'MY' Suzuki Jimny review and how I'm giving it 200hp!
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00This is a Suzuki Jimny and I'm actually thinking about buying one in fact
00:04I'm thinking about buying this very car so in this video
00:06I'm going to tell you why I want one of these things which different versions
00:09I'm looking at and the kind of modifications
00:12I plan to do with it then at the end I'm going to get you to vote as to whether or not I should buy
00:16One the Suzuki Jimny is a lightweight little off-roader and Suzuki started making them back in
00:221970 the first version looked like a ripoff of the Willys Jeep
00:26I really look at the second generation version. It was called the Suzuki Santana in my country. Very cool. Very boxy
00:32I really wanted one back in the 80s
00:34The third generation version was a bit of a jelly mold didn't look at that
00:38But this fourth generation is the best looking yet
00:41It's boxy design is just like a miniature G wagon on the inside is pretty plain just black plastic everywhere
00:48Yeah, it's all a bit scratchy and simple
00:51But at least it does have a proper passenger grab handle look at that like a proper off-roader
00:59Don't know why I'm doing this just trying to illustrate the point
01:03But then this little Jimny is a proper off-roader. So it's got a body-on-frame chassis
01:08You've got rigid axle at the front and at the back. You've got a low-range four-wheel drive gearbox. It's got the lot
01:14It's even got old-fashioned hydraulic power steering none of your electric power steering of modern cars
01:19It's also very small
01:21Just look how dinky and cute it is and that's great when you're off-roading because you can go through narrow gaps in
01:26Hedges without worrying about scratching your bodywork or putting bits of trim off and of course, it's dead light
01:31It weighs just 1.1 tons so it can kind of like tiptoe over muddy ruts a bit like a cloven hooved animal
01:38I mean look how light it is. Look look at this. I could almost tip it over
01:42So funny now
01:43I've actually put this little thing up against a Mercedes-AMG G 63 and a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon
01:48Off-road through various challenges and it did really really well
01:51I've even raced it along an off-road course against a G 63 and it was able to keep up main reason is it's just so
01:58Small and light that you could just tune it around a lot quicker than you could the Mercedes
02:02Also, I wasn't worried about breaking it so much because it's just so cheap
02:05So let's talk about the price then now the Jimny starts from just over 15,000 pounds
02:10But that's for the very basic
02:11SZ4 version that gets stuff like steel wheels which are actually good for off-roading because you don't worry about damaging them
02:17But then you get things like halogen headlamps and a really crappy small infotainment system the range-topping SZ5
02:23However does have a proper infotainment system and look it's got glorious Android Auto loving that
02:29That's essential if you ask me absolutely essential. It also gets digital climate control
02:36It's important when you're driving to the Calihari and need cooling down to a very specific temperature and there's heated seats
02:42Look down here, which is great. If you're off-roading in the Arctic
02:46You also get LED headlights, which may be a little bit expensive to replace if you break them while you're off-roading
02:52But at least they do illuminate the road properly when you're on it
02:56You also get 15 inch alloy wheels now you might damage these against a rock when you're off-roading
03:01But at least they look a bit more street when you're on road and obviously start is quite important with this car
03:06I think anyway
03:07If you want to go off-roading you just get yourself a pair of cheap steel isn't then you don't need to worry about it
03:11Not many SUVs a three-door these days there to be fair. You wouldn't be able to fit another door in here
03:16It's just so small and being just a three-door does of course have its downsides
03:23You see this little chimney isn't great if you need to carry rear passengers because obviously they have to slide the front seat forward
03:29to get into the back and
03:31Put this into the right position then when you pull this on bugger
03:36No one's gonna sit like that. Okay into a position. Someone might actually want to sit in. There we go
03:40And then back here while there's lots of headroom new room is tight and you do sit quite low plus look
03:47you've only got one and
03:49Two seat belts here in the rear. It's a strict two-seater here in the back
03:53Plus is the fact that you've got the option of either having rear passengers or some luggage
03:58You can't have both you see the boot
04:00With the seats up has a capacity
04:03rather disappointing
04:0585 litres so you can just about squeeze one little bag of shopping in there
04:09really if you need to carry things you're gonna have to fold down these rear seats look and then you have a
04:14normal size boot but a two-seater vehicle
04:18Not ideal. There is some storage under here for
04:22Simple little things but yeah, it's not the most practical car. Is it then there's the engine which is
04:27Slow, it's a 1.5 liter naturally aspirated petrol engine with 101 horsepower and a hundred and thirty newton meters of torque
04:35So not 60 that's 12 seconds top speed. It's only 87 miles an hour
04:43Hmm. Another issue is the gearbox. So it's got a nice mechanical feel to it
04:47But you've only got five gears which means when you're cruising at 70 miles an hour on the motorway
04:52The engine is doing 4,000 rpm. So it's just like
04:56And you really can't hear it because there's
04:58Not much sound insulation in this car. You get a lot of wind noise. You get a lot of tire noise
05:03It's not relaxing traveling, especially when you go past a lorry because it's so light and you've got slab sides
05:10You do get blown about quite a bit and it's all just a little bit scary
05:14Another thing that's a bit of a pain is the fact that the steering is rather slow
05:18So if you need to do a u-turn you have to do lots of wheel twirling. Come on. Come on. Come on
05:25Can you make it police? It's not the biggest car. So turning circle is all right
05:30Then there's the fact that it's actually designed to be good off-road, which means that it's compromised on road
05:35So first of all that ladder frame chassis and the fact you've got rigid axles means that you feel
05:42absolutely every single bump and
05:45Then you've got soft springs in the suspension. Well, that's great for bombing over ruts when you're over landing
05:51It's not so great when you're on road and you approach a corner because this thing has all the composure
05:57Oh dear, of a drunken hippo
06:03Despite all these issues though. I still love this car. I mean, I love it. It's lovely. It's just got so much character
06:08It's cute, isn't it? And you see I've got access to other cars. So I've got my Porsche 996
06:13I've got my Mazda MX-5 and if I really need it my Fiat 126 plus
06:18I've got access of all the cars that I review for CarWare
06:21So I don't need to rely on this Jimny as a daily driver because I wouldn't want to rely on it as a daily driver
06:27It's just too compromised
06:29Now we come to the part of the video. I want your help with so I've got the opportunity to buy this very car
06:35You see here. It's actually the Jimny that Suzuki lent to CarWare and we've been running as a long-termer
06:40So I'm I'm quite used to this car. I spent some time with it
06:43You've probably seen the videos yourself actually. Now the only issue I have is it's not brand new
06:48So it's actually a late 2018 car. It's done almost 15,000 miles yet. They still want
06:5417,200 pounds for it and that seems like quite a lot really
06:58However, these things are in short supply
07:00There's a lot of demand and as a result they haven't lost much money in terms of depreciation. Hence the high cost
07:06It's just the way it is
07:07Now one of the things that's put me off from buying this particular car is that when I look underneath it
07:11I can see just a little bit of rust here and there. It's probably just surface rust. They're not a big problem
07:17However, if I was to buy one of these new I would add some extra under seal and put wax all inside the chassis as well
07:24Just to stop it from rusting from the inside out, you know
07:27I'm gonna be using this car for off-roading. So I want to give it as much protection as possible
07:30Then there's the color. This is actually the most popular paint scheme the metallic blue with the contrasting black roof
07:36But it's not my favorite
07:39Finally, there's the fact that because this car isn't new it's used at some of its warranties
07:43Probably only got about one and a half years of its three years warranty left
07:47Which means I don't have so much peace of mind
07:49And it's really annoying that when you consider that this car will cost me only
07:532,000 pounds less than a brand new one. The problem with brand new ones though is that they're quite hard to come by
07:59So they're only brought into the UK in limited numbers
08:01There's a huge waiting list for them and Suzuki gonna stop importing them into the UK after 2020 because of the cars emissions
08:09So they're pretty hard to come by
08:11Also dealers are charging a premium for new ones of these, you know, they cost about twenty three thousand pounds
08:18However, I should be able to get one for under twenty grand. I should be able to pay the normal recommended retail price for it
08:24which is
08:26Acceptable. Okay, twenty grand is still quite a lot for one of these, isn't it?
08:30Also, I'll be able to order it with some accessories so I could get a different grille which has Suzuki on it
08:35Which I think looks really cool though. That does cost an extra 200 pounds
08:39You can also get some diff protector covers which are quite handy if you're going off-roading, but they're not cheap
08:43They're 300 pounds one at the back and 300 pounds one at the front even though they're just simple pieces of metal
08:49Then there's a silver trim for the sills which does look good
08:52But it costs 300 pounds and you can get one for the front bumper as well
08:56Jet again costs another 300 pounds. Is it worth it? Should I have any of these fitted?
09:01Let me know in the comments box below
09:03Now if I do choose to buy a new car then I get to pick the color and there's five other choices apart from this
09:09Blue, so which one do you think I should go for click on the pop-out banner up there to vote?
09:13Should it be the white one?
09:15the yellow one
09:17the silver one
09:19the black one or
09:21The ivory one. I'm looking forward to seeing what you chose
09:26If I do buy a Jimny whether it's this one or a brand new one
09:28I do want to do a few mods to it make it a bit more interesting. The first of which is a lift
09:34So I'd like to lift it by about five centimeters
09:38Because it would just make it look cooler to also make it better for off-roading as well
09:42You know that much extra ground clearance is always welcome, isn't it?
09:45Now you can get kits for about a thousand pounds to 1,500 quid and you get springs dampers and control arms
09:51I've been checking them out seem quite reasonable and I think five centimeters is quite a good compromise between improved off-road performance
09:58Cool looks without actually ruin the driving dynamics on road. I'd also fit it with some knobbly tires as well because these are a little bit boring
10:06Another thing I'd love to do is add some more performance to this engine
10:10now we want to turbocharge it because the last thing you want when you're off-roading is
10:15Sudden turbo boost coming in a big spike in torque and then you just lose traction
10:19It's not ideal but supercharging could definitely work and keep a linear power delivery
10:24I could get a roadtrek supercharger for this which will probably increase the horsepower to around 200 which would be amazing
10:32Means I'll be able to drag race this thing in some videos, which I'm sure you'd like to see and I'd like to do
10:37Maybe I should do that. I
10:39Should definitely supercharge it, shouldn't I? The final mod I'd like to do is a hydraulically locking rear differential
10:45Now it means that when I have this car into two-wheel drive mode because it's then rear-wheel drive
10:49I'll be able to do some drifting and donuts in it, which will be a right laugh
10:52Especially if you've got a supercharger fitted to it
10:54It also means that when I go off-roading it'd be slightly better as well
10:58Because if it gets stuck on an obstacle, I could lock that rear diff for some extra traction
11:02In fact, that's one thing this car is missing lockable diffs
11:06It tries to do with its electronics and its brakes to stop the wheel spinning up
11:10But it's just not as good as a proper mechanical system
11:12If I do buy one of these cars and do the mods
11:15I will of course be filming that process
11:17For you to watch and now
11:19We come to the final part of the video the bit where you get to help me decide what to do
11:23So click on the pop-out banner up there to cast your vote
11:26Should I buy this very car here and just leave it standard or buy this very car and do those modifications?
11:33I told you about or should I buy a brand new car and leave it completely standard or buy a brand new car and
11:40Do all the mods or the one last option don't buy a Jimny at all and save my money for another car
11:46Let me know what you think I should do. I hope you all enjoyed this video
11:50If you did, please give it a like I'd really appreciate it
11:53And let me know other videos you like me to in the comments below
11:55If you'd like to watch some more videos, then just click on the video windows about the place
12:00Now if you're thinking Matt shouldn't you be on lockdown? How can you drive in a car? Well, don't worry. You're very clever
12:05I'm combining it with going shopping. So it's all fine