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Suzuki Jimny Tested: Mountain Goat

When it comes to off-road vehicles that achieved legendary status, you have a number of all stars: the Land Rover, Jeep Wrangler, Toyota Land Cruiser, Nissan Patrol and Mitsubishi Pajero spring first to mind, but never forget that there’s a little mountain goat out there called the Jimny.
Suzuki Jimny 1 photo
Photo: Catalin Garmacea
In a similar fashion to its furry, hoofed and sure-footed climber counterpart from North America, the Suzuki’s 15-inch tires and part-time 4WD are capable enough off the beaten path to climb every mountain and ford every stream, but not quite everything though.

After a mild off-road sessions, we discovered that the M13AA 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine and its 85 HP / 110 Nm (81 lb-ft) aren’t quite enough to keep the Jimny’s momentum when attacking steeper gradients.

Then again, the 14.1-second sprint to 100 km/h (62 mph) isn’t exactly impressive, but does it matter?

Not really. To be sincere, even the spartan interior pales in comparison to how much fun the Suzuki Jimny offers the driver both on the road and off-road. It’s a manly vehicle to drive and you can’t ignore the mechanical feeling of the driving experience. Heck, even when you engage 4WD or 4WD-L, you can hear a nice clunking sound of metal pieces joined together.

At the end of the day, the Jimny isn’t on par with the likes of the Landie or the Wrangler, nor is as luxurious as Chelsea tractors such as the Range Rover. But then again, driving a Suzuki Jimny should be featured in those “top 30 things a man should do before turning 30.”

It’s that revelatory of an experience, as you’ll find in our review of the mini-SUV from Japan.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
Mircea Panait profile photo

After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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