Did 13000 km in a year on my Jimny: Some strong points & some weak ones

Positives continue to be comfortable ride quality, excellent cooling, good highway cruising, cruise control, and a solid car for a small family.

BHPian VW2010 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Update - 13500 kms completed and 13000 at exactly 1 year from the date of purchase.

The last time I did over 10k kms in a car in a year was way back in 2013.

Jimny has been a fabulous addition for every type of drive. From office, school drops, kids classes drop, long drives beyond the city, off-roading and more.

From the last update I have done two long trips to Bangalore and Tiruppur. Each of these trips have been day trips covering a decent distance at cruising speed.

Positives continue to be comfortable ride quality, excellent cooling, good highway cruising, cruise control, and a solid car for a small family.

110 - 120 kmph is a sweet spot for the car. Size is majorly an advantage in the city while some have complained about turning radius. The turning radius is a problem if you try to take a quick U turn in the middle of the road. Other wise it is perfectly manageable.

Advantage of fabric seats is that it is very comfortable for longer drives. The disadvantage is the amount of dust it collects. Every 2 weeks one needs to ensure they actually beat the dust out and vacuum it

Music system is bad. There is no two ways about it. If there is an upgrade that I want to do in the future is to get a decent pair of speakers and a better head unit.

The android auto device I am using is fantastic. I have installed a sim and my son enjoys watching his programs on trips. I have even installed dji apps to control pocket 3 or watch the drone video sitting inside the cabin. This device is a must buy to bypass the inability of stock android auto.

Weakest point for this car is the fuel efficiency. At 100 the car pushes fuel efficiency close to 14 kmpl. Beyond that the efficiency drops drastically and inside city it will be an event if it crosses 8 kmpl. For example in Bangalore traffic jimny may yield 5 to 6.5 kmpl.

Suspension is on the softer side and I will definitely upgrade to a stronger spring. The right side of the car sags a bit and its very common to spot. When you stop behind a jimny next time, you can notice the right rear sagging a big.

Interior lights are bad. I added a simple 12v 2.5w White LED which now is bright and even helps my kid to read books. I changed all the bulbs inside the car. It is a straight forward DIY to change the bulbs. Don't worry it you do not have a special tool. An IKEA table knife from the fork set is enough to pry open the light cover

Fog light and High Beam are pretty useless and I will upgrade the fog light to long throw lights shortly

Here are some of the pictures as I added another 2k kms

Misery or happiness likes company. It took this owner one drive to Bangalore in my Jimny to go ahead and book the car

One of the trips we did was to Sriharikota. Another solid drive and fun with wife and kid and the eldest one, a beagle enjoying his second launch.

In summary Jimny is a wonderful purchase knowing the bad fuel efficiency and the fit for a small family. If these two are not an issue, Jimny is a good car to buy as a first car. 13000 kms in a year is the proof.

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