When the fourth-generation Suzuki Jimny arrived in 2018, it immediately endeared itself. Its boxy character was reminiscent of a baby Mercedes-Benz G-Class and it equally relished the rough stuff.
It had bags of character and attracted leagues of fans. But what it didn’t have was space. Now, for the first time in the Jimny’s history, it’s available as a five-door, with 340mm added to the wheelbase and an extra 126 litres of luggage space.
However, before you get excited and bang down the door of your nearest Suzuki dealership, it still emits too much CO2 to make UK sales viable. This one was tested in South Africa.
Despite that extended wheelbase, it’s the same height and width as the three-door Jimny. It takes up no more space than a Fiat 500 and looks positively tiny in a car park full of other SUVs. The interior is nevertheless spacious enough and coped with a family of four and all their holiday luggage easily, although the back bench has only two seatbelts.
A neat trick is the possibility of folding all the seats down flat to make two beds for camping. The interior surfaces feel solid, the controls are all chunky and there are plenty of places to hold on if the going gets tough.
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This legislation is so flawed. Land Rover / Mercedes sell V8 4x4's pumping out far more CO2 as they also sell the plugin hybrid or EV's - and it's the portfolio average that matters! Meanwhile a small Jimny that emits far less than that V8 is banned as Suzuki doesn't sell an EV. Maybe the legislation is biased towards the luxury end Euro owned brands... ? No surely not, that would be morally wrong not to actually help the environment...
Its amazing to see a motoring journalist write that something that takes up no more space than a Fiat 500 can cope with a family of four and all their holiday luggage. Whilst I agree with this, usually its biggest is always best, get the largest, most practical one, something which most people I know seem to believe too. As soon as the first child is on the way, that Grandland or Tiguan replaces the Corsa or Polo on the driveway.