[onetoomany]

Hey guys, long time lurker, first time poster.

I'm in the business of buying my first 4x4 and I love the little Suzuki's. My old man used to have a jlx SWB vitara when I was younger, and I remember them being quite a good car.

I've had my heart set on a jimny for a while and have read way more good things about them than bad, but I've also seen a few people say that the auto tranny in them is quite weak. I have a Honda Prelude at the moment that has an auto in it that's on it's way out, so the last thing I want to do is buy a car that is going to do the same thing to me a bit further down the track.

I'd like to do quite a few mods to whichever car I end up buying and set it up as a mini tourer, as well as taking it out to the tracks on the occasional weekend. I love that the jimny has aircon and quite a broad range of aftermarket parts, but if the transmission in it started to pack up on me soon after me buying it I know I'll be kicking myself.

Manual isn't an option because I was a fool and never learnt to drive one, unfortunately.

Which do you guys think I would be better off buying? Taking into account that for the vitara I'd be factoring in around $500 for a new head.

Any help would be much appreciated, as I'm very confused as to which path I want to take now haha.

Cheers

[Bugsta]

What is your budget? What will you be using the vehicle for... Daily drive, mud, rock climbing, long hauls, single person, family etc.

Factoring in $500 for a new head... Have you got your eye on a specific vehicle? You have not mentioned this.

There are many threads on here about everything you are asking.

The Jimny auto is quite small and overheats easily. Automatic transmissions do NOT like being overheated. It will damage the tranny and reduce its life. External cooling on the Jimny is a MUST. Some have even installed 2 coolers. A temp gauge on the dash is a great way to keep an eye on it.

There is many mods available around the world for Jimny and Vitara. IFS is a limiting factor for the Vit but there are mods to improve this, but out of the box they have a better power to weight ratio.

[vitzookman]

yes budget plays a factor as nobs call the current grand vitara a vitara as well.

[Gwagensteve]

Bugsta wrote:

IFS is a limiting factor for the Vit but there are mods.

Rant on

Why do people perpetuate this rubbish? Ifs is no more a limiting factor than the "solid" front end of a jimny.

The biggest problem with the IFS on the vitara is people think they can stack spacers and lift the crap out of it until the cvs fall out. That's not a limitation of the IFS, it's a limitation of peoples problem solving ability.

The vitara IFS works awesome, rides plush and is easy to work on.

Rant off

Steve.

[atari4x4]

LWB SV620 auto would be my choice for a mini tourer... power & room to burn.

[onetoomany]

Budget is no more than around 10kish (about what I'm expecting to get back for the prelude once I replace the transmission).

The car will also have to be my daily driver so I won't be cheaping out on too much, if anything.

So basically, if I run a cooling fan (or two?) I shouldn't have too many problems with the transmission? Provided it's treated nicely, serviced on time, & with good quality oils obviously.

And yeah, the vit that I had my eye on has 180k's+ and it's a 98 model so I thought it'd be a worthwhile investment if I did end up taking that route.

I think now knowing what I know, I'll stick with the jimny and just make sure that adding a cooling fan is one of the first things I do. Is there a specific brand fan that's tried and tested, or are they all pretty much the same?

[greenzook89]

With the auto, what the go is get a external fluid cooler or two, that way the transmission fluid stays cooler and your auto will love you for it. Im sure there is probably some tech on here. Maybe check some of the jimny build threads out.

[vitzookman]

For the budget you could pick up a swb grand vitara and still have a few Gs to do it up