The long-awaited stretched Jimny is here with a bigger cabin, but it won’t be coming to Europe
It seems like years ago we first saw a stretched Suzuki Jimny prototype, but finally, the production version is here. The wait was well worth it, as the Jimny five-door is every bit as charming as we dared hope, looking even more like a mini Mercedes G-Class/G-Wagen than the three-door.
To accommodate the extra set of doors, Suzuki stretched the Jimny’s wheelbase by 340mm. It’s still far from big, with a total length that stays comfortably under four meters. At the same time, however, there’s now a much larger cabin that seats five (the three-door passenger Jimny only seats four) and some luggage: boot capacity is 208 liters, instead of 85. 322 liters of space.
It is powered by the same naturally aspirated 1.5-litre inline-four engine as the three-door, producing a modest 103bhp and 106lb ft of torque and is available connected to a five-speed manual gearbox or a four speed manual. And so the Jimny hatchback will be even slower and less efficient than its smaller brother. But let’s skip that.
Off-road, it’ll be only slightly less capable than the hatchback, with approach, breakover, and departure angles of 36, 24, and 50 degrees respectively. The three-door Jimny, by comparison, drives 36, 24, and 50 degrees. Ground clearance for both cars is the same at 210mm, while a selectable all-wheel drive system is shared between the two.
It’s reasonably well equipped, coming with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and a rear parking camera powered by a nine-inch touchscreen, plus six airbags. And yes, you can have it with 15-inch steel wheels or the same size alloys, if you don’t mind making the wrong choice.
You want one, don’t you? We certainly do. The only problem is that, in much of the world, that won’t be possible. It will be sold in India (where the car is also built), Africa, Latin America, and eventually Australia, but not where most of you live: Europe and the US.
Unfortunately, Americans have not been able to purchase any version of the current car in an official capacity. In the UK, meanwhile, the only way to get a three-door Jimny is to go for the commercial two-seater version, which is judged by less stringent van emissions regulations. As far as we know, there are no plans to make a commercial version of the larger Jimny for the UK market.