The Unicorn: My new old Suzuki Jimny

My mate Deon and I flew to Tasmania on Sunday morning in the hope of buying a Subaru WRX Club Spec Evo 4 and driving it back. The following afternoon I was driving over the Blue Mountains in my new Suzuki Jimny. 

Huh?

I’d found the MY00 Rexy online, and it looked perfect for what I wanted - an original in top condition, not many mods - the sort of thing that could make money over the coming years if I restrained myself from driving it.

But after flying to Launceston at stupid o’clock in the morning, hiring a lovely Kia Rio rental car and driving out to see the Subie, I wasn’t convinced it was for me.

So what to do? I’d pre-emptively booked myself and Deon - and the WRX! - tickets on the Spirit of Tasmania. Should I just buy a different car?

We looked online for anything that interested us, but nothing took our fancy. I cancelled the car off the ferry, and decided we should look to see what we could buy in Melbourne to drive back home. Nope. Nothing.

We got on the Spirit of Tasmania, played FIFA on the onboard Xbox consoles, ate some food, had some drinks, and eventually retired to our recliner seats. How luxury. I booked us on a flight from Melbourne to Sydney the following morning, and once we’d docked, Ubered out to the airport and had a hundred coffees in the lounge, I again had a look at what was available. It’s an addiction, I know.

Then I found the Jimny.

Not just any Jimny. A 2007 model manual with 135,000km. A car owned by an 80-year-old bloke in Bathurst, in central-western NSW, that needed to be sold.

It had no mods other than the aftermarket colour-coded Sunraysia wheels and slightly knobby tyres, a non-original spare wheel cover, some excellent blue chrome plastic floor mats, and a well worn sheepskin carseat cover for the driver's seat. It didn't look like anyone had even sat in the other seats.  

So I made an offer on this little rig, which was readily and happily accepted. It was a steal considering it had NSW rego until the end of August, but the owner’s son was fielding plenty of calls from eager punters like me, so it meant we had to get out to Bathurst as soon as we’d landed in Sydney.

With steely determination we landed, Ubered home, got in a car and hit the road. We hadn’t slept much the night before, but coffee and adrenaline got us to the home of Mount Panorama, and more importantly the home of the little Zook.

I took it for a drive, fell head over heels, handed over my cash and drove directly to The Mountain for my first ever lap. Perhaps not the ideal rig for it...?

But after fretting about a burning oil smell, worrying about the heavy front end wobble at higher speed, and getting nervous at every single ascent I approached, the Jimny eventually made its way back to the big smoke, where I plan to either keep it super standard, or modify the hell out of it. 

Or I could just flip it and move on to the next car…

What should I do? Tell us in the comments.