2023 Suzuki Jimny vs 2022

What's the difference?

On paper, the Jimny struggles as a purely urban proposition. It just gets over the line in terms of standard spec for the money, it’s not particularly practical or powerful, safety is a sizable question mark, and even servicing costs are off the segment pace.

But just like that little terrier, ready to chase a ball (or rabbit!) from sunup to sundown, its strength and enthusiasm are almost irresistible. Its size is just right, it’s pleasingly economical, and crazy cute to look at. 

It’s a classic case where the head may say no, but the heart is prone to overrule with an emphatic yes.    

If you find one in stock and you’re wondering whether you should buy the Jimny Lite rather than wait 8-14 months for a higher-spec one, I’d say do it.

It’s a bit cheaper, and feels a bit cheaper, too, but the money you save on it could be well spent on choice upgrades to make it even better than it is.

Look, it’s not going to be for everyone, but for the Jimny lovers out there like me, this is a fun and capable compact 4x4. Not perfect. Far from it, in fact. But fun.

This fourth-generation Jimny continues the little Suzuki’s upright, high-riding stance with design details borrowed from previous iterations, like the five vent grille, wide-eyed circular headlights (with round indicators close by) and chunky wheel arch extensions.

It’s almost impossible not to smile when you’re walking towards the car, especially when its boxy form is finished in our test example’s hi-vis ‘Kinetic Yellow’ colour.

And Suzuki will sell you any number of accessories to further dial up the car’s ‘can do’ attitude. Everything from grilles, bumper trims and rims to different racks, audio options, diff guards and bash plates. 

Although, it must be said, our test car came fitted with a roof rack kit ($533.84) which, while enhancing utility, didn’t exactly do wonders for wind noise on the freeway.

Inside, the look is similarly rugged with a technical, Lego-like ‘piece A clicks into piece B’ design approach. Body colour painted sections fit with the no-frills design.

Allen head fixings for grab handles on the dash and doors, as well as dials, switches and instruments that look like they’ve come straight out of an army supply catalogue enhance the functional feel.

And that’s not just aesthetic. Simple is good, and everything works well together.

Still cute, isn’t it? I’d say in this spec, it actually looks more true to its roots than in the higher-grade model, with those yellowy halogen headlights and uncomplicated finishes on the exterior lending it a real “I’m here for good time” air.

I don’t love the fact the halogen lights are nowhere near as good as the projector LEDs in the more expensive model, though, and the white paint finish really draws your eye to the inners of the wheel arches, which aren’t lined in any version of the Jimny.

But it’s still so compact and cute, it’s hard to stay mad - or even get mad - at the look of this little legend. Size wise, it runs 3645mm nose to tail on a 2250mm wheelbase, while its width is just 1645mm and the height is 1725mm. Easily small enough for even the pokiest bush tracks.

Those compact dimensions make for a pretty tight interior, though, with the four seater Jimny likely to be best considered a two-seat SUV with a big boot. In some markets like the UK, the brand has been forced to drop the rear seats altogether and reclassify the Jimny as a commercial van to get around strict emissions regulations. 

The interior design is really let down by the lack of a media screen, and the lack of usability that has become such a customary part of the modern-day drive experience, too. More on that in the next section.

At just under 3.5m long (a touch over 3.6m including the rear door-mounted spare wheel), only 1.65m wide and a little more than 1.7m high the Jimny is right-sized for the city. But what do those compact dimensions mean in terms of practicality?

First of all, headroom (for me at 183cm) is good, front and rear. The Jimny is tall relative to its overall size and there’s a generous gap between my bonce and the headliner.

Put a full-size adult in the front passenger seat, though, and you’re 100 per cent aware of their presence from behind the wheel. Not cramped but cosy is the best way to describe it. And it’s worth calling out the steering wheel only adjusts for rake, not reach. Ugh!

Access to the rear seating (for two) is via a fold-and-slide mechanism for the front passenger seat and a reasonable degree of flexibility and athleticism is required to gain entry back there.

Once in place, adequate legroom requires negotiation with those in the front. Sitting behind my driving position, knee room is tight. 

Shoulder room is at a premium, too. So, best to reserve the rear for occasional adult journeys, although up to teenage kids will be fine.

Loading in a baby capsule will be a pain due to the confined space and front-only access. However, a car seat for toddlers, once set up, won’t be too bad.

Storage is pretty scarce with only a small slot between the front seats (rather than the now customary lidded box) with two cupholders behind it, an oddments tray in front of the gear lever, a small glove box and an open tray above that.

There are bins in the doors but they’re mighty slender, and you can forget about sliding a bottle of any decent size in there.

Back-seaters will have to fight it out with those in the front for access to the centre console cupholders, because there’s nothing else for them. Not even map pockets on the front seat backs.

Power and connectivity runs to a single USB-A port up front with 12-volt outlets in the dash and boot.

Speaking of which, with the rear seats upright there’s 85 litres of boot space available, which is enough for one or two school bags or a couple of bags of groceries.

A narrow, removable lidded box, running the width of the load space behind the rear seats is handy for things like muddy hiking boots or wet gear after a beach trip.

With that box removed we were able to fit the smallest 36L suitcase from our three-piece set, with room to spare on either side.

Lower the 50/50 split-folding rear seat and you have 377 litres at your disposal, which is enough to easily swallow the full luggage set (36L, 95L, 124L) or the bulky CarsGuide pram. 

The pram would also fit with only one rear seat down so there’s room for your baby, and related paraphernalia, too!  

Worth noting the rear seat backs are covered in a tough plastic for when they’re lowered down to form the flat load floor, there are multiple bag hooks and tie down anchors to keep large and small loads under control, and the side opening cargo door swings the ‘right’ way for our ‘park on the left’ market. That is, handle on the left, opening to the right.

If you want to hook up the tinnie or a modest box trailer the Jimny is rated to tow 350kg unbraked and 1.3 tonnes braked. Plus, a 15-inch alloy spare is proudly attached to the rear door.

Want a really practical small SUV? There are heaps of other options out there if you’re the sort of person who covets deep door-mount bottle holders (none here), loves a really good centre console storage box (nope), or really needs a good size boot with all seats in play (nuh-uh).

This isn’t the most practical SUV unless your idea of practicality is stowing away those rear seats (which you hardly ever use, anyway) or even removing them entirely and fitting a camping setup in the back, then tackling severe off-road tracks.

But it’s my job to tell you the things you should, so here goes, starting with the boot.

Cargo capacity is stated at just 85 litres with all four seats in play, but that increases to 377L with the back seats folded flat. They go entirely flat, though, and there’s a nice level load space to use as well. You can get fill-in plastics to make it level, and if you shop the aftermarket you can even find bed/mattress setups so you can sleep in it - the front seats fold down entirely, too.

Also, that side-mounted tailgate means you won’t have a spot to hide in the rain, so that’s probably why you see so many Jimny models fitted with an awning on the side or at the back. Thankfully, though it is a dumb design (hey, I can criticise it, I own a JB43 and I hate the tailgate), it is light and because the body of the car is short and wide, it’s not that huge of a consideration when you park it.

If you have children, the back seat is capable of coping with two seats as there are dual ISOFIX and top-tether points. And if your kids aren’t in capsules, they might be okay with the space back there, but anyone taller than average is going to have a bad time. It’s pretty tight, and not very comfortable.

The front seats offer good adjustment and comfort, though an armrest / console would be a nice aftermarket upgrade (you can get them with built-in USB ports - pretty neat). There are door pockets good for a magazine and that’s it, cup holders on the floor console between the seats, and not much other storage besides a small cubby in front of the shifter and another above the glovebox.

Aside from the dumped infotainment system, and the manual air-con controls, not a lot has changed between this and the more expensive version. The Bluetooth capable CD player system that’s fitted is pretty horrible to be honest, and the two-speaker sound system is not great, either. I would suggest if you are interested in a Jimmy and you do care about music quality exterior upgrade could be an easy one for this car - it’s not like the more expensive version gets a heaps better stereo - it’s the same two-speaker setup.

The stereo controls take a bit of learning in order to figure out the menus for the system, and it’s nowhere near as intuitive as a touchscreen. That’s why touchscreens became a mainstream solution. Because they’re good. At least this stereo head unit has buttons and knobs, though. 

Another thing I’m not a fan of is the lack of a digital speedometer. You can’t choose one in the TFT information screen, and I hate that.

You might also want to consider that the steering wheel only has tilt adjust (no reach adjust), and it’s a hard plastic tiller, too (not leather lined) and there are hard plastic elbow pads on the doors. At least the seat fabric is soft, right?

Vain? You’ll hate this car. There are no vanity mirrors at all.

Honestly, it should be even cheaper. But part of the reason this generation of Jimny is so popular is because there are no close-priced rivals with this much capability on offer at this point in time. The GWM Tank range may address that soon, but until then, you’ve got a Land Rover Defender 90 (from $74,516), Jeep Wrangler 2 Door (from $53,750), or a number of second-hand options. Heck, even previous generation Jimnys are fetching close to $25k at the time of writing. 

There are some big omissions from this Jimny Lite model that relegate it to a no-frills example. Lite, yes. Light on spec? Yes to that, too.

For $26,990 (MSRP - plus on-road costs) and available with the five-speed manual transmission only, you are paying three grand more than you would have for the better-specced model when it launched in 2018, and that car is now $4500 dearer than when it launched, at $28,490.

There are multiple considerable subtractions made to help it meet that lower (but not low) price point, too.

Gone is the 7.0-inch touchscreen with sat nav (later replaced by a 9.0-inch screen without sat nav on 2022 models due to the microchip shortage), and with that there is no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto - just a double-din CD player and AM/FM radio with Bluetooth - more on just how bad that is in the interior section below.

There’s also manual air-conditioning instead of climate control, you get 15-inch steel wheels rather than the alloys on the dearer model, and you even miss out on interior light, a 12-volt outlet in the boot, fog lights and LED headlights (Lite runs halogen lamps). Those headlights, at least, have auto on-off functionality, and auto high-beam, too.

You’ll miss colour-coding on the exterior - the mirrors and door handles are unfinished black plastic, and while those wing mirrors still feature electric adjustment, they don’t fold in like the higher-grade model.

What else is absent? A reversing camera is the last piece of the puzzle - and while it can be a potentially life-saving piece of safety technology, the Jimny remains pretty easy to size up when parking.

Colour choices for the Jimny Lite are White (like you see here) which comes at no extra cost, while the metallic paint finishes - Jungle Green and Medium Grey will cost you $695 and you’ll have to spend $1295 more if you want two-tone black-roof paint in Chiffon Ivory, Kinetic Yellow or Brisk Blue.

As for accessories, there are several to choose from direct from Suzuki, including an upgraded stereo sound system, a different grille, underbody protection, nudge bar, mud flaps, floor mats, front and rear diff guards, different wheels, roof rack kits with bike carrier or snowboard/ski/surfboard racks, and a tow bar kit. 

The Jimny is powered by a 1.5-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine pushing a relatively modest 75kW/130Nm through (in this case) a five-speed manual gearbox into Suzuki’s ‘AllGrip Pro’ part-time 4WD system.

The set-up is built around a transfer case between the front and rear axles which allows drive to easily go from the front wheels only to all four, in high- and low-range modes. More on that in the driving section. 

A four-speed automatic Jimny GLX was available until mid-January this year when Suzuki Australia paused sales “until further notice” because the back-order queue had grown so long. 

Don’t go expecting to get more for less, here. It’s the same 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine with 75kW of power (at 6000rpm) and 130Nm of torque (at 4000rpm) as you get in the more expensive Jimny, but crucially, the Lite only comes as a manual.

That’s right - the five-speed manual gearbox is the only transmission option available, with the four-speed automatic gearbox reserved for the exxy model.

Of course you also get a low-range transfer case because it’s a proper off-roader with a part-time 4WD (with 2H, 4H and 4L) system. 

Thinking about towing capacity? I mean, if you want to, you can - there’s 350kg unbraked and 1300kg braked capacity. The vehicle itself weighs just 1095kg (kerb weight) and the gross vehicle mass (GVM) is 1435kg, so be mindful that four oversized adults will put you over the limit. Lite, indeed.

Suzuki’s official fuel economy number for the combined (ADR 81/02 - urban, extra-urban) cycle is 6.4L/100km, the 1.5-litre four-cylinder emitting 146g/km of CO2 in the process.

Over a week of city, suburban, and some freeway running we averaged 6.9L/100km (at the pump), which lessens the bowser-shock many drivers have been suffering in recent years. Interestingly, the car’s on-board computer indicated 7.0L/100km for the same period.

Minimum fuel requirement is 91 RON ‘standard’ unleaded, or E10, and you’ll need just 40 litres of it to fill the tank.

Using the official number, that translates to a range of around 625km, which drops to just over 580km using our real-world figure.

That sticker you see on the windscreen of new cars? That shows you the official combined cycle fuel consumption figure, which is the fuel use you should theoretically be able to achieve across a mix of driving, according to the tests run in Australian Design Rule (ADR) compliance.

That number for the 2022 Suzuki Jimny Lite is 6.4 litres per 100 kilometres. It’s the same number whether you choose this Lite manual or the higher-spec manual. Emissions are 146g/km CO2.

On test, I saw a return of 7.0L/100km across a mix of on-road and off-road driving - and the official figure doesn’t consider off-roading, either.

At 1075kg the Jimny is not only small, it’s light, too. But 75kW/130Nm from its 1.5-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine isn’t a monumental amount.

In short, this little 4WD isn’t what you’d call quick - expect 0-100km/h in around 12 seconds - but in the lower ratios the high-range gearing, in two- or four-wheel drive, is such that it has enough get up and go for tight city and suburban running.

The gear change is smooth and positive, while the clutch is nice and light. However, multiple intermeshing gears in the gearbox and diffs generate a low-level but noticeable whining noise. At the same time the engine’s hardly a model of quiet refinement.

Speaking of multiple gears, the Jimny offers ‘2H’ (2WD-high gear), ‘4H’ (4WD-high gear) and ‘4L’ (4WD-low gear). 

If you’re hitting a loose dirt road, or dealing with snow and ice, the change from 2H to the extra security of 4H is possible on the move up to 100km/h.

Engaging low-range 4L, suitable for the really tough off-road stuff, means coming to a full stop.

As mentioned earlier, the Jimny features a rigid axle front and rear, just like the grown-up 4x4s. And despite coil springs all around it bumps and bounces over typically pock-marked city and suburban surfaces.

The steering is light but accurate with good road feel and a tight 9.8m turning circle makes U-turns and parking a breeze. Cramped street parking? Squeezy apartment or shopping centre spots? No problem. 

But once you slip into that coveted spot, remember to leave enough room for the side-opening cargo door, if you need to access the boot.

The Jimny’s light weight and reasonably modest towing specs mean braking doesn’t need to be heavy duty, and solid discs at the front and drums at the rear do a good job.  

Under the heading of miscellaneous observations, the accessory roof racks fitted to our test car supercharged wind noise at anything above 50km/h, and overall the Jimny doesn’t feel like a substantial car.

On that last point, you might say, well, it’s small and light, so no surprise. But it’s the way the door clangs when you shut it, the ultra-functional design, the analogue feel of the controls. You’ll either love it (as so many people do) or not so much. 

Believe the hype, people. This is a fun little car to drive, and a joy to pilot around on daily trips. Heading to the shops? Jimny it. Off to the gym? Better take the Gym-ny. Geddit?

Just make sure you don’t have huge hills or lots of highway driving when you’re running those errands, because it’s not nearly as much fun when the rest of the traffic is going at higher speeds and you’re struggling to keep up.

The 1.5L engine is underpowered. Climbing hills - like the one near me in the lower Blue Mountains (Lapstone Hill, for those playing along at home) - can be more of a challenge than you’d expect. I had to drop to fourth gear in order to make the climb, and as mentioned earlier in the story, I own a 2007 Jimny with a measly 1.3L, and I can make it further in fifth up the hill than I did in this new one.

Only having five gears means the engine also revs its ring off at freeway speeds, sitting at almost 4000rpm to maintain pace with the traffic. And just pray you aren’t heading out on the highway on a windy day, or planning to overtake cavalcades of semi-trailer trucks or road trains, as the Jimny is prone to being blown around on the highway. Boxy, almost anti-aerodynamic body design and a super light weight will do that.

In low-speed or urban driving the engine’s zest is fine - there’s enough grunt to get the job done and the manual shift is light and easy to manipulate, but ask more of it, and it falls short on oomph.

I’ve driven this generation of Jimny a few times since it launched and I’ve always struggled with the inconsistent waiting of the electronic power steering – it can be heavy at low speeds, especially when you just start the car, and lighter as you go faster – I would prefer it to be lighter at lower speeds and build a bit of heft the faster I went, but that just isn’t the case.

That inconsistent weighting can make for some annoyingly concrete-stirring-like moments when you’re parking it, and while these incy wincy tyres are hardly grip monsters, a set of muddies could make things all the more annoying.

The suspension is another thing that you’ll either be okay with, or not. Having rigid axles front and rear with coil springs, it’s hardly going to find itself in the thesaurus when you look up “refined”.

The ride can be wobbly and can also clunk and thump over bumps as well – that’s just the price you have to pay for the capability that you get off road.

Okay, here it is. The Suzuki Jimny has a three-star ANCAP crash test safety score, a full two stars short of the maximum rating. It scored three stars against 2018 testing criteria, too, which means if it were re-assessed today… it’d likely be an even worse result.

There are some advanced safety items that - thankfully - haven’t been removed for the Lite version of the Jimny, including the auto emergency braking (AEB) system that works at 15km/h to 100km/h, and there’s daytime pedestrian detection (operable at 15km/h to 60km/h), and lane departure warning that works from 60km/h to 140km/h. 

There’s traction and stability control, hill hold control and hill descent control, and you get auto high-beam lights, too. 

But here’s a list of stuff missing from the advanced safety arsenal of the Jimny: active lane keeping assistance, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, adaptive cruise control, higher-speed AEB, rear AEB, speed sign recognition, and plenty more.

And in the Lite version of the Jimny, you also miss out on a reversing camera. No parking sensors, either.

Suzuki covers the Jimny with a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, which is the current market standard. Roadside assist is included, on the proviso that your car is serviced at an authorised Suzuki dealer. 

Speaking of which, the recommended service interval is 12 months/15,000km, and the average annual cost for each workshop visit, for the first five years, is $453.

Not an outrageous figure, but when you consider the similarly-priced Toyota Yaris Cross GXL is just $250 to service annually for the first five years, it’s not exactly cheap, either.

Buy a new Jimny and you get a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty. That’s about what you’d expect in this day and age. Thinking of running your Jimny as a delivery truck or doing Uber / Uber Eats or any other commercial work with it? Just be aware that the warranty is five years/160,000km in that instance.

Servicing is covered by a five-year plan/100,000km plan. But weirdly, Suzuki also states the service costs for longer than that.

The intervals are 12 months/15,000km per service, and the costs are as follows: $329, $329, $429, $329, $239, $519 - yep, that last one is for the 90,000km interval, but for “vehicle less than 60 months old”. To complicate things further, earlier versions of the Jimny in this generation were due for service every six months/10,000km. Confused? Ask the dealer. 

Roadside assist is contingent on you servicing your Suzuki with the brand’s workshops, and if you do, it’ll span five years.