Was looking for a compact EV; Ended up buying the Maruti Suzuki Jimny

These are my initial impressions and the journey of Maruti Suzuki Jimny till now and plan to undertake off roading pretty soon for a new journey of skill learning for the weekends

BHPian Humane India recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

STORY OF MY "SHERNI"

From the beginning of this year I was on the lookout to add another compact EV to our garage which already had solidly built cars like Volkswagen Jetta, MG ZS EV, etc. The updated Tata Nexon EV 45 was the leading car in the race and I even booked a December 2024 manufactured car with a very good discount too in January end as the reason behind purchasing this new car was the limited usage of not more than 1200 km per month

Cometh the hour and here is the twist.....

I was randomly going through the usual process of reading Team-BHP posts on the weekend and came across an ownership post of the Maruti Suzuki Jimny. I followed the thread after reading the post and the curiosity started building up in my subconscious mind regarding the Jimny. I read all the posts right across from January 2023 to understand the ownership experience of people and problems in the Jimny ecosystem. What intrigued me the most was the price cuts and offers being offered on the Jimny which now actually made it value for money in real terms and a VFM 4x4 was always there on my mind to add a variety to the garage

I was one of the staunch opponents of the structural safety protocols not meeting the global standards for Maruti Suzuki products in India and I would still be one till they really work on massively improving their selection of sheet metal and overall structural rigidity of their platforms in India. So I was researching more about Jimny in this aspect and found that it has better built compared to other MS cars in India as it is also being exported to other countries and especially their home country, Japan

I started reaching out to Maruti Suzuki dealers just for fun and no serious thought to finalise this car in that moment itself. After reaching out to 8-10 dealers and guaging what kind of discounts are possible, I came across an irressitible offer from one of the dealer, breakup of which is as follows :-

Variant - Maruti Suzuki Jimny Alpha AT (November 2024 MMY)

Ex-showroom Price - Rs 14,79,000
TCS - Rs 14,790
RTO - Rs 1,81,030
Insurance - Rs 43,587 (Full Fledged - All The 11 Add-ons)
Fast Tag - Rs 600
Other - Rs 2,358
Extended Warranty - Rs 28,969 (upto 6 years OR 1.6L KM)
MS Rewards - Rs 885
Dealer Total - Rs 17,51,219
Discount - Rs 3,20,000
Free Accessories - Rs 10,000

FINAL ON ROAD - Rs 14,21,219

I immediately transferred the booking amount to the dealer and locked this great deal with all the possible add ons for complete peace of mind during the ownership period as I plan to keep this car for the lifetime as per RC and may be even beyond that

Cutting the chase to the delivery day, everything was good from the dealer end and they made the delivery experience a memorable one. Did the Puja and took the Jimny straight for a tyre upgrade ceremony. I got a great deal on the buyback of the OEM tyres and upgraded to the Yokohama Geolander G015 AT 215/75 R15 tyres costing me only 14k for 4 tyres.

Immediately next early morning left for a long journey and covered 900 km in a single day without much fatigue in the brand new Jimny. The car has fantastic suspension for National Highway kinds of roads, unlike Thar. I was easily able to maintain 90-110 kmph speeds and let me tell you, it is absolute fun to overtake vehicles till the speeds of 110 kmph because of the gear ratios of the 4 speed TC unit used on the Jimny AT. The car felt planted after the tyre upgrade and the steering weighed up nicely at highway speeds. Mind you, I am satisfied with the driving dynamics of the MS Jimny in general, a tough phenomenon for people driving German vehicles. The infotainment unit is very sorted and easy to use as I have both Android Auto & Apple CarPlay connected to it which works like a charm everytime you sit in the car.

The tyre air pressures must be lower than most other cars else the Jimny becomes twerky from the rear. Also lack of cornering fog lamps make it tough to navigate sharp U bends in the mountains. The fuel tank capacity could have been bigger but I plan Jerry cans installation and other mods pretty soon. Have not taken this car to give me excellent mileage like Maruti Suzuki is known for and it is to be used for fun driving and never caring much about the potholes.

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