[Pedro61]

G'day everyone.

Been looking at the Jimnys for a couple of months now and have pretty much decided its the way to go for me. The choice now is to pick up for a 3-4yo unit or go all the way with a new model. I asked around at the only local Suzuki dealer who tells me that the much promoted overseas Jimny will npot be coming to Australia because Australian Standards demand more Airbags than Suzuki is willing to put into it.

Please say it isn't so !

Its a pretty sweet looking unit, with some upgraded features (see below). It would be a real shame if this was the end on the road for Jimny in Australia. Particularly now that I want one.

[Gwagensteve]

That particular car is a Brazilian market model which does not have to comply with ADRs/EU standards and will never be sold here.

The Jimny is at the end of its model life. It's currently the oldest new car design on sale in Australia (18 years) . It will most likely be replaced with a monocoque IFS/IRS design most probably designed on the current vitara platform.

Let it go. It was never a great car.

[watermouse]

Gwagensteve wrote:

... It was never a great car for the kind of modifications and driving I like to do.

Fixed for you.

It is remarkable that Suzuki has managed to sell Jimnys as long as they have. They must represent great value to a certain segment of the market for that to happen.

Jimnys are good cars, a lot of fun can be had in them. I had one. It was the most fun car I have ever owned and very easy to live with. It was never going to be a huge mud monster or rock crawler so I never tried making it one.
I just drove it as far as it would go, often further than my wheeling mates got and always with a massive grin.

Buy the best car you can that is out of its warranty period. The money saved is well spent on decent tyres and mild suspension upgrades
Then just drive it everywhere, learn about why it works or doesn't work and enjoy it.

[Toomanycars]

I agree.. Let someone else take the huge new car depreciation hit and buy one just out of warranty. You will save a heap.. New cars are for people who like to burn money, company cars, tax deductions or people who act from the heart and not the head. If you must have that "new car smell" buy one that is a couple of months old and get some "new car smell" spray or something...

[shep]

Jimnys must be the best car in the market for not deprecating. Have seen many the same year as mine selling for more then I payed for mine new.

Also I got home last night from a 10000km trip where I easily drove 1200km days and also limiter bashed it in dunes and wandered around the tanami desert gold hunting where I did around 500km well away from any form of track.

Jimnys are fucking awesome, it's not 1980 anymore so you don't need to put up with high maintance shitty cars like the thing that gwagon thinks is the pinical of Suzuki engineering. I will just kick back and relax, set the cruise at 120kph and travel to another state so I can wheel different terrain.

[Chop]

Its the same with the Brazilian grand vitara, won't make it to our market.



Speaking in a suzuki dealer a couple of weeks ago about models new and old with the service centre, apparently something like 80% of jimny's are bought to tow/pull behind motorhomes.

[shep]

Can't flat tow any jimny built after about 2008 so I reckon they are making up that number

[Chop]

He's was talking about trailering also shep. Actually passed a few on the Eyre peninsula over the long weekend, the grey nomads love them.

[MrRocky]

My breif ownership of a jimny was not as enjoyable as i thought, felt like it was going to roll even with mildly enthusiastic driving. That was on stock tyres with no lift

[Gwagensteve]

Yes, I thought I'd get someone's back up. That's the thing about "enthusiasts"

I'm not an enthusiast - I just use/build the right car for the job. Suzukis are cheap and shitty. They're cheap and shittiness along with the light weight, simplicity and availability is what makes them useful for the inherently destructive driving I like to do. Thats doesn't make them a good car in themselves (whatever that is.) They don't even have much "character" if character means endearing flaws, in the way that Porsche 911's or Defenders turned their flaws into mythology.

The problem with the jimny is that it's not very good at what most people use them for (driving on road) they don't have enough payload to be useful for driving distances, and they're too weak/vulnerablel for the type of 4WDing their configuration implies that can do (and Sierras could do easily) but because it's in "a class of its own" people confuse that with being good.

It's fine to like the jimny. That's not the same as it being a good car. People like Lada Niva's too. Personally, I detest 70 series land cruisers and can find no redeeming features in them, but there's no doubt they're a good car.

The Defender is much the same - it's a pretty terrible car by many measures, but the flaws people find endearing in the Defender aren't functional flaws, (like a glass driveline or no payload) they're design quirks like the driving position or the clunky gearbox, which are balanced by practicalities which are also designed in, like the visibility, the size of the load area, or the off road ability.

Of course, much of this is subjective - one man's trash is another's treasure, but whilst the jimny is slipping into irrelevance because the niche it inhabits is too small, the Defender became cool partially because how terrible it was because it's unique selling point - a perceived "ruggedness" and went out with a bang.

Anyways, Jimny's doo seem to get quite good resale, and the chances are any 3 to 4 year old car ha done very little real work so is likely to be relatively trouble free.

[alien]

Apparently... (ie; rumourmill) the current Jimny platform is scheduled to be killed in 2018 for a full 20 year production run, with a entirely new model for 2019.

[watermouse]

Gwagensteve wrote:

...That's the thing about "enthusiasts".

I'm not an enthusiast -.

Thats a good one, Steve. Heaven forbid you should ever crack a smile when you are driving one of your cars.


(Happy 9000th post, btw. )

[Gwagensteve]

My cars make me smile all the time. That doesn't make me a Suzuki enthusiast. It makes me a car enthusiast. Single make enthusiasts are the ones who can't get the joke.

[pete_79]

Chop wrote:

Speaking in a suzuki dealer a couple of weeks ago about models new and old with the service centre, apparently something like 80% of jimny's are bought to tow/pull behind motorhomes.

Just got back from a return trip driving Brissy to Cairns (up the coast road and back via Emerald), I actually noticed how many motor homes and buses where towing small 4wds.

The final count was 5 short wheelbase NGVs, 1 normal NGV and 2 Jimnys.

[shep]

NGV are the choice for flat towing as they have a neutral in the transfer when jimnys don't.
Jimnys are very popular in the topend as there is no other car that can be used all year round, closest car is a jeep and they are still to heavy and are close to $50k new.

Mine cost $16990. Awesome value car and has coped with everything I have done to it. Actually a bit pissed that I can't buy a new one and don't really want to buy a jeep when Gets to 4 years old.

[Toomanycars]

Don't buy a JEEP unless you are a mechanic with access to cheap parts and don't care about resale value..