Omoda 9 vs Suzuki Jimny

What's the difference?

The arrival of Omoda and Jaecoo so soon after Chery’s Australian return just feels like a huge task to take on for the company. And given the amount of other new brands hitting local roads there is a real danger that customers will either feel overwhelmed or simply ignore many of these new models.

Trying to position Omoda as a genuine alternative to luxury brands, and even the likes of Mazda and Volkswagen, is a tough ask for the brand and its dealers. Certainly the price and styling will help attract potential buyers but to cement itself in the local market it will need to make sure it makes an impact early.

Judging the Omoda 9 on its merits, it’s a nice enough SUV and does many things well but doesn’t have any elements that really ensure it stands out from the numerous competitors it faces.

If you currently own a three-door Jimny and expect the XL to provide you with much beyond a more spacious second row (or luggage compartment overall), it might be best to hold on to what you’ve got.

And if you don’t own a Jimny and want one, there’s not much I reckon I’d be able to say to stop you if the resolve of anyone I know who’s ended up buying one is anything to go by.

If you’re a ‘get out on the weekend’ kind of person but you live a city Monday-to-Friday, it’s hard to look past the Jimny for simplicity, fun, and a competitive price.

Not to mention, of course, that it is also just so bloody cute.

From a design perspective, the Omoda 9 certainly stands out as different from the Chery and Jaecoo range. It has a distinctive look that speaks to its ‘premium’ and ‘technology’ aspirations, both on the exterior and interior.

However, to this reviewer’s eyes, there are also quite clearly some visual similarities to the Cadillac Lyriq, both in the overall silhouette but also the details and cabin design. This isn’t unusual in the car industry, especially from Chinese brands. Jaecoo’s designers clearly took inspiration from Range Rover, so it makes sense that the Omoda would find an equivalent luxury brand to be inspired by. Or perhaps it’s just a coincidence…

The important thing is that it’s notably different to what Chery is offering with its Tiggo models, which form the core of its Australian line-up. Omoda needs to be distinct and more upmarket if it is to justify its price premium. On that front, the wider group has done a nice job of making each brand stand out visually.

Judging the interior of the Omoda 9 on its own, it's actually a very pleasant place to be. The level of design, fit and finish also feels like a big step up on what Chery offers, even if it does feel familiar. The materials don't feel truly premium, but given the price that's understandable and acceptable.

There will be no prizes for a ‘spot the difference’ between the Jimny and the Jimny XL. 

You may have spotted the extra doors (and the subsequent longer body, 3965mm over 3645mm, a 320mm increase according to the spec sheet), but did you spot the chrome accents in the Jimny’s grille? 

That’s right, it’s not just the doors… it’s the doors and the grille.

Of course, some more changes naturally follow the new body style - it’s rear-most side windows are now much narrower, though the second-row windows do a lot to prevent losing any visibility, and the longer side silhouette looks a little more ‘grown up’.

Even then, the Jimny XL is shorter than a five-door Mini hatch by 58mm, and only 50mm longer than a Mazda MX-5.

The Jimny’s body elements still remain the same though, down to the 15-inch alloy wheels, plus the spare on the back. It’s also shares its 1725mm height and 1645mm width with the three-door, although its wheelbase is now 2590mm instead of 2250mm.

Inside, the rugged nature of the 4WD blends with a little bit of youthful modern design. The steering wheel is borrowed from other Suzuki models like the Swift, and the big dial housing has a fun retro vibe.

One of the standout features of the Omoda 9 is its size, measuring 4775mm long with a 2800mm wheelbase. That makes it longer in both measures than the likes of the Toyota RAV4 and Mazda CX-5, pushing it to the upper end of the ‘medium-sized’ SUV segment.

That liberates more space inside, with good room up front and a generous back seat, at least in terms of knee and foot room. The rear seats are compromised slightly by the large sunroof and sloping roofline, with headroom tight for anyone over 180cm.

Unfortunately, the space isn’t utilised as best as it can be, thanks to the lack of seat height adjustment for the driver. It’s not unique to Omoda and is becoming a common issue among Chinese-built cars for reasons I can’t explain. What it means is I couldn’t get the seat to a point I was 100 per cent happy with, which is a problem for what should be a very comfortable vehicle.

Omoda compensates for this with some clever technology, beyond just the pair of 12.3-inch screens (housed in a single setting, which again looks very similar to the Cadillac Lyriq), and the option of wired or wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. 

The 14-speaker Sony sound system includes two speakers inside the driver’s headrest. This is a clever addition that allows you to take phone calls via these speakers only, so you don’t annoy the rest of the occupants in the car.

The other notable luxury element is the fragrance system, which can diffuse three different scents into the car. While the names are a bit hard to interpret (Natural, Cure and Sport), the fact you can choose from three different scents and have them gently fill the cabin is a nice luxury touch.

In terms of storage, there's plenty of small item spaces around the cabin and the boot measures a roomy 660 litres and offers a nice flat floor with a square load area. However, that comes at the expense of any sort of spare tyre, with a tyre repair kit located under the floor.

If practicality to you means plenty of spaces to put things or a lot of little additional features, you’re going to be disappointed by the Jimny XL’s cabin. But if you see it more as a ‘could be hosed out if something goes horribly wrong’ type of thing, then I have good news for you.

Okay, don’t hose out your Jimny, but the hard-wearing basic materials are clearly here to accommodate mess. We’re talkin’ plastic, we’re talkin’ cloth, we’re talkin’... plastic. Yep, not much in the way of soft-touch or supple armrests, but you wouldn’t want to accidentally tear a leather seat with a tent peg, would you?

In terms of actual ergonomics and user-friendliness, the Jimny scores pretty well once you’re across some of the slightly odd elements.

Its front window controls are below the climate controls, rather than with the rear window controls, for example, which I assume is due to the second-row windows not being part of the original design. 

There’s also not a huge amount of storage space, front or rear, for anything other than small items or the usual drink bottles.

Fortunately, the big change for the XL is noticeable. Being able to get in and out of the second row is now easier thanks to, you guessed it, doors! 

And once you’re in there, even if you’re an adult, you’ll find yourself in a space that you could probably survive a road trip in, even if loading up a tiny ladder-frame SUV with more than two people for a long drive should at least attract some kind of fine or other minor punishment. You literally couldn’t have five people in the Jimny, though, as it’s only a four-seater.

If you needed a reminder of how tiny the Jimny is even in XL form, the luggage space is listed as 332 litres, which is less than a Hyundai i30 hatchback by 63 litres.

Oh, and that’s with the seats down. Up? You get 211L of luggage space, which is about as much as a Mini Hatch.

What features does it come with, you ask? Not many - but that’s kind of the point in a mid-$30K off-roader, isn’t it?

While you can pick up a Jimny XL from $34,990 before on-road costs with a five-speed automatic, our four-speed auto here on test starts from $36,490. 

The list of accessories and parts Suzuki offers for the Jimny is extensive and allows you to essentially build your perfect little weekend getaway ride, but here I’ll focus on the standard gear rather than listing every type of cargo rack or body protection you can add-on.

The Jimny XL comes with a 9.0-inch multimedia touchscreen, up from the three-door’s 7.0-inch unit, which also adds wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

It has a four-speaker sound system up from two in the standard Jimny, and it’s also the only Jimny that gets adaptive cruise control.

Just about everything else is standard Jimny fare - it’s got LED headlights, rear parking sensors and a reversing camera that does the job but isn’t crystal clear, a USB port and 12V outlets in the centre console and in the rear luggage compartment, plus physical dials and a digital display for the driver.

The Super Hybrid System may sound fancy, but it’s effectively a plug-in hybrid powertrain, which is a technology that is becoming increasingly familiar to Australian drivers as it fills the gap between internal combustion and electric vehicles.

Omoda’s SHS system combines a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine with three electric motors - two at the front, integrated into the transmission package and one at the rear - to create a potent SUV. This complex system can send power to either the front wheels or all four wheels via a three-speed ‘Dedicated Hybrid Transmission’.

Omoda claims the combined output of the Super Hybrid System is 395kW, allowing this family friendly SUV to sprint from 0-100km/h in just 4.9 seconds.

It’s backed up by a 34kWh battery, which allows for meaningful electric only range too.

The Jimny XL uses the same 1.5-litre, naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine as the original.

It only makes 75kW and 130Nm, and even though the Jimny is a relatively light SUV (actually, relatively light for a car in general), it still doesn’t quite feel like enough for hauling around 1200kg of 4X4 plus a person or two.

What gives Omoda some confidence to use the Super Hybrid System name is its claim that the battery allows the 9 to drive up to 145km (WLTP) on electric power alone, which is more than both a conventional hybrid and many existing PHEV models. For example, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV has an EV range of 84km and the Mazda CX-60 can make 76km.

Fuel economy is officially rated at 1.4L/100km, although that relies on using the battery to its maximum and once that is depleted, you can expect to see a much higher figure. Realistically somewhere around 5.0L/100km is what you should expect if you do mostly urban driving and anything below that is a good result.

Omoda claims that the Virtue SHS can drive up to 1100km, but that is theoretical and based on achieving both the full EV-only range and then the 1.4L/100km figure, which isn’t actually achievable in the real world.

Suzuki claims the Jimny XL, with the four-speed automatic transmission as tested, should consume 6.9L/100km on the combined cycle - the manual uses a claimed 6.4L, both figures are the same as the three-door equivalents.

On test, with primarily inner-urban and city commute driving, I saw the XL use 9.4L/100km. Anyone frequenting stop-start traffic can expect similarly high figures and, even though many owners will see lower figures, achieving the claimed 6.9L would be a solid effort even on long highway drives.

While a generous level of standard equipment is one key measure of a luxury/premium vehicle, driving is another. For a vehicle to be truly premium it must have effortless performance, a comfortable yet controlled ride and confidence-inspiring handling.

This sets the bar quite high for the Omoda 9 and that makes it hard to really live up to the brand’s aspirations. 

From a performance perspective the SHS powertrain does a great job. Certainly 395kW means the SUV feels quick and easy to punch into gaps or call for a burst of acceleration. But the rest of the driving experience doesn’t really live up to the premium standard buyers might expect.

The ride is too busy most of the time, never feeling settled and often fussing over the bumps in the road. It lacks the smooth, relaxed ride that premium buyers are looking for.

The same is true for the handling, with the steering too light and vague off-centre and lacking feeling when you find yourself on the open road. 

The Omoda 9 is by no means a bad car to drive, but it does lack the precision and elevated comfort that genuine premium cars need to have. Perhaps with some local ride and handling optimisation it could get closer to what buyers in this part of the market expect.

The Jimny might be a little bit more work than you’re used to if you’re swapping out of a hatchback or small city SUV.

That’s not meant to sound like a scathing criticism, either, because despite its cutesy appearances and (whether intended or not) appeal to young inner-city types, the Jimny is a ladder-frame chassis off-roader. And it drives like one.

During my time with the Jimny XL, each Instagram story I posted would garner at least a couple of responses in the vein of ‘What’s it like?’ or ‘Should I buy one?’ from people in their late 20s and 30s who I’m 70 per cent sure wouldn’t care much for off-roading.

Most of my responses were probably disappointing to them, because it drives like a small 4X4 and if you’re going to get annoyed by steering corrections, vibrations and noise, it might not be for you. 

But if the little Zuki’s off-road ability (or even just its irresistibly endearing looks) are appealing enough to you, the Suzuki is a fairly easy steer once it becomes second nature. In fact, its engaging nature is part of what makes the Jimny fun to drive. 

Reacting to strong winds or changing road surfaces should be familiar to those who grew up driving older, more rudimentary cars, and even though there’s a fairly noticeable ‘dead’ spot in the centre of the Jimny’s steering, it means you’re able to more subtly adjust (quite regularly, you may find) the steering wheel to keep aligned in your lane.

The suspension can feel a little soft and ‘jostly’ - lean to the side while you’re stopped at an intersection and you’ll feel the Jimny lean too - it’s also a decent reason to be a little cautious with your speed around corners. The Jimny will let you know if you’re going too quickly.

Sure, the longer wheelbase of the XL should help with stability over the three-door, but the nature of the Jimny doesn’t exactly encourage you to find out how much more stable exactly. But it’s fortunately not so much bigger that it sacrifices its advantage over most other off-roaders.

Its ability to get around inner-city areas in the Jimny is a plus if you live urban but need something that can head off-road on weekends - the XL is still relatively small compared to anything else that’s intended for the trails. It feels perfectly comfortable in Melbourne’s laneways and underground car parks in the CBD… as long as you’re okay with how heavy the steering can feel at low speeds.

For trips out of the city where you’ll be getting the Jimny’s tyres a bit dirty (hopefully, it’s what it was built for), just know that the Jimny doesn’t feel its best at highway speed. Its 75kW is pushed to its limit, 130Nm doesn’t inspire great overtaking confidence, its steering and suspension don’t feel massively dialled-in, and the four-speed automatic transmission has a whine to it that’ll bring back memories of watching the V8 Supercars cut laps in 2002.

But like I said, if you’re not looking for a car that’ll use sensors to sit you in the dead-centre of your lane while a leather seat massages your back, the Jimny’s simple nature is endearing, and most of the time quite fun.

As a side note, CarsGuide’s off-road expert Marcus Craft has published an in-depth off-road test of the Jimny XL, and gave it a thumbs up as a capable vehicle for tricky trails - it’s worth reading or watching if you’re considering the Jimny as an adventure companion.

While the Jimny’s safety features are fairly rudimentary and the XL hasn’t been specifically tested, there are some good points to the Jimny that might help potential owners decide if it’s the right decision for them.

First, the standard three-door Jimny was crash tested in 2019 and scored three stars, primarily due to its lack of active safety features.

That lack of safety features remains for the Jimny XL, requiring drivers to be alert and react to hazards of their own volition, but if the XL’s occupant protection is anything like the three-door version (which scored 73 per cent for adult occupant protection and 84 per cent for children), it should do a decent job of keeping passengers safe in most nasty situations.

The XL comes with front, side and curtain airbags, ABS, electronic braking assist, stability control, traction control, hill hold and descent control, AEB, lane departure warning, weaving alert and rear parking sensors.

It’s missing some active gear like lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring or driver monitoring.

In a bid to give customers confidence to try a new brand Omoda is applying the Jaecoo ownership model, which means an eight-year warranty as well as eight years of capped-price servicing and roadside assistance.

Service intervals are every 15,000km or 12 months, whichever comes first and across the eight years you’ll be spending a total of $3343, which averages out to just over $418 per year.

The decision to offer such extended coverage is a commendable move from Omoda and will no doubt help its bid to convince customers to give it a chance.

The Jimny XL’s covered by Suzuki’s five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, with intervals every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first.

The services range from costing $349 to $589, but average out at $453 per service. You’ll spend $2265 servicing your Jimny XL over its first five years, assuming you do it by the books (as they’re currently written).