bBouncing across a dry riverbed in the Garhwal hills in a bright red off-road car, going at a fairly decent clip, is great fun. Before anyone starts on the environmental impact of all this, let me clarify that all necessary permissions were taken for the drive. In fact, we carried out mining operations as well as clearing significant rock and debris on the river bed due to cloudburst debris a few years ago.
If you haven’t guessed by now, I was among the first to drive the new fifth generation Suzuki Jimny, which is expected to be launched in India in June this year. This longer version is made only in India and the five-door avatar of the off-roader is the successor to the Maruti Gypsy, which is essentially the second generation Jimny. Off-road driving enthusiasts, armed forces and paramilitary forces etc. have been asking Maruti Suzuki to bring a successor to the Gypsy for many years. So why did the country’s biggest carmaker take its time to bring out this car?
Before we answer that question, let me go over some of the technical aspects of the car. The five-door Jimny sold in India will come with the widest range of color options from Maruti. I drove a ‘Sizzling Red’ and the drive also featured a ‘Kinetic Yellow’. Several other options will be available to the buyers including a two-tone roof.
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what’s under the hood
The car has a 1.5-liter K15B engine with just over 100 horsepower and options for a five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic. The automatic has low-ratio and two-gear selection options. The Jimny will also have a 4×4 transfer case, with the ability to shift from two-wheel drive to four-wheel drive ‘on the fly’. There will be only two specifications of the car, ‘Zeta’ and ‘Alpha’, with the latter having additional features such as tinted glass, alloy wheels and a larger infotainment screen. You read that right, the Jimny comes with all the modern driving conveniences including multiple airbags.
But don’t think that having all the mod-cons makes this car ‘soft’. On this dry riverbed, Maruti Suzuki had set up six courses to showcase the car’s capabilities. With steeper approach and departure angles, the car can grip rock beds and even slippery slate surfaces. It could also pass through water, which was two feet deep at the site. Its size may be small for some, but off-road the Jimny can compete with the best cars. And the ultimate accolade would be to compare it to Sugar Ray Leonard, considered pound-for-pound the greatest pugilist of all time.
on-road performance
On a hot morning after seeing what the car could do when pushed, I took it to Uttarakhand’s State Highway 77, which connects the Dehradun-Haridwar highway to the town of Narendra Nagar, 16 kilometers above Rishikesh. It’s a narrow road, but there’s a new one ahead of it G20 meeting Prescribed in resorts near Narendra Nagar. Fresh asphalt and little traffic on crooked mountain roads, what more could one ask for? Jimny just made it more fun. On curvy roads like this the steering is a bit jerky and you have to have positive control and follow the ‘thumbs out’ offroad rule, but overall the ride handling was surprisingly great.
There’s negligible body roll and even when you’re speeding through some bad patches, as I did earlier, the ride is still comfortable. And while the four-speed automatic may seem antiquated to some, it gets the job done and is probably a better bet for hill climbing. The Jimny comes with a ‘Hill Hold Assist’ that prevents it from rolling back and a ‘Descent Control’ function that limits the car’s speed to just five kilometers per hour without the driver having to brake Need to apply
made for 2020
My father saw three Maruti Gypsies, which were common in those days. On the last couple of them no creature rests except the air-conditioner. The Gypsy’s one-liter F-Series engine had half the power of the new Jimny, but could go almost anywhere. Apart from the transfer case and four-speed manual gearbox, the car had no ‘conveniences’, not even an audio system. The 4th generation Jimny is a comfortable place to live. This is clearly a car made for 2020.
I don’t know how Gypsy enthusiasts will react to the Jimny. It is possible that the armed forces may not get it either. I liked it. I wish it had a ‘rustic’ feel at times but I love the automatic air conditioning and Apple CarPlay in the vehicle. You can call me soft if you want, but there is nothing wrong in that. However, Maruti may make a stripped-down version of the car for the army and other special purposes such as safaris in core areas of national parks.
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comes at a cost
The Jimny has some issues. It is narrow and only seats four. Luggage space is limited but it’s more than enough for a camping trip where you won’t need a lot of clothes. And because you can access the Jimny with functional roof rails, there’s plenty of room if you need to haul a fishing rod for that secret fishing hole. Roof rails can fit your ski equipment, your canvas tent, sleeping bag, and almost anything else. It can also serve as an attachment point for a canvas shelter around the car. If only two people are traveling, there is more than enough space to sleep.
Don’t expect the Jimny to be cheap. While Maruti Suzuki claims that 30,000 bookings have already been done, the prices will be announced only on June 7 and are said to start from around Rs 15 lakh. pricing will probably expire ‘Tashan’ Drivers who show off by fitting oversized—and totally inappropriate—wheels and tires to a perfectly good-looking SUV.
The car rivals the Mahindra Thar, which also gets a diesel motor and two-wheel drive option. the fact that 1,00,000 The Thar has been sold since its launch in 2020, indicating that there is a clear demand for off-road lifestyle vehicles in India. Maybe that’s why Maruti is finally going to launch the Jimny. And the latter is a far better car on tarmac.
If you want an all-wheel drive experience with space and comfort, then the Grand Vitara AllGrip is a better option. But if you really want to go somewhere, the Jimny impresses.
@kushanmitra is an automotive journalist based in New Delhi. Thoughts are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)