CarBrandLogos archive · Suzuki · 1970

SuzukiJimny

A kei-class four-wheel drive that never grew up and never needed to.

Photo: Vauxford · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Suzuki history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Suzuki Jimny, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

The Jimny did not begin at Suzuki. It began at the Hope Motor Company, a tiny Japanese firm that had built a small four-wheel-drive vehicle called the ON360 and sold barely any. Suzuki bought the rights in 1968 and put the LJ10 on sale in 1970, using its own two-stroke engine and its own manufacturing, and in doing so created something that had not existed before: a full-time serious off-roader that fitted inside Japan's kei vehicle class.

1998 Suzuki Jimny 01 · Mytho88 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

The formula has barely changed in five decades. A ladder frame, a low-range transfer case, solid axles front and rear and a body short enough that approach and departure angles come free. Suzuki kept building it that way long after every competitor had moved to monocoques and independent suspension for on-road comfort, which is why the Jimny gradually went from being a cheap runabout to being the only thing of its kind left at any price.

1973 Suzuki Jimny 02 · Mytho88 · CC BY-SA 3.0

In production

Outside Japan it grew slightly to take larger engines and was sold under a long list of names, becoming a workhorse in Africa, Latin America and the Alps, and a favourite of forestry services and ski patrols. Suzuki reported 2.85 million sold by September 2018. Then the fourth generation arrived in 2018 with upright, deliberately retro styling, and demand outran supply so badly that waiting lists in several countries ran into years and used examples sold above list price.

1984-1986 Suzuki Sierra utility 01 · Bidgee · CC BY-SA 3.0

Legacy

A five-door version followed for markets that needed the extra space, though European emissions rules made the three-door difficult to sell as a passenger car and Suzuki resorted to registering it as a commercial vehicle in some countries to keep it on sale at all. That a manufacturer would go to that trouble says something about how few substitutes exist.

Chapter 5

The interesting thing is what Suzuki refused to change: the Jimny is still narrow, still slow, still built on a separate frame, and still capable of following a Land Cruiser up a trail that would defeat almost anything else you could buy new.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1970–present

Body

3/5-door SUV

Technical specification

The Jimny, in detail.

Production: April 1970 – present (2.85 million units sold as of September 2018)
Class: Off-road mini SUV ; Kei car ; Compact SUV (5-door variant)
Body style: 3/5-door SUV ; 3-door van ; 2-door convertible ; 2-door pickup truck
Layout: Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout; Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive (1986–2006) ; Front-engine, four-wheel-drive layout; Front-engine, four-wheel-drive
Manufacturer: Suzuki

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