The automatic gearbox is fantastic in stop-and-go traffic. No jerks or gear-hunting as you crawl through congestion.
BHPian androdev recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Took the delivery of a Jimny Alpha AT (Grey) during the weekend. I bought this car for use in a rural area. I have opted for Jimny because of its small size, dependable Maruti service in a small town and reputation of being reliable and punching above its weight in tackling .
I doubt I can add any more information that hasn’t been shared already given this car has been the talk of the town, nevertheless here is my take!
The car will be with me for a few days in Bangalore before it gets shipped to its natural habitat. Leaving aside the emotional/cult appeal of this great little offering from Maruti (which is a big deal), I think this car has surprised me with its usability within the city to the point of making me have second thoughts about shipping it off!.
For high density city traffic like the kind we see in Bangalore, this car has a lot going for it:
- Small size with light steering and great all around visibility can help you compete with any pesky autos.
- The ride quality is excellent and the body roll due to high GC is tolerable (city speeds are low anyway).
- The automatic gearbox is fantastic in stop-and-go traffic. No jerks or gear-hunting as you crawl through congestion.
- Well tuned brakes and AT make coming to a stop and take-off very smooth.
Thought I haven’t gone on a highway drive yet, based on what I have experienced so far, this car will not be great for long highway drives:
- Engine + gearbox is very mediocre especially if you are used to modern cars with great drivetrains even at entry level prices. It may give you the speed if you work on it, but it’s very rough/crude and gives no joy.
- Ergonomics are not great for long drives. Seats are pretty unsupportive for long drives. Narrow footwell makes it hard to rest left leg in a comfortable position (in AT)
- No escaping the body roll and poor NVH inherent to these cars at this budget – if someone doesn’t think so, they are probably not used to modern highway cars.
- Obviously, I wouldn’t rely on the brakes and dynamics to prevent accidents like the regular cars.
All this makes it a very poor highway car. Even if you decide to go slow, you and passengers still need to put up with poor ergonomics. When we say poor or great, it’s all relative to other available/potential options. So depending on what it’s being compared to, people can come to totally different conclusions as far as highway driving goes. This is not the case when it comes to city and off-roading driving – there is a universal agreement that this car is impressive in these situations.
You are probably thinking it’s not fair to judge this car based on highway usage. However, most owners would have to go through several hours of highway drive to reach the hills or whatever the excotic destination they had in mind when they bought this car. This drawback should be kept in mind while evaluating this car.
I can think of the following usage patterns:
- Exclusively for rural/off-road usage: Very good choice.
- Exclusively for city usage: Can work surprisingly well if you love the character of the car and want to be a bit “hatke” and your family also signs up for the “hatke” option.
- Mixed usage of city and off-road with minimal highway driving: For people living in towns close to their farms or hill station estates, etc. Here also this would be a great choice.
- People wanting to use it to reach far off exotic locations where a lot of highway driving would be involved in order to get there: I’m afraid a lot of people might be buying this car for this purpose, and it may not be such a good choice.
Jimny can surely hold its own.
Keyword: A Porsche 911 owner buys a Maruti Jimny AT: Shares initial impressions