zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Trucks
/
2015 Suzuki Jimny: Five Reasons Why It's The Ultimate Adventure 4x4
2015 Suzuki Jimny: Five Reasons Why It's The Ultimate Adventure 4x4-May 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:13:22

The 2015 Suzuki Jimny has received a mild facelift, which is a great excuse to for us to gather 'round the campfire and admire this delightfully darling little 4x4. Though it may be small, I posit it just might be the ultimate adventure off-roader.

Off-road rule number one: "less is more." Whatever you can't crawl over, you can probably get around. Or through. If you do get stuck, you and your travel buddy won't have much trouble winching out of anything when your truck only weighs just over a ton.

The "better" ones have traction control now. Other than that, you can basically still fix it with plyers and vice grips.

Even if you can't hit the 40 MPG average claim in the dirt, you're going to be using a lot less juice than a Wrangler... or pretty much any other 4x4 in America for that matter. And you still don't have to put up with the rabble and lack of refinement you get with a a diesel.

A Troller T4 is like $40,000 in Brazil, and that's about where a good Wrangler winds up here in the US. A Jimny? Try half that.

It's common sports-car enthusaist ethos to reckon running '89 Honda CRX to the limit on your local backroad is more fun than holding the reigns on a a McLaren P1... trying desperately not to get killed or arrested getting the most out of the car.

I offer the same can be said for off-roaders. Sure, walking a Range Rover through a course with one hand on the terrain-selector and another on your iPhone is kind of fun... but it's nothing approaching the satisfaction you'll get working hard for every obstacle, which you'll be doing with 60 horsepower.

The Jimny, in one form or another, has been squeaking around since 1998. Though it's currently sold in 188 markets, sadly .

Suzuki won't be selling cars in the US anymore; their US distributor just filed for Chapter 11…

The one pictured here is the British version, which you can buy for about $20,000 (the high-trim automatic version starts at $23,000).

Weighing around 2,400 pounds, the 2015 Jimny is 145" long, 67" tall, and just 63" wide making it 3' longer than a Smart car and about a foot shorter than the current JK Jeep Wrangler two-door.

Even with just 7.4" of ground clearance, the Jimny's so stubby it still gets a 34º approach angle, a 31º ramp breakover angle, and a crazy-steep 46º departure angle.

It's no speed demon though... and probably won't be able to do much with big tires. A 1.6 liter gasoline engine burps out just over 60 horsepower at a screaming 6,000 RPM, with 81 ft-lbs of torque on tap at 4,100. Suzuki reports a top speed of 87 MPH, but just shy of 40 MPG on average with a manual transmission.

Oh yeah, so what's new for 2015? Some fancier seat fabric, a few new dash lights, and traction control in more models. Who cares, I really want one.

Come back, Suzuki... we'll be good to you this time! (No, we probably wouldn't. Damn the US auto market and it's demand for super-sizing.)

Images via Suzuki

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Trucks
Ford Robbed Us Of The Old Four-Door Ranger To Give Us The Explorer Sport Trac
Ford Robbed Us Of The Old Four-Door Ranger To Give Us The Explorer Sport Trac
By definition, a big truck like a or struggles to be small. Even in its smallest, most trucky configuration — a two-door single cab — a full-size truck is relatively large and comes with a sizable bed for hauling cargo. But a small truck like the third-generation can do...
May 15, 2025
The Nissan Navara Was The Overdue Frontier We Deserved A Decade Ago
The Nissan Navara Was The Overdue Frontier We Deserved A Decade Ago
gets dunked on for letting models like the languish for years. But, the truck saw a model update well before the release of the , which is mechanically much like an with a design. Outside of the U.S., the successor to the second-generation Frontier came in 2014 with the...
May 15, 2025
Deer Flies Directly Into Pickup As Its Prospective Buyer Arrives
Deer Flies Directly Into Pickup As Its Prospective Buyer Arrives
No square inch of the Northeast is safe from deer, as video out of New Jersey shows. A deer, tearing through the suburbs, managed to leap over a Pontiac Vibe and Honda CR-V before landing on the bedside of a 2007 Chevy Silverado — just as a prospective buyer arrived...
May 15, 2025
The 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger Is The Hybrid Truck America Probably Needs
The 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger Is The Hybrid Truck America Probably Needs
In addition to the all-electric , the truck brand announced this week that it will also release a engine gasoline-powered hybrid version of its electric pickup, called Ramcharger. The goal here is to use the V6 engine as a generator for the electric powertrain when the 92 kWh battery...
May 15, 2025
Porsche Built A 911 With Portal Axles To Go Where Unimogs Can't Reach
Porsche Built A 911 With Portal Axles To Go Where Unimogs Can't Reach
No car has ever driven at higher altitude than this 992-generation Porsche 911 Carrera 4S with portal axles. On Saturday the Porsche crew, led by racing driver Romain Dumas, reached the highest peak of the west ridge of the Ojos del Salado volcano in Chile, . That’s the tallest...
May 15, 2025
There Was Once A Glorious Compact Chevy ZR2 Truck
There Was Once A Glorious Compact Chevy ZR2 Truck
Those who saw the meteoric rise of through the 2010s and onward probably associate the badge with the . The was Chevy’s halo midsize truck when it was released in 2016, but the ZR2 badging goes all the way to the when Chevy made the S-10 ZR2. It’s gnarly....
May 15, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved