16 key observations on my Jimny after multiple trips to the hills

My recent trip took me back to the Himalayas, this time with my friend's old Grand Vitara giving my Jimny company.

BHPian prateekswarup recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Updating my Jimny ownership after completing 10k kms and 3rd free service.

I have an MT Alpha purchased in Dec’23.

Since then I have been driving in Gurugram traffic, weekend drives to Greater Noida and 3 trips to the hills – Mashobra, Spiti Valley & Ladakh.

The Jimny is currently in stock condition with only the GAN tuning chip installed after 2 months of ownership.

Observations:

1. Compact, small footprint for city driving.
2. Excellent on-road handling – bad roads, Gurugram famed potholes dispatched without a fuss. You are considerably doing 10kmph faster speeds in bad patches compared to the rest of the vehicles.
3. Excellent for Hill driving – a small footprint means that it can scurry across all conditions without space issues.
4. Climbing in the Hills – you will need to work the gears to get the right momentum. I have typically kept the RPMs in the 2.5k to 3.5k range to drive up the steep slopes to the various high-altitude passes. This way, hair-pins, and climbs are relatively easily managed. The engine is quite rev-happy.
5. Off-roading / 4WD– I have used the 4H and hill descent control a couple of times. Most of the time in the hills, though, standard RWD is sufficient to get you out of tricky places.
6. Water Wading – managed to drive in some river crossings in Both Spiti and Ladakh and with 4H enabled, it trudged along just fine. I am seriously considering a snorkel though. The smaller tyre size makes this go a little more into the water when compared to a Thar or a Grand Vitara but never had a problem with clearance.
7. Tyres – I have the Bridgestone HT stock tyres. They have performed extremely well in all conditions. I only had one flat due to a sidewall cut purely due to my negligence on a bad road in Spiti.
8. Rough Road handling – excellent on Sandy, gravel roads. With large potholes with big articulations, you will feel the cabin as well as you move around. I had to go through this in Gata Loops before the Baralacha Pass and it was quite discomforting.
9. Comfortable cabin – Auto AC, CarPlay, sufficient charging ports.
10. Long-distance comfort – I did a 12-14 hour drive from Gurugram to Jispa, Manali to Gurugram, and Karzok to Manali without feeling overly fatigued.
11. Easy driving – Relatively light clutch and gear action once you get used to it.
12. Visibility – good clean visibility all around with high seating for navigating those narrow terrains & those pesky auto wallas careening around you
13. Mileage – Ladakh Trip (Gurugram – Jispa – Khardung La – Leh – Nubra – Siachen Base Camp – Pangong Lake – Karzok (Tso Moriri) – Manali – Gurugram) - ~2700 kms, 172 litres fuel – averaging 15.7 km/l. So concerns around driving range and frequent fuel ups were nullified. In the city, bumper-to-bumper office traffic of 11kms one way, averaging around 12-13kmpl.
14. Brakes – inspire confidence in most situations. I did feel them getting hard in high altitudes and hence there were occasions that the pedal required a firmer push to bring the Jimny to a stand-still. Little disconcerting at first, but since I had done a few trips to the hills and had read about the same in the forum, I was aware of the same.
15. High-Speed Handling – Drove at the permissible speed limits of 100 and 120 on the EPH (Rai to Greater Noida). The steering weighs up well. However, there is a certain amount of correction that you will need to keep doing at high speeds unlike other tourers (Polo GT, Outlander, Grand Vitara 2.0).
16. GAN chip – I have had this after 2 months of ownership. Post GAN, the driveability has improved. Lesser frequent gear changes, better mileage (1-2 km/l) and faster acceleration (I am yet to Vbox this).

Overall very satisfied with Jimny. I shall now start looking at some functional mods basis my last 10k km experience.

Putting some pictures of the trip along with co-conspirator Amit and his Grand Vitara.

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