Suzuki Jimny (2019 – 2021) Review

Suzuki came up trumps with its new Jimny in 2019, which was like a scaled-down Land Rover Defender. It had the same off-road bias, which means on-road manners are more passable than good. However, if you understand this, then you can appreciate the Suzuki Jimny as a tool for a specific job. Emissions saw it removed from sale as a passenger car after only a short period in showrooms, leaving the Jeep Renegade, big-selling Dacia Duster and underrated SsangYong Tivoli to fly the flag for affordable SUVs. Read on for our full Suzuki Jimny review.

The 1998 Suzuki Jimny was dire to drive on the road, its interior was basic and, by the time its 20-year production lifespan came to an end in 2018, it was long past its best.

You only need to visit rural areas to see how successful it was, though. Buyers loved it for its reliability, low running costs and ability to go anywhere.

The brand could easily have replaced it with yet another fashionable small SUV to take on the likes of the Nissan Juke. 

But it’s already got the SUV market pretty well catered for with its Suzuki Ignis, Suzuki SX4 S-Cross and Suzuki Vitara – so it stuck true to its principles and launched a very quirky off roader.

Quirky is arguably a polite synonym for flawed. The new Suzuki Jimny felt prehistoric to drive on the road – the steering takes a lot of turns from lock to lock, and you constantly correct the wheel to keep it in a straight line.

It’s also underpowered and desperately in need of a sixth gear, running out of steam at around 60mph.

But that’s the difference between a hatchback-based crossover and a proper, old-school 4x4 vehicle based on a ladder frame chassis.

Most people will hate how the Suzuki Jimny drives, but there’s a charm to it. Just like some people choose to drive classic cars, some people appreciate an old-fashioned off-roader. Indeed, some people need an old-fashioned off roader.

There are just two trim levels on offer: the SZ4 and SZ5. We’d recommend the top-spec model, if only for a wider colour range and the more attractive navigation display rather than the old-fashioned radio.

Whichever trim level you opt for, don’t expect to be able to carry your family and enough luggage for a weekend away. The Suzuki Jimny can barely carry anything with all four seats in use – it has an official load capacity of just 85 litres with the rear seats left up.

It’s much better treated as a two-seater, with the rear seats permanently left down, in which case you get a fairly boxy, useful boot. Suzuki even sold a load cover to fit over the rear seats for this arrangement.

Demand outstripped supply when the Suzuki Jimny was new and it remains a used car that plenty of people want – it’s become something of a cult machine. This keeps used prices strong.

Fancy a second opinion? Read heycar's Suzuki Jimny review.

There’s no clever packaging going on here – the Suzuki Jimny is small on the outside, and seemingly even smaller on the inside. With all four seats in use, the boot is barely big enough for a single shopping bag.

It’s basically non-existent. You’ll have to drop the rear seats flat (a simple enough task) if you want to carry anything more than a newspaper, and Suzuki even offers a protective boot liner to cover up the backs of the rear seats when they’re dropped.

The driving position is similar to that of the old Land Rover Defender. Elbow room is lacking unless you drop the driver’s window, and there’s not much in the way of useful storage. Even the door bins are so narrow they’re almost unusable – save for, perhaps, an Ordnance Survey map. Suzuki had a clear audience in mind...

A high roof means there’s plenty of room for even the tallest of drivers (and passengers), although the lack of driver’s seat adjustment and steering wheel reach means it’s worth at least sitting in one before handing over any money.

The front seats (heated on the SZ4) aren't the most cosseting, but we’ve spent quite a lot of time in the Suzuki Jimny without any real aches or pains.

Due to the lack of a boot space in the back, it’s actually surprisingly spacious for rear seat passengers. And when you do drop the rear seats, there’s quite a boxy and useful luggage space.

It’s all very rugged and basic inside the Suzuki Jimny, but that doesn’t mean it’s badly put together. Far from it, in fact, and Suzuki’s usual strengths of solid materials fastened solidly to each other are in evidence.

There is a lot of hard plastic and not a lot of soft-touch surfaces, but then this is an off-roader with purpose rather than a lifestyle SUV. We reckon it fits with the Suzuki Jimny’s overall outlook on life.

The top-spec Suzuki Jimny SZ5 model comes with a seven-inch touchscreen display, incorporating navigation as standard.

This isn’t the slickest system to operate, but it does feature Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, allowing you access to your phone’s features such as Google Maps when on the move.

It looks much better than the slab of plastic with an old-fashioned radio in the centre used on the dashboard of the Suzuki Jimny SZ4.

If you thought buying a five-year old Suzuki Jimny was going to save a few quid on its original price when new, think again.

Supply and demand means even a five-year-old car in base SZ4 trim will cost from around £24,000 with 30,000 miles under its wheels – this would have cost £15,500 when new.

Great news if you bought one new, not so good if you’re desperate to own a Suzuki Jimny now.

Find a late model Suzuki Jimny SZ5 with plenty of extras and you could be spending as much as £27,000, such is the cult following that has built up around this small 4x4.

The 1.5-litre petrol engine delivers combined fuel economy of 38.5mpg with the manual gearbox and with the rarely chosen auto an average of 32.1mpg.

In daily driving, reckon on around 30mpg from either version and less if you take the car off-road and use the low-ratio option for serious mud-bashing.

With the manual transmission, carbon dioxide output is 178g/km, while the auto increases that to 198g/km. However, all Suzuki Jimnys require the flat rate of road tax at £180 for 12 months.

Servicing a Suzuki Jimny is not expensive unless you really test the car in off-road conditions.

Nor will insurance threaten the finances thanks to the Suzuki sitting in groups 13 to 14 depending on whether you choose SZ4 or SZ5 trims, respectively.

The way the Suzuki Jimny wanders around as you attempt to drive in a straight line, not helped by the vague and slow steering, doesn’t encourage you to leave the inside lane – and you’ll know about it if you’re hit by a gust of wind.

We’ve established that the Suzuki Jimny isn’t at home on the motorway, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun elsewhere. Around town, its compact dimensions, along with a high driving position and good visibility, means it’s easy (and amusing) to dart around, squeezing between gaps and hustling with other road users.

Parking it is easy, although the lack of a reversing camera or parking sensors seems a strange omission.

Of course, it’s off road where the Suzuki Jimny is really in its element. Under normal everyday driving, the Suzuki Jimny sends all its power to the rear wheels. Should you wish, you can pull a lever, which results in a satisfying clunk as four-wheel-drive is engaged.

Pull it further and it selects low range, allowing you more control at low speeds – ideal for negotiating off-road obstacles. There’s also a button on the dash for hill descent mode, allowing the car to control the brakes while driving down a steep hill.

We’ve tried the Suzuki Jimny on rocky tracks and it simply isn’t fazed by steep ascents or axle-twisting obstacles. When it does lose traction, its traction control system will quickly brake the spinning wheel to redistribute torque to the opposing wheel with the most grip.

It could do with a little more ground clearance and some serious tyres if you plan to follow a Land Rover Defender off road, but that's something the enthusiast market caters for.

Whether you compare the Suzuki Jimny to the Dacia Duster or more mainstream rivals like the SEAT Arona and even the Honda HR-V, it’s hard to deny that it feels like it’s at least 20 years out of date in the way it drives on the road. 

You have to really like the Suzuki Jimny to be able to overlook its flaws behind the wheel.

In a world of cars that can park themselves and speed limiters that can switch themselves on, a car that’s as old-fashioned as the Suzuki Jimny can, if you’re in the right mindset, be a huge amount of fun.

Just don’t buy one expecting it to drive like a Suzuki Swift on stilts.

While there’s a certain charm to how the Suzuki Jimny drives, it’s not going to appeal to everyone.

The engine is underpowered - Suzuki’s turbocharged BoosterJet unit would have been a welcome upgrade - but the low gearing of the manual gearbox means you’ll soon be in fifth gear at around 35mph.

There aren’t any more gears, meaning the Suzuki Jimny’s little 85PS 1.5-litre petrol engine is working very hard at higher speeds. There is an automatic gearbox – a four-speed torque-converter transmission – which is equally strained on the motorway.

With the engine screaming away at 3000rpm at 60mph, you’ll have no real desire to drive the Suzuki Jimny any faster. This makes for a noisy driving experience and doesn’t help fuel economy, either.

This is an area where the Suzuki Jimny's charm cannot make up for objective deficiencies. It scored three stars when tested by Euro NCAP when four stars was generally regarded as a poor result.

It does have six airbags, and Suzuki also provided automatic emergency braking, plus lane departure warning. There is ESP traction control, too, as well as traffic sign recognition technology.

Despite its pint pot size, the Suzuki Jimny can haul a braked trailer of up to 1300kg. Hitch up with an unbraked trailer and it can deal with up to 350kg.