Took a road trip to the hills to know my Jimny better: What I learnt

This car seems made to take a beating. Rough or no roads doesn’t faze it.

BHPian Biraj recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

With discussions about significant discounts, declining sales, and the widespread criticism or mockery the Jimny faces online, I began to question if choosing the Jimny was indeed wise. However, my wife maintained that it was the only car that brought a smile during our search, reaffirming our choice. We decided to head towards the hills to think in clearer air and get to know our Jimny even better.

I've always enjoyed long road trips, but as I've aged and my fitness has declined, I've imposed certain rules on myself:

• Limit driving to 8-10 hours per day.
• Avoid driving at night.
• Plan stops and stays as much as possible.

Yet, we broke all these rules on this trip. We chose between Narkanda and Manali, depending on when we reached Ambala. Exhausted from traffic at Pandoh, we opted for Tirthan, a decision we later regretted due to a major traffic jam on the road from Aut to Banjar. The Jimny's compact size and robust automatic transmission were a boon here. The road to Tirthan is narrow, damaged (by landslides and floods), not too steep, but with a few challenging hairpin turns and heavy traffic. Keeping the gear in '2' worked well for the slow 5-15 kmph pace. Hill-hold was particularly effective while dealing with trucks/campers on the tricky sections.

The next day we headed to Manali for a more luxurious/lazy stay. The roads were generally good, except for a few odd stretches. We had lunch at a popular place on the highway before following Google Maps' suggested route to our resort, which turned out to be under construction. After making the incline on the broken/nonexistent road, we were informed by the locals that there’s no road ahead. I switched to 4H to get over the rocky bits. Then, I got to try hill descent control on the steep, loosely surfaced decline. Jimny's small size was really handy in those tight spots. The middle class man in me was delighted to utilize all its features (hill hold, ABS, and 4x4) on this one stretch. (Paisa Vasool).

On Sunday, we left Manali at 12:30 pm, planning to stop near Ambala for the night. We reached Ambala around 7:30 pm and eventually decided to continue to Noida, with as many breaks as needed. The Jimny performed well, keeping pace with traffic and overtaking slower vehicles. But still no match to the headlight flashing Cretas that make night driving a pain. Off topic, but what is it with most Cretas and their owners’ uncontrollable urge to flash the high beam? We reached home at 00:30 after a long and tiring drive.

Learnings and observations:

• This car seems made to take a beating. Rough or no roads doesn’t faze it. In right hands it can reach anywhere and come back.
• It has adequate highway performance (cruising at 80-100 kmph), however, I feel this chassis can handle more power. Just another 20-30 bhp would make this an amazing machine. The overtakes have to be planned on the hills and single lane highways. While my Linea Tjet is like a point and shoot when it comes to overtaking, this one is more like a DSLR.
• My right shoulder and arm weren’t as comfortable in the Jimny as they are in the Linea. There’s no space to rest the right arm if the windows are rolled up. Plus, the window glass buffeting if it isn’t rolled completely up is quite annoying. Don’t know if there’s a way to fix it. I may stick to 8-10 hours (300-400 kms) per day in future.
• Because of sitting higher up and possibly the soft suspension, I felt a more pronounced motion aftereffect (feeling you are moving or swaying after a road trip) than I do in the Linea Tjet.
• It returned respectable fuel efficiency during the trip. I didn’t actively track the fuel efficiency but here’s what the car feels it did. Much better than what I achieve in the Linea Tjet. I generally get 11-12 kmpl on similar trips in the Tjet. Anyone with a lighter foot and more patience can easily get 16-17 kmpl on the Automatic Jimny.

Overall, this trip has reaffirmed the Jimny as a versatile and satisfying purchase. Any flicker of buyer’s remorse about the Jimny has disappeared.

Some pics from the trip:

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