My Jimny's 'front grille' journey; Bling to black to body-coloured

All in all, I am now one happy Jimny owner with the way the grille has turned out and how it fits into the front aesthetics.

BHPian ShivC recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Jimny Grille - the way I think it should have beenin my humble opinion. Let me take you through my "Grille Journey" and explain.

Maruti Suzuki provided a OEM Grille for the 5 door Jimny, full of bling with an excessive dose of chrome, for both for the Indian as well as the International markets in the 5 door made in India version (the quality of the plastics in the OEM grille is top notch though). It frankly looks slightly over the top and this is the reason one of the first few mods made by Jimny owners is the grille change to an aftermarket one.

The following is my journey with the Jimny Grille.

The latest version of the grille (and I hope the final one)- body colour painted with certain portions black and grey:

The aftermarket grille that I replaced the OEM with:

The OEM Grille that the Jimny came with:

The front of the Jimny always looked to me as if it was incomplete or that something was missing. Took a chance since the OEM grille was lying unused and got it painted in the body colour by giving the official paint code for painting it Kinetic yellow. Got the chrome panel inserts painted black and the Suzuki "S" logo painted the colour of the alloys. A lot of inspiration for this idea came from the Gen 3 grilles. A look at the photos enclosed under would explain what I mean.

This is the Suzuki Jimny History from Gen 1 to Gen 4 where the best looking grille IMO was the Gen 3 grille:

Most aftermarket Chinese made grilles (read all) available in India are of much inferior and poor quality compared to the OEM. In fact Suzuki UK official has the retro styled grille as an aftermarket accessory - Product code - 9911C-78R00-ZSC (photo of the grille under) which at £207.24 (INR 22,300 - price in UK) is not exactly cheap - compared to the OEM grille replacement cost in India at Rs. 4700.

The international markets where the Jimny is sold also have a huge number of owners opting for after market grilles- a few examples of the aftermarket third party quality grilles being sold (most would cost INR 55k to 60K onward landed into India with freight, duty and GST paid - expensive!!!) :
https://compassauto.jp/search?q=grille
https://streettracklife.com/search?t...=last&q=grille
https://www.nengun.com/apio/vintage-...rill-jb64-jb74

All in all I am now one happy Jimny owner with the way the grille has turned out and how it fits into the front aesthetics of the Jimny. Also hope this is the final one (cannot bet of this though as the itch to put something new has become a weekly ritual with most of us Jimny owners) .

PS: Credits for the last 3 photos to the respective owners.

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