Suzuki Jimny Review & Prices

Forget your big, expensive SUVs and sports cars, the Suzuki Jimny is one of the coolest cars on the road. It’s a dinky little 4x4 with retro looks, go-anywhere off-road capability and rugged charm, but it’s unrefined and impractical compared to its alternatives.

Not that it has any direct counterparts from other brands, because most small SUVs of this size are purely road-biased, such as the SEAT Arona, Ford Puma and Volkswagen T-Cross. The Jimny would leave them all in its tracks on an off-road trail…

Think of the Jimny like a tough pair of hiking boots. It’s not very comfortable for day to day life, but it’ll get you over terrain that a pair of comfy trainers won’t.

It looks absolutely epic thanks to its square corners, ruler-straight lines and relatively low roof line for its jacked-up ride height. The round lights, five-bar grille and indents below the front pillars are all reminiscent of classic Suzukis, while the silhouette and externally-mounted spare wheel scream baby Mercedes G-Wagon.

What certainly doesn’t scream mini-Mercedes is the cabin, because the Jimny is about as utilitarian as they come. The cabin is dark and dingy, full of hard, black plastics. The instrument surrounds and dashboard grab handle add a little pizzazz to your field-of-view, but otherwise it’s a bit dour inside.

Still, the controls are easy to use and upper-trim levels get a touchscreen infotainment system. It’s hardly spacious, but even tall drivers will get comfortable behind the wheel of the Jimny, and the commanding driving position makes it easy to peer over traffic.

The back seats are better off folded down and used as storage, to be honest. There’s very little room back there, and with only 85 litres of boot space in the back with the seats up, four occupants are in for the true Ryanair baggage experience on a road trip.

On the road, it’s very clear that the Jimny is better to drive off it, instead. Sure it’s narrow, and the high seating position and small turning circle mean it’s easy to thread through urban streets, but it’s very fidgety on bad roads and wobbly around bends.

Motorway refinement is worse than it is in town, with vague steering and an inclination to wander around the lane, rather than tracking straight and true. The five-speed gearbox and 100hp engine combo struggle to maintain speed, and it’s very noisy at a cruise.

Take it easy on country lanes, as the little Suzuki has plenty of body lean around a bend and it’s easily unsettled by bumps and ruts, but there’s a surprisingly large amount of feedback from the steering wheel.

Find a used Suzuki Jimny for sale through Carwow, or check out new Suzuki deals instead. There are other used Suzkis for sale, too, and Carwow can even help you sell your current car when the time comes to switch.

You can’t buy a new Suzuki Jimny anymore, unless you opt for the commercial version - which counts as a van. There’s a wide range of second-hand options available through Carwow, not only of this generation but of its older, more rounded predecessor, too.

It’s fabulous off-road, but the Jimny is neither fast nor comfortable on the streets

In town

Even with its agricultural, off-road-focused underpinnings, the Jimny is well suited to urban living, in a lot of ways. Its diminutive size, for starters; 3.6 metres long and only 1.6 metres wide, it’s a piece of cake to thread through tight streets, especially with its lofty seating position and excellent all-round visibility.

The large side mirrors, light steering and excellent 9.8-metre turning circle (a Toyota Yaris Cross has a 10.6-metre circle, for reference), make the Jimny a breeze to park, too.

Things get spoiled on the move, because the Jimny’s live-axle suspension isn’t very good at absorbing bumps and blows. It’s fidgety and wanders around on rutted roads, while the inconsistent brake pedal feel and long-throw gear lever can make smooth progress hard to manage.

On the motorway

That wandering feeling is amplified at higher speed, and the Jimny is rather out of place on the motorway. You get a lot of wind noise in the cabin because of the upright windscreen and square corners, while the slab-sided design means you get buffeted around by gusts of wind.

The 1.5-litre engine struggles to get up to speed, and once you’re at the national speed limit the engine sits at 3,500rpm - so there’s plenty of engine noise in the cabin.

On a twisty road

Once you turn off the motorway onto a country lane, you’re better off taking it easy, else you’re in for a ride more akin to a boat on a choppy sea than a car on a stretch of tarmac. There’s a lot of body lean around bends, while the Jimny pitches and dives under acceleration and braking.

That being said, the steering is surprisingly feelsome and you get a better sense of what the front wheels are doing than you do in some much more expensive, more road-focused alternatives.

Off road

Get off the twisty road onto a muddy trail and the Jimny excels. With switchable four-wheel drive and a low-range option, as well as independent braking control for when you’re teetering in the air, it’ll keep up with much larger, more powerful 4x4s when the going gets rough.

The impressive 37-degree approach angle, 28-degree breakover angle and 49-degree departure angle help when scaling particularly steep hills, outperforming a Jeep Wrangler, in fact. Add the hill descent control and hill-hold features, you’re in for a good time off roading in the plucky Suzuki.

It’s perfectly spacious for two people, but the Jimny’s rear seats are better off folded away

You can’t expect buckets of room from such a small car, but up front the Jimny is more than adequate for daily life. There’s plenty of headroom and legroom, but not much adjustability in the seats - the driver’s seat only slides forwards and backwards and reclines, with no lumbar or height adjustment.

Space in the back

The Jimny is a strict four-seater, and the two adults in the back aren’t spoilt for room. There isn’t much legroom in the back, while headspace is again adequate, but at least the big windows mean you don’t feel crammed in. There aren’t any creature comforts or storage cubbies, either.

Boot space

In one word, poor. With all four seats up you only get a pitiful 85 litres of cargo space, so for anything more than a meal deal you’ll have to fold the back seats down - at which point you get a 350-litre boot, somewhere in between a Volkswagen Golf and Polo. At least it’s a rectangular space.

The side-hinged rear door is a necessity, as the weight of the spare wheel needs to be swung open, but it’s a faff to open in tight spaces.

The Jimny’s cabin has some rugged, chunky design features, but it’s a bit barren and bland otherwise

Unlike the retro exterior, the Jimny’s cabin is a bit dull, in all honesty. You can tell where Suzuki has pinched pennies because all of the plastics around you are hard, scratchy and plain black in colour.

A few bright accents would help lift the ambience, and while Suzuki claims they would be a distraction, it feels like a purely cost-saving exercise. That’s not to say it’s an ugly cabin; chunky grab handle on the dashboard, big heater controls and funky instrument dial surrounds are funky, but that’s about it.

Entry level SZ4 cars don’t have an infotainment screen, so you’ll have to opt for the SZ5 for the dashboard-mounted touchscreen with sat-nav and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto connectivity. For something a bit less rugged and more plush inside, the Renault Captur or SEAT Arona are much less agricultural.

The Jimny’s 1.5-litre engine only puts out 101hp, but it’s not all that clean, emitting 173g/km of CO2 emissions. It’s not hugely economical either, averaging a claimed 36.7mpg - far behind its more road-biased alternatives, such as the Renault Captur which will achieve close to 50mpg - in non-hybrid form.

While you can’t buy one new, meaning no first-year road tax figure, the Jimny’s road tax is on the higher end of the spectrum.

The Jimny’s Euro NCAP safety rating has expired since it was tested in 2018, but it only scored three stars at the time - and the test wasn’t as strict as it is now. For safety-conscious buyers, you’re better off looking elsewhere.

It does have ISOFIX mounting points in the back seats, so that adds some peace of mind for parents interested in a Jimny. It also comes as standard with automatic emergency braking and lane-keep assist.

Suzuki came an impressive ninth place out of 31 manufacturers in the 2025 Driver Power survey for owner satisfaction, which is a very confidence-inspiring result.

You won’t get any new warranty cover with a used Jimny, unless you buy an approved-used model from a main dealer, but we’ve not heard any horror stories about reliability so you ought not be too concerned.