The seats of the Jimny are supportive and one doesn’t get thrown about from side to side, like one does in the Thar.
BHPian shankar.balan recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Today was a day where I actually drove all my cars and this proved helpful from a ‘back to back’ perspective, for the Jimny test drive. There was a cars and coffee meet in the morning to which I went in my Gypsy along with Dad. Then I did a light joyride with Dad in the Cooper and got it washed and all. And I took the Thar along over the useless back roads of HSR and Kudlu to the Jimny test drive just now.
My simple first impressions are below. This is only about the driving and the useability. There is enough written about the lack of gizmos and water bottle holders and mobile holders and all that. I won’t talk about any of that stuff.
The Nexa chaps in Surakshaa Hosur Road Electronic city were most obliging. They had promised to call when TD vehicles arrived and they did so today.
So I went there at 2pm and immediately was given the keys to the Bluish Black Jimny. It was the Zeta AT variant. My dad and Shree from Nexa and I went on the test drive for about 12 odd kms. We went up and down the Hosur Road for a bit just to see how the vehicle performs under acceleration.
We took the ramp to the Nice road and went up to the toll booth and did an U Turn into a construction yard and a small rutted track with stagnant water and an uneven surface. There was also some rubble strewn about and plenty of muck.We took the vehicle through all that a few times. And then drove back up the ramp and back to the showroom. One the way I knew a place which is inside a small shanty farmyard. Very narrow track through some trees and all. I wanted to see how the Jimny would behave there so I threaded it through those trees and reached a point of no return and then reversed, turned to full lock, manoeuvred the vehicle out and then threaded my way back through the gaps. It’s narrowness, lightness and all, certainly helps! The Thar would simply not have been able to do this.
I returned the vehicle to the showroom at 3pm sharp.
This is an accomplished vehicle. Its ride quality is excellent. The seats are supportive and one doesn’t get thrown about from side to side, like one does in the Thar. It is actually more comfy than my Thar on uneven and rutted roads. Despite my Thar having AVO suspension and all. The 5 door configuration and the slightly longer proportions undoubtedly help a lot in the ride quality and the way it takes rutted tracks and uneven surfaces. The Thar SWB leaps over our mountainous speed breakers if taken at 30 kmph. You feel it. The Jimny glides over the same speed breakers at the same speed. You don’t feel it like you do in the Thar.
The driving position is great. Good visibility across the board. No A Pillar blindness. Unlike the Thar whose A Pillar is like an opaque tree trunk. The ride is NOT Busy, unlike the Thar where every single bump and undulation and uneven surface and stone, can be felt in the seat and in the steering. There is no skittering in the Jimny. It takes all sorts of bumps and broken surfaces with aplomb, of course when driven over such things at sensible speeds. The suspension is well sprung. The vehicle seats are comfortable and grippy. Remember this was a stock vehicle and no tyre upgrade and all that. The air pressure seemed fine, there was no typical over filled feeling or under filled feeling. The 4H and 4L and all are very easy to slot, unlike the Gypsy.
I accelerated the vehicle a reasonable bit and took the Nice road up-ramp at 60 kmph along that curve. The vehicle remained perfectly composed.
Yes, with the small engine and 3 passengers in it, it can never be like the powerful Thar, in terms of acceleration, but it didn’t run out of breath today.
However it may run out of breath on a very steep incline like the Sigur Ghats for example, with a full load of passengers and luggage.
This is where the manual transmission will likely score because one can row through the gears and help keep up the momentum up those hairpin bends. The 3 door Jimny may well be better in such circumstances because it is shorter and lighter.
On the straight, I did accelerate a bit in order to see and feel how the much criticised 4 speed AT behaves. And I am telling everyone here, that for most normal people and normal applications this will work perfectly well. It may not kick down the way the Thar does, and it may not deliver that kind of acceleration, but that doesn’t matter, because it is off set by a really comfy ride and decent on road behaviour.
The Thar will always score in terms of the “legs” for a long distance drive in the plains. The Jimny will tend to struggle a bit after 100-120Kmph. It won’t have the same ‘top end’. But that’s fine. It’s not meant to be a speed demon. It has more than enough low end grunt to take on most normal obstacles. And believe you me, it is very well engineered. It has finesse. It feels strong and solid, and well put together, not flimsy. My Gypsy, which is its great grand father, feels tinny and light in comparison to the Jimny.
The point about turning radius is illustrated in the above test I did, threading it through the trees. The Jimny’s Turning radius has been theorised and criticised a lot here. My Gypsy also has a high turning radius and no power steering means a lot more effort. My Thar would not have been able to pass through that set of trees but the Jimny did it perfectly as described above.
I did not find any problem with seat comfort in front. Headroom is more than adequate. I am big built and tall person 6feet 2inches and broad too. So is my Dad a big broad guy. We didn’t ‘rub shoulders or arms during the drive in the Jimny. We didn’t bump into each other either, when on the rutted track when we were going in and out of the undulations and dips in the surface.
Thing is, one has to drive the Jimny the way it is supposed to be driven. It is not a sports car. Nor is it a big bully on the road. But it is really quite excellently put together and a real pleasure to drive. It is as I have always been maintaining, a very nice vehicle for the hilly regions and places where the roads are narrow. It won’t leak water. It doesn’t have any wind noise problem. The NVH is good. The engine is soft and silent most of the time, even in 4H and 4L when negotiating ruts and bumps and bad surfaces and only changes note under stronger acceleration on the straights. It is a good little off roader and can be a very good all rounder too. It just needs to be driven sensibly and with perspective. Jimny is a great modern updated take on the Samurai, Gypsy etc!
I like it a lot. That’s the bottomline.
Will I sell Thar and buy Jimny? Most probably not now. Need to enjoy the Thar for a longer time.
Will I buy a Jimny later as the only vehicle? Very possibly can be considered.
Keyword: A Thar owner shares honest observations on the Jimny after a test drive