn't pollute all that much. And almost every other car maker sells bigger engines, especially in 4x4's. e.g.
Parkers claim a Jeep Wrangler (not sure which engines) are 195-209g/km. My Jimny is something like 154g/km. A petrol Focus ST is 179g/km.
Smaller importers like Suzuki have far fewer levers to pull (eg no BEV) and thus have had to take the decision to stop importing vehicles that are way above their average fleet CO2. The Jimny is inexpensive, but not exactly cheap, so increasing the price to offset the fines isn’t really tenable in the longer term.
It’s a shame, but rules are rules. It’s definitely not being used as an excuse.
595Heaven said:
The emissions issue is to do with corporate fleet compliance. All (a few exceptions exist) manufacturers have to achieve 95g CO2 as an average across their passenger car sales, or pay fines per gram over the limit for every car. Some OEMs can partially absorb or pass on these costs, or have bought ‘credits’ (Fiat bought a lot of credits from Tesla who have a 0g fleet), or have introduced with PHEV or full BEV products which help massively to achieve compliance, or at least to get them closer to achieving it, thus making the fines manageable.
Smaller importers like Suzuki have far fewer levers to pull (eg no BEV) and thus have had to take the decision to stop importing vehicles that are way above their average fleet CO2. The Jimny is inexpensive, but not exactly cheap, so increasing the price to offset the fines isn’t really tenable in the longer term.
It’s a shame, but rules are rules. It’s definitely not being used as an excuse.
Interesting thanks.Smaller importers like Suzuki have far fewer levers to pull (eg no BEV) and thus have had to take the decision to stop importing vehicles that are way above their average fleet CO2. The Jimny is inexpensive, but not exactly cheap, so increasing the price to offset the fines isn’t really tenable in the longer term.
It’s a shame, but rules are rules. It’s definitely not being used as an excuse.
I wonder how much the 'fines' are. As it seems pretty much every car maker sells stuff that puts out more emissions than the Jimny does. I'm not denying there is an impact of this, what I don't get is why Suzuki are a special case. Although I don't know how many vehicles they sell in the UK in total. I'd have thought quite a few based on how many dealerships there are.
The Jimny might not be expensive, but it is one of the more expensive Suzuki's. It's the 2nd most expensive starting price of their range:
I think the fines are roughly €100 per gram over the corporate target. Per Car...
So....
- Each Jimny Manual (178g/km) produces a fine of €8,300
- An Ignis SZ3 MHEV (98g/km) produces a fine of €300
If Suzuki were to have a PHEV in the range at 49g/km, this would give a 'credit' of €4,600, and if they had a full BEV (i.e. 0g/km), this would give a 'credit' of €9,500
You can see how difficult it is for them to justify continuing selling Jimny in the EU. They can't really increase the price to offset the fines - would you have been happy to pay over £7k more than you did?
If they had lots of BEVs / PHEVs, they potentially could offset the Jimny's fines with the credits from those cars as a brand building exercise, but they don't - They have a couple of MHEV equipped cars, but these typically only liberate a few grams (every little helps though). Even so, they'd need to massively restrict numbers.
Suzuki sold 11,980 cars last year (About the same as Jaguar and Mazda), but hopefully you can see the volume isn't the deciding factor - it is the corporate average emissions that matter here.
The other issue is that adding hybrid tech / full BEV is horribly expensive. Add in all the mandatory safety tech and infotainment that the majority of drivers want, and you can understand there are increasingly wafer thin margins in new small cars. They are likely to be a dying breed
So....
- Each Jimny Manual (178g/km) produces a fine of €8,300
- An Ignis SZ3 MHEV (98g/km) produces a fine of €300
If Suzuki were to have a PHEV in the range at 49g/km, this would give a 'credit' of €4,600, and if they had a full BEV (i.e. 0g/km), this would give a 'credit' of €9,500
You can see how difficult it is for them to justify continuing selling Jimny in the EU. They can't really increase the price to offset the fines - would you have been happy to pay over £7k more than you did?
If they had lots of BEVs / PHEVs, they potentially could offset the Jimny's fines with the credits from those cars as a brand building exercise, but they don't - They have a couple of MHEV equipped cars, but these typically only liberate a few grams (every little helps though). Even so, they'd need to massively restrict numbers.
Suzuki sold 11,980 cars last year (About the same as Jaguar and Mazda), but hopefully you can see the volume isn't the deciding factor - it is the corporate average emissions that matter here.
The other issue is that adding hybrid tech / full BEV is horribly expensive. Add in all the mandatory safety tech and infotainment that the majority of drivers want, and you can understand there are increasingly wafer thin margins in new small cars. They are likely to be a dying breed
Edited by 595Heaven on Monday 13th April 19:43
To add to that: the Jimny's low weight is actually a problem.
The EU emissions penalties are adjusted by weight -- a heavier car is allowed to emit more before it gets fined. This is an absurd bit of policy design, but was introduced as a sop to European manufacturers (I assume as the big German brands make a lot of heavy SUVs and saloons).
So the relatively light Jimny is penalised for its emissions more harshly than a heavier SUV (all else equal).
The EU emissions penalties are adjusted by weight -- a heavier car is allowed to emit more before it gets fined. This is an absurd bit of policy design, but was introduced as a sop to European manufacturers (I assume as the big German brands make a lot of heavy SUVs and saloons).
So the relatively light Jimny is penalised for its emissions more harshly than a heavier SUV (all else equal).
webstercivet said:
To add to that: the Jimny's low weight is actually a problem.
The EU emissions penalties are adjusted by weight -- a heavier car is allowed to emit more before it gets fined. This is an absurd bit of policy design, but was introduced as a sop to European manufacturers (I assume as the big German brands make a lot of heavy SUVs and saloons).
So the relatively light Jimny is penalised for its emissions more harshly than a heavier SUV (all else equal).
Yes, good point! My example was a bit simplistic, but the reality is more complex. The EU emissions penalties are adjusted by weight -- a heavier car is allowed to emit more before it gets fined. This is an absurd bit of policy design, but was introduced as a sop to European manufacturers (I assume as the big German brands make a lot of heavy SUVs and saloons).
So the relatively light Jimny is penalised for its emissions more harshly than a heavier SUV (all else equal).
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