[ecosport rules]

Originally Posted by VivekWalia1986

Hardcore off-roading with Jimny + Bull bar looks
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This Jimny belongs to a friend.
It is running on Old man Emu, bull bar and winch load rated suspension,airbag compatible bull bar,roof rack,limb risers and BMC air box with filter.
The kitting was done by Mr.Vijay from Swastik Fabs,bangalore

[jimmyjagga]

Found this interesting review on Jimny, sharing it here for everyone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_lJ5Vevxy8

[SUVolens]

It’s been around 9 days since I brought home our Jimny. In Bluish Black, manual, Zeta trim. And yes, all my angst and efforts paid off, and I completely avoided the unreasonable showroom demands of ‘mandatory’ add-ons etc. Simply cherry picked what I wanted and rejected what I could get cheaper outside/buy later.

To get back to the car itself, in little over the week I’ve had it, it’s already clocked 1000 kms and I took it in for the first checkup yesterday, retro-fitting the OE fog lamp as the only concession to stock I’m making right now. Personally, I like the Jimny in its stock form and find a kind of unassuming, underdog charm to its lines and a vanity project, at least for my use case, is not on the cards.

Notable mentions in life with the Jimny over these 1000 kms:

At least for now, till it doesn’t become a more familiar sight on the roads - this car sure gets a lot of attention. Strangers wave and make all kinds of appreciative gestures. I’ve had a middle aged woman pull up next to my moving car, roll down her window and give me a wave and a huge thumbs up. I’ve seen cops writing a challan, stop and stare as I wafted by and this goes on. It’s all a bit too ‘celebrity’ for me.

The Jimny has been showing me a spectacular fuel-efficiency so far. A Delhi-Chandigarh run returned an indicated 17.1 kmpl and the tank-to-tank reconfirmed the exact figure. And city drive between Noida to Gurgaon and back on weekday peak traffic turned out 16! This is perplexing since I read so much about this car not being able to return above high single or low double digit figures. Part of this high efficiency I seem to be getting, I think I owe to the amazingly tractable little mill and the manual 5-speed combo. This setup always seems to shift up early and doesn’t knock or lug even in 5th, ambling at 40-45 kmph in city traffic. It simply crawls up flyovers in 4th or even in 5th, with nary a jar or judder and in fact, acts distinctly surprised if you double-guess and shift down as you would with other manuals about town.
The part about the gear shift is true unfortunately. It’s a stiff one, not unpleasantly so, but not effortless by any stretch of imagination. I’m used to it now, but shifting at standstill is still a bother.

On the highway, this is just a lovebug. Anyone familiar with the 70’s Beetle franchise would get the drift. All that worry about the weak top end, 100+ cruising abilities, handling/stability etc, vanish in the slipstream within the first 10 kms alone with the Jimny. Something about it’s size, the view outside and overall demeanour, resets you as a driver and you tend to switch modes to ‘70’s flower power’ instead of the anxious, unrecognisably stressed person you’ve become in modern day traffic.
You’re happy to have traffic pass you (most of them rubbernecking as they go), as you take in more scenery than ever through those innocent wide windows. The stock audio is perfectly in keeping with these demands, the pizza cutter tyres hold the road as well as you can hold a tune and the engine doesn’t bother you in la la land since you won’t nudge beyond 100 anyway. I think the hippie is strong in this one. Buy it for much more, and you’re likely to be disappointed.

I haven’t had a chance to test it’s off-roading chops yet. Need a couple of months more to bring that plan to fruition. However, near Himachal, I did manage to wade the car into a water flooded road, where the water simply rose through the engine bay and poured out of the bonnet. I hadn’t figured it’d get that deep before it was too late! No harm done. No ingress into the passenger cabin, and the car shook it off like a happy puppy once we were clear over to the other side.

What don’t I like? Not much so far.
The halogen headlights on the Zeta are pathetic - worse than a 10 year old WagonR. It’s almost as if Maruti knew people are going to change it anyway, and stuck to candles masquerading as bulbs inside those lens. Will need to replace with better bulbs, since I prefer the retro look of the reflector to the more neo LED setup of the Alpha. Just like the steel rims.
The driver footwell remains narrow on long drives, as I had suspected at our first ever meet. And my large left foot eventually parks itself behind the clutch pedal at cruise, which can be potentially hazardous in case of a front shunt.
The lack of storage inside doesn’t bother any longer. There are plenty of workarounds and in any case, I think it trains you to be more efficient in packing in these wasteful times.
That rear seat though - heh heh, I’m not going to end up there anytime soon on any kind of journey. No sir. Good for smaller people. Good for kids. For journeys with sensibly planned breaks. That’s about it.

So, overall - do I regret buying the Zeta MT even without a test drive? Nope. I’m glad I did.

Did I need this car? Nope. But I’m glad I got it anyway. I learnt how to drive on a Gypsy in 1984. I’ve transitioned through a bunch of disparate cars in these close-to-forty-years of driving. It now makes perfect sense to me that I’m back on an old familiar playground, with old familiar tunes. This one is for my daydreams. For the express services, I’ve got the sedan.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by Pancham

Perfection. I have been trying to convince my mind to book one but there is unfortunately no use case for me.

Neither have I any justifiable daily use case. Yet I own one Gypsy and one Thar. This is a pure Heart over Head matter.
As the new generations of youth in India are at pains to point out repeatedly. YOLO.
So forget the justifications. If one likes something and can afford it, why ever not?
Better to live a life filled with experiences rather than regrets.
Here is something to further catalyse thought.

[ecosport rules]

I am in love with this tyre and alloy wheel design.
The touch of red added a nice contrast to my Jimny.

[highwaycruizer]

Originally Posted by astrodex

Congrats on your sweet new ride, I always thought that Jimny looks best in red . The pictures seem to indicate some of the Geolander tyres had black lettering that then changed to white. Did you get this painted?

Not painted. The Yoko Geolanders come in two versions, normal & LT.
The LT version has white lettering & costs couple of hundred more than the non-LT.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by ecosport rules

I am in love with this tyre and alloy wheel design.
The touch of red added a nice contrast to my Jimny.

It is absolutely befitting to use Yokohama Geolandar AT’s for the Suzuki Jimny.
The 215/75/15 size is the right level of max upsize/ upgrade.
This Jimny looks great and is photographed very well too.

[AmarFlying]

Is it just me or others can also see that the front door looks quite large in comparison to the rear door. I do understand that the 4 door Jimny has been derived from the 2 door model and this might have saved cost. However, it looks out of proportion to me. I have always been a Gypsy fan and just love the new Jimny. But this just somehow does not feel like a proper 4 door. I am hoping the new 4 door Thar does not repeat this. Given, it would be very similar to the Jeep Wrangler I am hoping, the proportions are better looking. Jeep Wrangler is not the best example though. The side profile of a Ford Bronco, I feel looks good in both 2 door and 4 door model. LR Defender 110 looks absolutely stunning and very proportional. However the Defender just looks funny. It seems like a chopped out Defender 110. I am hoping (just hoping) to replace my aging XUV500 with these 'cooler' looking machines.


I tried sitting in the back of a Jimny and getting out did require me folding my legs and I am not even that tall.

Below is a basic edit image of the new Jimny wherein I just moved the door-line a little ahead and this looks so much better.

It may not look a whole lot different to most, I think but the Jimny with the edited door-line in between looks so much more proportional.

[chsai]

Originally Posted by highwaycruizer

Not painted. The Yoko Geolanders come in two versions, normal & LT.
The LT version has white lettering & costs couple of hundred more than the non-LT.

Attachment 2473161

Hi All, what is the correct PSI for the 215 Geolanders? i asked the tyre shop guy to put 26PSI but i think he put 22 PSI, drove with around 22 PSI for the first few hundred KMs including a highway run, car was bobbing on highway and was not feeling planted at all,even the drive train felt a little strained, will it cause any mechanical damage? after i put in 26 everything is great!

[RijuC]

Agents of NEXA dealerships in Gurgaon are calling up if I have to get a Jimny, I need to buy accessories worth INR 75k; otherwise I do not get the Jimny delivery. Today I woke up with one of this agent's call, asking me to opt for accessories. Usually we inform the other party if we need to record a call. I got annoyed and recorded this call without informing and posted on YouTube, tweeted to NEXA and MSIL heads. However NEXA or MSIL didn't respond except an auto generated tweet.

The conversation language was Hindi.

https://youtu.be/fuQSsLxuH80

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by RijuC

Agents of NEXA dealerships in Gurgaon are calling up if I have to get a Jimny, I need to buy accessories worth INR 75k; otherwise I do not get the Jimny delivery. Today I woke up with one of this agent's call, asking me to opt for accessories. Usually we inform the other party if we need to record a call. I got annoyed and recorded this call without informing and posted on YouTube, tweeted to NEXA and MSIL heads. However NEXA or MSIL didn't respond except an auto generated tweet.

The language is Hindi.

In my case the executive was happy when I gave him a list of accessories worth 24K and did not choose anything I didn't want. They never mentioned or made it compulsory to buy the accessory. But 75K worth of stuff is huge, and is looting.

A little note on the accessories I selected and why.
The four fender corner protectors/garnish was something I was thinking of getting even before Maruti came out with the accessory list, I was thinking of buying a set from ebay and it would have costed me much much more. Then I selected the lower door trim as it looked good and broke the visual bulk on an otherwise slab side. Then I selected the bumper lower garnish/skid and the vertical pieces; the lower skid garnish breaks the visual bulk of the expansive black bumper which on a white car looks huge, and the vertical stripe makes the headlamp washer protrusion disappear aka makes it flush and also sort of ties the greying silver grille to the greyish silver skid garnish. Then there was the seat cover which I always select when buying new as I don't want dust to settle into the fabric. Only thing I didn't want but still bought was the floor mats because there is none available in the after market and I am waiting for GFX mats to come for Jimny, problem with MGA mats is coverage. But I bought the bootmat becuase I wanted one, MGA boot mat is genuinely good compared to aftermarket.

[RijuC]

Originally Posted by Sankar

But 75K worth of stuff is huge, and is looting.

A little note on the accessories I selected and why.

I didn't ask this fellow for accessories. I was asking or probing to establish which dealership he was representing, what was his statement about the condition, what all were included in their demand, whether it's a firm non-negotiable condition to get the Jimny delivery to which he said- yes. No buying of accessories package, no Jimny delivery.

[SUVolens]

Originally Posted by RijuC

Agents of NEXA dealerships in Gurgaon are calling up if I have to get a Jimny, I need to buy accessories worth INR 75k; otherwise I do not get the Jimny delivery. Today I woke up with one of this agent's call, asking me to opt for accessories. Usually we inform the other party if we need to record a call. I got annoyed and recorded this call without informing and posted on YouTube, tweeted to NEXA and MSIL heads. However NEXA or MSIL didn't respond except an auto generated tweet.

The conversation language was Hindi.

https://Youtu.be/fuQSsLxuH80

This is exactly the kind of blackmailing I fought back and won. I wrote up the Regional Sales Head and others in MSIL and a short 48 hours later, I was taking delivery of my car sans compulsory accessories (I did pick useful ones worth 20k appx), no extended warranty until I need it later, within the validity of the factory warranty, and an insurance cover that had more add-ons than what the dealership was offering (same insurer) at 50% of the cost. It pays, literally, to not take things lying down.

[prateekswarup]

So took 2 test drives of the Jimny in the last couple of weeks. Both were of the AT.

Some observations:

What I liked:

• Loved the old-school feel of the engine, gearbox, and overall dynamics.
• Very well put together - great damping
• Great suspension - went over bumps and undulations at both low and high speed with confidence. No jarring felt in the cabin.
• AT gearbox and engine are tuned well. You do not feel the lag and accelerator inputs do help in shifting the gears to keep the engine in the power band
• High-speed handling on the expressway at speed limits was good. You hear some wind noise, and engine noise at triple-digit speeds, and you will feel the speed post 90 km/hr. This is very similar to the older Grand Vitara (2.0). It is in no way unnerving but involving.
• I was doing 100km/ht at around 3k RPM.
• I'm 5'7'' and I found the seat just right & comfortable.

What could be better:

• Storage space all around the cabin
• Foot-well area is a little cramped. Not sure how it will be comfortable in long-distance touring
• Rear seat space is strictly 2 seater. We tried with 3 people and not an option for anything less than extremely short hauls.
• Rear seat comfort and padding are okay. The recline angle at its max is still upright. The cushioning might need more under thigh support.
• The turning radius was quite large. Felt it taking U-turns.
• Slightly heavy steering. Parallel parking in closed spaces required considerable effort.

Overall I was very happy with the experience. I went in with very low expectations and came back pleasantly surprised. I am now seriously considering taking the Alpha AT.

Couple of questions that members can answer will be helpful:

• 2nd round of test drives, the tire pressure of the TD vehicle was 33 psi. I considerably felt the car more unsettled than the earlier test drive. I was told that the standard pressure is supposed to be 26 psi. Has anyone experienced something similar under higher pressure?
• I see a lot of owners moving to 215 profile tires from stock 195. Any impact on the drivability, turning, and parking that is significant? For local daily use, these elements need to be fuss-free. Is upsizing going to make this harder to live with?

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by prateekswarup

So took 2 test drives of the Jimny in the last couple of weeks. Both were of the AT.
[*]2nd round of test drives, the tire pressure of the TD vehicle was 33 psi. I considerably felt the car more unsettled than the earlier test drive. I was told that the standard pressure is supposed to be 26 psi. Has anyone experienced something similar under higher pressure?[*]I see a lot of owners moving to 215 profile tires from stock 195. Any impact on the drivability, turning, and parking that is significant? For local daily use, these elements need to be fuss-free. Is upsizing going to make this harder to live with?[/list]

Using the recommended 26 PSI will make a significant difference in reducing the skittish behaviour.

The Power steering compensates for the slight tyre upsize to 215’s. You will be able to feel such an upsize in a stock non Power Steering Gypsy but it will not be as evident in the new Jimny.

It is a given fact that with such upsized tyres come some advantages like braking and cushioning and the overall look. And a few negatives such as higher friction while on highways, and a tad more effort from the engine, but this is not going to be appreciable if you stay with 215’s.

Of course if you go for a major oversized upsize like 235 or more which is certainly not recommended considering that you will be altering the physics of the vehicle in a big way. Such an oversized upsize puts a strain on the suspension and the steering geometry.