New Suzuki Jimny proves Wranglers are overpriced (and Broncos, and Defenders, and everything else)

[outobie]

When I lived in Japan in the early 90's I had a Suzuki Alto K car. it had a 3 cylinder 550CC engine that would top out at around 65 MPH. it was 4 WD stick shift and 4 door. I could touch all 4 corners inside the car sitting in the drivers seat. it was such a base model, the only option it had was an AM radio and a sun visor...but only one sun visor for just the driver.

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[00 Trans Ram]

The Wrangler is 20 years ahead of the Jimny in technology and that is worth every bit of $10K to me. But I could be missing something because I could only watch that guy for a couple of minutes.

Well, after watching the whole video, I agree that the Wrangler is worth $20k more.

However, the inspiration for the video was that, until they got to the 100hp part, that thing had almost everything a base Wrangler has. Power windows (auto down AND up), power locks, infotainment, etc. My thoughts when watching the beginning was, "Ummm, that's just like a Wrangler."

 

[Mr.Fez]

I think wranglers are overpriced in the same way the Land Cruiser 70 is overpriced (I used to own a 2014 LC76). The thing is there are no vehicles that can compare to the LC70 or wrangler. Solid axles, spartan interiors, and the promise of a go anywhere vehicle. I think the Jimny meets that criteria. You can get a fully loaded X3 M40i for the same price than a loaded rubicon but it’s a different animal.

is the jimny made for highway cruising? Nope but neither is the wrangler nor the LC. I have driven the jimny a couple of times and it’s extremely capable and reliable. Throw MT tires and you are good to go.

I would pick a Jimny over a 2 door JK any day. Now the JL is a different story. For 20k I think is a do it all vehicle perfect for a family of two and I can see the point OP is trying to make.

 

[TaintedSaint]

You familiar with Matt's Offroad Recovery? We watch that a bit on youtube. They dragged an old J20 (the original 2 stroke hardtop) that a friend of theirs had up at a mining claim. Thing has been sitting in place for over 30 years. The recovery was something to watch, they drug that thing through all sorts of stuff to get it out. Place in Utah called FabRats has been piecing and parting it back together and they used a Suzuki Sidekick 8V motor and powertrain. Tons of fab work to get everything to work. It's off at the body shop now, all the fab work has been done to make it a usable vehicle again. Neat little tin top J20. TINY. We've been watching the series of videos. It was a mostly rusted out mess when they started.

The Sidekicks and Trackers really do well offroad, as they're not very big and can fit in places that wider/taller stuff just can't. We could duck through places in the Tracker that would have scarred trucks and 4 door Jeeps. Lot of overgrown trails near us that our 4x4 Ford truck from years ago couldn't even THINK of getting into. We only owned that thing about 18 months. Found out it was basically only an open country rig. Lifted '78 F250, Dana 60/44 high pinion, swapped 429, 4" lift on 37's. Full size bed. Neat truck, big 4x4, looked cool, but totally useless once we got into the trees. All the branches barely cleared the hood, and we were just dragging the cab through brush everywhere we tried to go. Couldn't see where you were driving once you hit overgrown roads.

We like running around in the mining country to the South. The Owyhee mountain area, huge area of BLM land, all sorts of varied terrain. Some of the trails we like to go up are old mining roads that are grown in. The little Suzuki based stuff does a great job of getting in to that kind of stuff, they're light and just climb like mountain goats. But, they ride like crap in comparison to a Jeep, and that low weight and small size means that if you ever get hit in one, you're done.

I've been watching that too, it's been on a few different channels too as it goes on it's journey from recovery to repair paint etc. It's a pretty fun project to watch. The part where they winched it with multiple lines down the creek was pretty crazy.

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