My father who is going to be 80 was immediately smitten by the Jimny and insisted that I confirm the Jimny booking.
BHPian Neil Roy recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
I have been very critical of Jimny and even now I feel that is still a couple of lacs overpriced than what it is asking for. To make matters worse, I received a call from my dealer that my booking was confirmed and that the vehicle was in transit and I have to decide whether to cancel or retain my allotment. In this backdrop, two extended test drives made my change my mind or rather change my expectations of Jimny. One was a 30 km test drive on the byepass road in Chennai combined with real life traffic. As mentioned by many, power is definitely inadequate. Once we entered the city though, The Jimny was a different beast. As my father aptly put it” It’s a 4 wheel Auto”. I did not even feel insecure or bullied as the nimbleness and the agility of the Jimny works in it’s favor. Special mention here to M/s Popular Nexa for arranging this test drive and obliging me after a disaster of the first test drive where I just had to run a small half circle with pedal to metal.
The second test drive was more interesting as it was a test drive to my estate through 12 kms of thick forests and non-existent roads. Again, really commendable job by Nexa to arrange this extended test drive and that too on a brand new Jimny. A huge shout out to Mr. Balaganesh- Business head of Athens cars Nexa, Nagercoil and his sales team for arranging the test drive and that too on a Sunday for one full day. Truth be told, there was no demo Jimny in nagercoil till last week. The way Athens cars swung into action to get a Jimny registered and arrange a test drive within a week was really commendable.
With the test vehicle ready, all that was needed was for my father and me to haul the Thar from Chennai to nagecoil (a mere drive of 700 kms one way) to have a real time comparison and decide whether to cancel my booking or confirm the JImny.
The obvious comparison was with my Thar 2019 model and the Jimny was a revelation here. It treated the rough roads and steep inclinations with disdain and was more comfortable on such terrains than on the highway and the city. Mind you, the Thar was shod with AT tyres whereas the Jimny had those puny city slicks. Yet it never felt inadequate or irrelevant. My father who is going to be 80 was immediately smitten by the Jimny and insisted that I confirm the Jimny booking.
A curious bye stander watching our antics from the tree shade:
Im sharing a Youtube video of the whole test drive that one of my estate staff so enthusiastically compiled. The Background music is not everyone’s cup of tea (I don’t approve the music personally) and his grammar is a little suspect but his commitment to the cause is commendable. Check out from 3:50 as it was pure grass and the tyres still had amazing traction on the incline.
Will be sharing more updates once I get the Jimny. Bye for now. A poignant pic as a comparo ending taken in the forest:
Keyword: A Mahindra Thar owner test drives the Maruti Jimny & decides to buy it