This is a somewhat odd vehicle to profile in NZ Company Vehicle magazine but we’re doing it anyway, because goshdarnit, this little varmint’s just so cute!
These little buggers landed in January and you can’t get one till October/November, that’s how popular they are.
The Jimny Sierra is a fully capable fit ‘n fightin’ 4WD which tackles trails with the big boys and will likely run circles round them, but what’s it like on the open road?
It can munch motorway miles, but its happier at 90km/h rather than... oh wait, Auckland motorways are mostly 80 now, aren’t they? Parking’s a snap. One of my passengers asked about a rear vision camera and the idea was so ludicrous it took me three carparks to stop laughing.
Want to see what’s behind you? Turn your head about 15 degrees, oh, there’s the back, righto. And you do have the spare on the rear door if you insist on parking by Braille.
The 2019 Jimny Sierra is 30mm shorter than the previous model, 45mm wider and 20mm higher and why did Suzuki do all this dimensional expansion?
Well, you can now accommodate four people in a Jimny Sierra, though rear seat passengers over six foot won’t want to go too far. Across Auckland and back is doable, according to my giraffe of a daughter.
The previous Jimny had, well – sod all actually – when it came to safety kit, but this little beauty has got – drumroll please... Six airbags, an electronic stability programme (ESP), anti-lock braking system (ABS), electronic brake distribution (EBD), hill hold control (HHC), hill descent control (HDC), lane departure warning (LDW) and a new autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system.
You don’t lose out on modern contrivances either: climate control air conditioning, cruise control, a seven-inch touch screen tuner with MP3/WMA/Bluetooth hands-free and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto connectivity, GPS-based Sat Nav navigation system as well as LED projector headlights and day running lights.
The Jimny Sierra has the feisty normally aspirated, 1.5-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine, which produces 75kW of peak power at 6000prm and 130Nm of peak torque at 4000 rpm – for an optimistically claimed 6.9 litres per 100km. Try 7.4 for a more real-world value.
You are carrying a proper low range Allgrip PRO selectable 4WD system after all, and a new brake LSD traction control function, which – when two wheels diagonal to each other lose grip – automatically brakes the slipping wheels to redistribute torque to the other side and allow the vehicle to gain traction.
Prices start at $25,990 +ORC for single colour manual transmission versions and runs to $28k + ORC for the two-tone automatic.
