The first generation of the Suzuki Jimny came out in 1970 code-named LJ10, Then in 1981 came the second generation of the Jimny SJ30, which was the first ever Jimny or, for the Indian market the Maruti Suzuki Gypsy, came back in 1985 in India as one of the first-ever lifestyle SUVs, which is still considered an iconic off-roader, which was and still is a daily driver for some of us Indians, and Gypsy also participated in several Hymalaya rallies as well and still people who participate in such rallies consider the Gypsy as their priority. It has also been driven by our police officials and by the Indian Army as well. But after the BS6 emission norms were announced by the government, in 2018 Maruti pulled the plug on the Gypsy.
But before 2018 in the internationally, Suzuki launched several facelifts and 2 new generations of the Jimny that we didn’t get in India, but in 2018 the latest generation JB74W Jimny got launched into the international market and was also considered for the Indian market as well, and at the 2020 Auto Expo Maruti Suzuki showcased the new Jimny at their stall for the first time, but as per Maruti Suzuki ‘the Indian customers wanted a 5-door version of the Jimny, and its 5-door version was supposed to come out in 2021, but because of Covid-19 it got delayed for an extended period, but at the 2023 Auto Expo Maruti Suzuki finally revealed the 5-door Jimny to the public and also started the bookings with it, and today finally after 5-years since its global debut it got launched with the prices starting from ₹12.74 Lakh to ₹15.05 Lakh (ex-showroom).
Talking about the looks, in its 5-door avatar, the Jimny doesn’t look disproportionate from any angle, Maruti did a great job with the overall styling from the outside, and some touches on the 5-door Jimny will remind you of the mighty Gypsy, like circular headlamps but with the LED set-up, 5-slat front grill, and lower mounted taillamps, but as an overall design, it looks completely different than the Gypsy like the body is boxy from all the sides with no single curve, has traditional door-handles, chunky and boxy ORVS for better visibility, gets a small glass area between the C and D-pillar, has 15″ alloy wheels, which looks shorter on the 5-door version, and the spare wheel is mounted on the tailgate, but overall it is a cute little family offroader which doesn’t look like any other Maruti Suzuki in the market. And Being a 5-door the overall length of the Jimny remains under 4 meters.
From inside the Jimny has a tough and rugged interior layout, with retro elements like the Gypsy but with modern touches, like for the driver’s side, there is analog speedometer and tachometer with a small MID in the middle, simple steering with navigation and media controls, the co-passenger gets a grab handle, it gets 9″ touchscreen infotainment system forwarded from other Maruti cars, which includes wireless Android Auto and Apple Car Play, has automatic climate control with rugged looking AC vents, and it gets buttons for traction control and hill descent control as well, but the main change for the Indian market is that it gets a 2nd row, where you get 2 seats for the rear passengers, the window toggle switch design is also a bit different at the rear, the fabric upholstery is the standard upholstery to be offered with all the variants and you get adjustable headrests on all 4 seats. Talking about the boot space of the Jimny, it gets 219L of boot space, which is less but impressive than the 3-door Mahindra Thar’s boot space.
And speaking about the Jimny’s engine and its off-road capability, it is powered with the K15B 1.5L 4-cylinder naturally aspirated petrol engine borrowed from the XL6, which will churn out 103hp @6000rpm and 134.2Nm of peak torque @4000rpm, mated to a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed torque-convertor automatic transmission, and in terms of off-road capability, it is built on a proper body on frame structure, equipped with Maruti Suzuki’s AllGrip Pro 4X4 system with the low-range transfer gear, which will help you to change the differential settings and with power distribution between the axels according to the terrain, and it has a water wading capacity of 210mm.
Overall the Jimny is a justifiable lifestyle SUV at the price that Maruti is offering, and it definitely gonna grab many eyeballs when you take it out on the road, but in terms of a rugged off-roader it doesn’t look dominating as the Mahindra Thar or The Force Gurkha, but because of its smaller looking stance compared to its competitors will help it tackle through tight spaces fairly well, and will also tackle tough terrain faster than its competitors because of its weight. As per Maruti Suzuki, they got over 29,000 bookings of the Jimny and for the deliveries, the customers have to wait for more than a year. And if we compare its price with the Mahindra Thar’s 4X4 petrol base variant which is ₹13.87 Lakh (ex-showroom), Jimny’s base variant costs ₹1.16 Lakh less than the Thar’s base variant, and keep in mind that here we are comparing the prices of the Thar 3-Door and Jimny 5-Door, Thar 5-Door is yet to arrive. As per the competitive pricing on which the Maruti Suzuki has launched the Jimny 5-Door in India, they probably can dominate the lifestyle SUV segment in India again.
