It’s the battle of the Little and Large off-roaders. Can the Suzuki Jimny hang in there with the Toyota LandCruiser?
Fits and giggles
Are you laughing yet? I sure did the first time carsales.com.au Road Test Editor, Matt Brogan, told me we were going to back-to-back the Suzuki Jimny and Toyota LandCruiser 200 Series.
Small versus large, cheap versus expensive, these two are at the very opposite ends of the SUV spectrum. Except in one regard: Off-roading.
Yep, for all the differences the one thing that has been part of their essential being since the FJ Cruiser appeared in the 1950s and the LJ Jimny in 1970 is how they shine brightest when the bitumen ends.
So, there’s no better way to test them out than at a place like Victoria’s Toolangi state forest, infested as it is with some gnarly, steep and lumpy off-road tracks.
Mech check
So, what are we looking at here.
The Jimny is all about minimalism, something its box-on-wheels styling has always emphasised. Now into its fourth generation it’s still only 3645mm long, 1645mm wide and 1720mm high. It’s not quite square, but you can see it from there.
Under the bonnet there’s a 75kW/130Nm 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine mated – in this case – to an optional four-speed automatic transmission. That connects to a part-time 4×4 system that drives the rear wheels in 2H and all four in 4H and 4L.
There are no locking diffs, just a braking function that transfers drive away from spinning wheels and hill ascent and descent control. Suspension is via three-link rigid axles front and rear working with coil springs, while the steering is old-school recirculating ball.
Equipment-wise the Jimny has six airbags, autonomous emergency braking (AEB), a reversing camera, a sub-standard three-star ANCAP rating, LED headlights, cruise control, a 7.0-inch touchscreen with sat-nav and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto mirroring. The entire package will set you back $25,990 plus on-road costs.
The Cruiser? Well, for $89,580 you get a stonking 200kW/650Nm 4.5-litre twin turbo-diesel V8 mated to a six-speed auto and a permanent 4×4 system with low range.
Like the Jimny it sits on ladder frame, with double wishbone suspension up-front and a four-link live axle at the rear. Steering is by rack and pinion. It measures up at 4990mm long 1970mm high, 1980mm wide and weighs in at 2740kg. That’s nearly three-times the 1095kg Suzuki!
Despite paying all that extra money you don’t get full AEB or Apple CarPlay in the LandCruiser, although the latest update has added stuff like front and rear parking sensors. They’re handy, believe me.
Carry-over features include seven airbags (although none protect the third row), 17-inch alloys, dual-zone climate control, a rear cooler, reversing camera, sat-nav, twin 12-volt sockets, a 220-volt socket in the boot, keyless entry and push-button engine start.
Neither of them gets reach adjustment for the steering column.
Off-road time
So, this is fun and educative. The Jimny can do just about everything the LandCruiser does and in some ways because of its size it can do even better.
While you’re delicately edging between trees in the LandCruiser, ever-conscious of dinging its vast expanse of sheetmetal, the Jimny can duck and dive and manoeuvre its way up or downward.
But gee, the Jimny does have to work hard to get the job done, revving its poor little engine hard. As long as it can cope the rest of the package can keep driving forward. Can’t grip in 2H? Go to 4H. Need more? 4L should do the job in almost any circumstance.
Eventually it will spin wheels if it cannot figure out the situation. There’s nothing for it then but to roll back and have another go.
It also lacks the ultimate ground clearance of the ‘Cruiser. There was one rock in the centre of the trail we had to veer around in the Suzuki while the Toyota cleared it easily.
But the biggest encouragement to stop pushing the limits comes from the short wheelbase and long travel suspension. There are times when the Jimny gets caught in ruts and feels like it is going to keel over. It didn’t, but it’s an unpleasant feeling.
Still, that emphasises how connected the Suzuki feels. You’re conscious of every grain of the track’s surface and keenly aware of which lines that needs to be taken.
Of course, the LandCruiser removes some of that edginess. It has so much grunt and grip there’s little it can’t conquer. The engine is a beast, but the weight it has to haul is beastly – closing on 3000kg by the time you get some people and luggage onboard.
So much of the capability of this thing feels like it’s been devised to overcome the physics challenges it sets itself because of its sheer heft. There are moments when the GXL pauses at an obstacle, shuttles drive and then walks up and over. A bit more throttle is usually all the effort required from the driver.
And on-road?
For all the Suzuki’s off-road goodness, there’s an equal amount of, erm, badness, when you get back on the sealed roads.
Thanks to its short wheelbase, long travel suspension set-up, wheezy engine and shortage of gear ratios the Jimny is simply not that pleasant to drive.
On the freeway at 100km/h the engine is buzzing along beyond 3000rpm, the obvious mechanical noise and gear whine accompanied by the wind battering against the blockhouse shape at speed.
Speaking of 100km/h, it will take a while to there. In fact, the Jimny’s natural highway rhythm feels about right at 90km/h. It’s supposedly got a top speed of 145km/h. Trust me, you will be waiting a while.
Chuck it at a winding, bumpy road and it’s understeer and bump-steer galore. A tight corner means lots of bodyroll and steering lock. A tight, rippled corner means the rear end dancing around and adding another ingredient to the cocktail.
Meanwhile, the ride on these rough Aussie secondary road is soggy enough to have your guts churning like a mix-master.
The LandCruiser simply cruises over the top of everything the Jimny is overwhelmed by. It’s big and heavy and feels like it, steering with a ponderous vacancy.
It’s too heavy and sizable to be fun, but at least you don’t feel like you want to get out and push it up hill.
It’s also too big and heavy for the city for that matter. The Jimny’s size would make it much better in such a situation given how much smaller it is and what a clear view you get out of its large windows.
But then you have to accept travelling in a vehicle that has all the ambience of a stone rattling around in a tin can.
The LandCruiser is at the other extreme. It’s splendid in its isolation, you could cruise across Australia without ever interacting with the local environment. Which is not really the point is it?
The punchline
The idea of these two squaring up might have seemed a bit laughable at first, but for all their differences not much separated them on the forest tracks of Toolangi.
But while the Jimny is a giggle off-road it is a bit of a joke on it. Some people call that character, I‘m probably a bit less chartable in my perspective…
The Cruiser is more than three times the price and that essentially buys you the civility and broad spectrum of capability the Suzuki lacks. It’ a serious piece of kit.
Keyword: Is the Toyota LandCruiser 200 Series three times better than the Suzuki Jimny?