By: Calvin Fisher
RELAX. It’s already done, all five of us have put to task the new five-door Suzuki Jimny, which I already had the opportunity to sample on a trip to Botswana and back. One doesn’t simply call one’s littlest 4×4 a ‘family car’, unless I can confidently load 400-plus kilos of Fisher Family into it, then drive to Sun City for the week, luggage et al. Having ‘eighty-sixed’ about ten kilos from my own mid-section meant I could give my boisterous lads some more legroom at the back, the net result of this was a pleasant two-hour cruise from OR Tambo to the city of gold, sin. Job done?
Mostly yes.
The Suzuki Jimny is an icon, beloved and romanticised about, especially at the coast. Just ask any Capetonian who’ll have noticed them punctuating traffic like jellybeans — Jellybeans with enviable ground clearance and angles of attack and departure, but not necessarily on-road refinement and highway demeanour.
At it’s worst, the Jimny can be buzzy and busy on a long road-trip, but these sensations feel ‘less than’ in this long(er)-wheelbase iteration. While there’s not been any bonus reduction in the NVH, the engine noise feels less intrusive here, and that extra space between the wheels makes for a less fidgety feel at the helm, and a calmer ride overall — an opinion shared by the occupants at the rear.
Overall, life across the rear axle cannot be compared to the three-door model. There’s so much more living space now, a proper array of bins, charging points, articulation and proper doors and windows. I’d never have recommended the three-door variant to a young family, and often not even to an adventuring couple that liked to travel in comfort and with a fair amount of mod-cons and gear. Mountain bikers? Surfers? Sure, but be warned, here be compromise.
With this new longer model, however, you now have proper real estate to work with. Even the extended roof can now do its share of load-carrying, and let’s be honest, a chunky rack only enhances the rough-and-ready aesthetic of the Jimny — a mighty mite with a bark to match its bite.
So it’s great that Suzuki has finally endowed it with a level of practicality that was missing from this otherwise consistently impressive vehicle. It easily swallowed our eight pieces of luggage and didn’t put a foot wrong during our four-hour round trip. And when the roads dissolved into a pockmarked mess, it was great to remember that we’d have low-range at the ready to climb out of even the most wicked of potholes.
