[vzvish91]

IMO, problem with Jimny fiasco is down to following pointers:

• Lackluster engine+gearbox combination
• Perceived & available size/space
• Most importantly they didn't figure out the "sotta" quotient, for which Marketing & Branding is to be blamed

[Torque123]

Road presence of Jimmy is what making people in India shy away from it. I am sticking out my neck here to say that 6/10 of Thar buyers end up owning one not because of its real capabilities or need but because of its looks (post some basic mods), size & delusion that others on the road can be bullied. Jimny fails terribly when it comes to road presence.

Jimny’s engine specs, transmission etc matter to the enthusiasts (read as off-roaders who know the real purpose of the car) & not the non enthusiasts. It has left most of the real users wanting for more in that department too due to the price point it is being offered.

Next comes the looks. Though it is a subjective point, for many it’s not appealing. I for one did not like its looks at all. It does not have the rugged & proportionate look.

Brand image - I am not an off-roading kind of person nor do I have additional money to own it as a 3rd vehicle in my garage that does not serve my purpose. However, IF i ever have to buy a vehicle in this category it will purely be for a show off purpose. So will I buy a Maruti for that? The answer is NO. Doesn’t matter how good it is as an off-roader because my intent is to show the world that I am a off-roader but end up pottering around the town in it during weekends.

[Uqaab]

Originally Posted by GTO

The Jimny is a flop and only Maruti is to blame. They should have priced it better at launch, given it better powertrains & marketed it better. The Jimny is a special vehicle that needed a special parent, not a grand-dad manufacturer obsessed with cheapness, overconfidence, fuel efficiency, decades-old technology, and sub-4 meter hatchbacks.

A sixer from GTO! out of the ground as always
Most relevant points raised. Sometimes Evo India and ACI should call our TBHP experts for discussions, will be a delight to watch.

[vishnurp99]

IMHO the original analysis at the start of the thread covers some good points but is flawed for the following reasons.

1. The big picture from Suzuki's perspective is not considered.
2. Some of the details of the story are cherry picked to fit the overall narrative of that analysis.

The big picture is that Suzuki & Toyota had started looking at a partnership/Hybrid model from 2015 (announced only in 2017 or 18 but the ground work was going for a long time) onwards for the indian market. Now there was a school of thought within the Indian Maruti who thought they were the tail that wagged the dog but that was not really the case. The Suzuki leadership didn't want to invest further in diesel engines & pure-play petrol engines since that was seen as a dying revenue stream. When you are making a strategic play, you have to look at what your internal strengths are. Suzuki is not Hyundai and they saw their future in hybrids & collaboration with Toyota.

Now coming to the details, cars including Scross were launched initially with a diesel only line up. The 1.6 had to be horribly overpriced because the parent was not really supportive. if you look at Creta, 40% of it's sales come from Petrol, more than 20% comes from automatic. Even with the 1.3 Diesel & no petrol & no automatic, the s-cross facelift did around 5000 cars for some time. Could some of these models have been better supported or marketing more aggresively? Of course they could be if the parent really wanted to do it.

An average powered petrol offering for Scross would have sold decently along with aggressively priced Diesels if launched at the start. Now there is something called Endowment effect. In a country like India, it's necessary to get a critical mass of cars into the market so that the word of mouth becomes positive. If you look at the Mahindras, Tatas, Jeep compass & even the creta, you will see that the launch prices are generally aggressive. The owners generally speak good about their vehicles just because they own it and ignore negative news about models like say braking complaints or NCAP ratings or fit & finish issues.

Now Jimny is a different story because the car itself is not right for the 95% of the indian families. It's just too small for a small family unless the family already has a second car that they can take for longer highway trips. So naturally the sales are going to be limited.

[pheru8b]

I've been driving a Jimny for 10 months, and I must say that the points being made about its shortcomings are ridiculous, to say the least.

1. The looks... it looks great. People stop and look, even today, after 10 months of launch, and they smile. It is cute, it is plucky, it is retro and it is just funky.

2. The size... is perfect for the city (much better than the Thar, which I found to be more cumbersome to manoeuvre in traffic, and to find parking!) as well as off road, where it outperforms almost all other 4x4 vehicles.

3. The engine... yes it is less powerful than the 5 kmpl thar engine. But, hold on, do we really need all that power in the city? Are we all about jack rabbit starts and quick acceleration? Is that the safe and comfortable way to drive? I find the engine adequate enough for the city, and the highway. For those who dont, just switch off the overdrive, or retune the obd. The Jimny is extremely peppy, and, more important, it is loads of fun on bad roads!

4. Road presence... if large and fat cars are what passes for road presence in the public conscience, then god help us all. Obesity-led disorders like traffic, lack of parking, more accidents, longer trip times etc are what large cars offer, and need I say that for those who drive them on cramped indian roads, they deserve these symptoms!

The Jimny is a car that brings a smile - by doing the right things. Apologies for not being politically correct here, but what India does not need are more big fat cars with low fuel efficiency being mass produced!

[pratikmantri]

I think the issue with Jimny is about lackluster engine and gearbox combination. If that had been better, most of the issues could have been overlooked.

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by pheru8b

I've been driving a Jimny for 10 months, and I must say that the points being made about its shortcomings are ridiculous, to say the least.

1. The looks... it looks great. People stop and look, even today, after 10 months of launch, and they smile. It is cute, it is plucky, it is retro and it is just funky.

2. The size... is perfect for the city (much better than the Thar, which I found to be more cumbersome to manoeuvre in traffic, and to find parking!) as well as off road, where it outperforms almost all other 4x4 vehicles.

3. The engine... yes it is less powerful than the 5 kmpl thar engine. But, hold on, do we really need all that power in the city? Are we all about jack rabbit starts and quick acceleration? Is that the safe and comfortable way to drive? I find the engine adequate enough for the city, and the highway. For those who dont, just switch off the overdrive, or retune the obd. The Jimny is extremely peppy, and, more important, it is loads of fun on bad roads!

4. Road presence... if large and fat cars are what passes for road presence in the public conscience, then god help us all. Obesity-led disorders like traffic, lack of parking, more accidents, longer trip times etc are what large cars offer, and need I say that for those who drive them on cramped indian roads, they deserve these symptoms!

First, looks are subjective. What looks beautiful to me, could be awful for you and non-descript for someone else.

For 2&3, I don't need a 4WD BOF car if I am using it within city predominantly (same goes for Thar too). A hatchback or a sub 4m crossover serves the purpose better and yes, they return better FE than a Jimny. For highways, the car lacks grunt. One might not use it always but that reserve of power is very helpful on those rare occasions.

Last, again the looks can be subjective but car looks disproportionately small in terms of road presence. There are alternatives if one is looking for a car with a small footprint - something which is fast, powerful and aerodynamic.

[amol4184]

I wish GTO hadn't commented and killed the thread. Now no other comments are making sense.

[EZrider]

Here’s my two cents-

I think the neanderthal marketing team, spoilt by the success of cars like the 800, Alto and Swift which sells by itself, were just too lazy to come up with a gameplan for cars in a different segment.

Look at the others that have flopped like the S Cross, Ciaz, Kizashi etc. As a owner of a SCross 1.6, all I think it needed was a nice Torque Converter AT box and it would’ve still be relevant today to compete against the Virtus and Salvia.

After driving the Jimny it’s evident they’ve taken a random 1.5 engine off the parts bin, slapped the some steering box without factoring in the longer wheel base. This leads to the main complaint of having an anaemic engine with poor fuel economy and a long turning radius. This potentially could have been sorted by an electric power steering, a turbocharged engine. Likewise I found the interior devoid of useable storage space for a four seater. All they needed to do was get a design team to tweak the space a bit. The capacity to store 4 Bisleri bottles is not a luxury.

Just like Nexa branding, internally I think they need to recruit a completely new young marketing team that’s abreast with the changing consumer preferences and go to management and get things done. In Maruti it looks like major decisions are taken by old cost accountants who have failed to read the hearts and minds of the Indian consumers.

If change doesn’t come by, we can look at more Dead on Arrival cases like this in the future.

[PrideRed]

Maruti set wrong expectations for Jimny. Even with killer launch price, Jimny was never going sell like Thar. Mahindra hit a jackpot with Thar, most of the sales come from 4x2 variants and that explains that road presence is more important than engine/capability. Secondly the off-road culture in India is just building up and market is really small, this is where Jimny excels. While 300 copies a month is poor, anything above 500-600 is good number for a niche lifestyle vehicle. 3 door and cheaper price tag will bring in few hundred more buyers but that will not help them match Thar's number.

Best bet for Maruti is to keep selling Jimny for some years, target to sell 300-500 units a month, build brand Jimny, reap in long term benefit when off road scene/purchasing power increases.

[omar]

The Jimny is a small car, priced completely wrong. Suzuiki thought they had a Mini Cooper, when we knew it was clearly not. Legacy does not matter to us if it is not priced right. Look at the success of the Punch. It has created its own legacy.

All Suzuki had to do was launch the 3 door at an attractive price. For example 9.99 lakhs introductory, and then slowly increased it after the success.

I am very sure, the car would have beaten the 1st Gen Swift mania we had. I was present at the Auto Expo in 2020. No one wanted anything else other than the car to be launched immediately!

[Torque123]

Originally Posted by ashis89

I don't need a 4WD BOF car if I am using it within city predominantly (same goes for Thar too). A hatchback or a sub 4m crossover serves the purpose better and yes, they return better FE than a Jimny.

Thats exactly my point too. May be I didn’t word my thoughts correctly. Am saying it again, Jimny is an excellent off-roader from what I have heard. There is a reason why it’s called a mountain goat. However, the target customer base who would buy & use it for the purpose it’s really built for is very small in India. This is where pricing, size etc would have mattered to expand / widen it’s customer base.

[scorpion143]

It should have been projected as a city driven life style car which can zoom through traffic effortlessly. The number of people who do hardcore off-roading india is miniscule. The main reason for THAR to be successful in india is because of its road presence not because of 4WD.

[Fuldagap]

Originally Posted by pheru8b

1. The looks... it looks great. People stop and look, even today, after 10 months of launch, and they smile. It is cute, it is plucky, it is retro and it is just funky.

Whenever I see a Jimny on the road, I find it as a very sorted, planted and exciting to look at. Even among bigger cars around, it looks great. At roundabouts, have never seen a Jimny that is not going in confidently. The rear looks smart. But looks are subjective and each has his own perspective. The boxy looks doesn't stop it from looking like a fun car.

Originally Posted by pheru8b

The Jimny is a car that brings a smile - by doing the right things. Apologies for not being politically correct here, but what India does not need are more big fat cars with low fuel efficiency being mass produced!

That's what it is. Cars in India hold great aspirational value. A Kia, Thar and the likes sell mostly because of aspirational value attached to them and less because of the engineering or end use or value for money or prowess. Maruti still has maintained it's VFM edge and given the market share of 40-50% in India, people still appear to agree. But that may change with time when the masses have better affordability and disposable income.

[GTI]

Honestly at this point I think Maruti just doesn't care about enthusiasts. They're more worried about balance sheets and mileage than even one properly priced product for us.