[paull]

Hi All,

I'm after some advice. We want a second car for the better half to use and we're thinking of a Jimny. She not driven for years and wants something small (to match her!) that she can build her confidence up in and can manoeuvre easily. She had a sit in a Jimny last week and liked it as she can see all 4 corners easily (no nasty sloping bonnets that vanish from sight or huge C pillars that you could hide a mountain behind) and I have to say I've always liked the Jimny's so I've got a few questions that I'm hoping you can help me with......

How good (or bad) do they drive around town? Obviously we'll take one for a test drive first but was just wondering what other people thought. It's going to be her daily driver and so spend most of it's time on road, though I do hope to get the tyres dirty, have some fun and see how it compares to the my Wrangler off road. I know it's not going to be limo-like smooth as it has live axles both ends but that doesn't mean it has to be bad on road. As I said, I've got a Wrangler which many slate for their on road driving characteristics but I think that it's perfectly OK as a daily driver around town. The Jimny has a much shorter wheel base though (my Wrangler is the 4dr) and far smaller wheels so just wondering what everyone thought of the ride?

Is the auto OK or does it sap too much power? She really wants an auto as she isn't confident driving a manual and as this will see a lot of town duties (in the wonderful Sydney traffic) so I think an auto's a sensible option anyway.

Are there any common issues to look out for when buying second hand? We'll probably be looking at something like a 2004 model, auto, hard top. Not really interested in mods etc at the moment as in the short term we just need this to help her build her confidence up (though mods may come later ). What are the major service items that cost the $$$ and when are they due?

Any help or advice will be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Paul

[monley]

Jimny's are fine around town as a daily driver. They ride rather nice for a short wheel base car with live axles at both ends with stock suspension IMO... They are a very ease car to learn't to drive in (it's what i learn't in )

They do have a few issues like a wobble between 70-80KPH some jimny's have the wobble from new.... other jimny's never had a wobble...so that one thing to check for, if it dose have a wobble...walk away and find another one

As for the auto....well it will be slow and sluggish and boring to drive... and try find a jimny that is has the m13a VVT (05 on-wards) as it's the only way to go IMO

Mods....when it dose come time for mods...you have a big choice of mods to choose from. You can do as much or as little as you like with mods form a 1" lift to a 5" lift...from 215/75 r15 tyre's to what ever size and then you got locker's, gearing, engine upgrades etc.... then your jeep will be nothing compared to the jimny

Hope this helps!!!

[royce]

Thought about a Grand Vitara?

They are a bit bigger than a jimny, but still with good visibility, more importantly they are going to be better to drive with an auto and ride nicer, as well as behave better on crappy roads with less tramlining and so on that all live axle fronts have

But otherwise look for signs of excessive beach use and yeah the wobble, if you get one with a wobble she will never want to drive again!

[zukenutter]

Hi Paull, x3 on the wobble, it can be fixed but it's not something you want your wife to deal with. Other than that, I have a lot of fun driving my Jimny around town.

If you're looking for rust, look in the jack storage compartment and also from underneath the car and above the muffler. Check the front-most lip of the bonnet where it meets the bumper. If there's nothing in the jack compartment from underneath it'll probably be fairly good. Also check the lowest part of the front inner guards.

The pre-2006 models don't have VVT but the seats are better particularly the rear which have full split/fold. VVT is definitely the more impressive to drive and while I haven't driven an auto, I'm sure the Jimny's high revving nature will make it fun.

Servicing is very simple and cheap (depends where you go though I guess).

[paull]

Thanks for the info guys. A few useful pointers in what to lookout for there.

I think the Jimny would ideal for her to use around town due to it's size and "what you see is what you get" visibility. I'm not expecting sports car performance from a 1.3l auto but for the sort of driving we'll do with this car it doesn't need it either so it doesn't really worry me, as long as they're mechanically reliable. I think they'd be a great car to drive as you really get to feel what's going on, something that's definitely missing in more modern car designs.

2006 onwards to get the VVT is probably getting out of the price range we were looking at but I'll try and test drive both and see how much difference it makes.

Royce - We were also looking at a 3dr GV, probably somewhere around 1999/2000 model for the price range we're looking at. I think they'd be good as well and agree the independent front end probably drives better and the bigger engine will obviously help. Any ideal of particular issues with these second hand? Obviously we're now looking at an older car than an equivalently priced Jimny so more potential for things to go wrong (or have worn out). Do know of any common issues with them?

Thanks again.

Paul

[paull]

monkey wrote:

They do have a few issues like a wobble between 70-80KPH some jimny's have the wobble from new....

Hi All,

Well we didn't end up getting a second hand Jimny as we couldn't find one that she liked! She loved the car just didn't like the second hand ones that were around and to be fair most of the decent ones were still around the same price as a new one so we ended up getting a new one. We've had it about 6 weeks now and and done around 2000km in it and still loving it. Fantastic little car to drive.

However, I've noticed over the last 1000km or so it seems to have developed the steering wobble mentioned above. It certainly didn't wobble when we first got it but it's doing it now, worst around 75km/hr but you can feel it between 70km and 90km. I spoke to the dealer about it when it had it's 1000km service (at around 1500km but who's counting!) and they said they'd rebalanced the wheels to try and get rid of it but after driving it again that's clearly not done anything. What is involved in getting rid of this? A guy on the 4WD Action forum mentioned something about "shims and firmer bushes" but I was hoping to get a bit more info (as I'm not particularly mechanically minded) so that I can "prompt" the dealer in what the appropriate course of action might be to sort it out.

Thanks for your help.

Paul

[neofitou]

There are a few sources of the wobble, yes king pin shims will fix it alot of the time, but take it back to the dealer and get them to fix it under warranty, it is a known issue with them, and Suzuki have a standard resolution procedure that they step though from what I understand.

I can't remember the specifics of this, I'm sure someone else willore be able to search for it..

[Benz]

sorry to hear about the wobble but glad she likes the car.
how is the auto?

Yeah it's a known problem for Suzuki so take it back and demand it be fixed!
If the dealer is no help maybe call some others to see if they know about the problem.

[Mike57]

Tell the dealer to find the Suzuki Service Bulletin L-SN-009 and follow the steps described in there. As it is under warranty this will all be covered by the dealer. I have a copy of this but I don't know how to attach it to this post. It is almost the same as the earler edition popsated by Zukenutter in the wheel wobble thread.

Mike

[Mike57]

Tell the dealer to find the Suzuki Service Bulletin L-SN-009 and follow the steps described in there. As it is under warranty this will all be covered by the dealer. I have a copy of this but I don't know how to attach it to this post. It is almost the same as the earler edition popsated by Zukenutter in the wheel wobble thread.

Mike

[paull]

Thanks all for the replies.

I had a quick look over it this morning (checking oil & tyres and stuff) and found that when they rebalanced the wheels they obviously only needed to change the weights on one wheel (you could see where the weights had been). However, they had inflated that tyre to 28psi when the others are all set around 24psi. Not sure how much of an effect that should have on the wobble but I let some air out of that tyre and the wobble doesn't seem as bad now, although it is definitely still there. I'll get on to the dealer and see what they say.

Benz wrote:

sorry to hear about the wobble but glad she likes the car.
how is the auto?

The auto is good. If you leave it to it's own devices it it tends to change up a little early and change down a little late as all auto's do but I guess it's because they're programmed to get better fuel economy rather than performance. That really doesn't help with a slightly underpowered 1.3l engine though and means it lacks a little in performance if driven that way. It works well around town though is nice and smooth when shifting. I just find that when I know I want a bit more GO or I'm coming to a big hill I start to change it manually instead so you can keep it on the boil and it works a treat.