2026 Suzuki Jimny review

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The Suzuki Jimny is a car that never really seems to go away.

The three-door version of the iconic compact off-roader has been off-sale until very recently, when Suzuki rolled out a raft of safety upgrades and brought it back to life – but that hiatus didn’t mean Suzuki stopped selling the Jimny entirely.

Unaffected by previous safety issues was the five-door XL version, which apart from a brief production pause flew Suzuki’s Jimny flag until its short-wheelbase sibling was back in fighting form.

However, it has not been upgraded to any extent; and prices continue to rise. The 2026 Suzuki Jimny XL auto is tested here and costs $1000 more than it did at the beginning of 2025.

The three-door is back and promises more than ever. Is XL worth the look now that you’re in the market for a pint-size, back to-basics off-road SUV?

How much does the Suzuki Jimny cost?

The automatic Jimny XL is the most expensive Jimny currently on sale, priced at $37,490 before on-road costs.

| Model | Price before on-road costs |
| — | — |
| 2026 Suzuki Jimny Lite 4×4 manual | $31,990 |
| 2026 Suzuki Jimny GLX 4×4 manual | $33,990 |
| 2026 Suzuki Jimny XL 4×4 manual | $34,990 |
| 2026 Suzuki Jimny GLX 4×4 auto | $36,490 |
| 2026 Suzuki Jimny XL 4×4 auto | $37,490 |

Suzuki also offers drive-away pricing across the Jimny range, with base Jiminy Lite at $36,490 drive–away and flagship JimNyXL at $42,990 drive’away.

Rivals are limited to small SUVs that promise some off-road capability. The most worthy candidates are the Renault Duster, which tops out at $37,990 before on-roads for the Techno 4×4 manual, and the Subaru Crosstrek which tops out at $43,990 before on-roads for the non-hybrid 2.0S.

To see how the Suzuki Jimny stacks up against its rivals, use our
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What is the Suzuki Jimny like on the inside?

While the Jimny is a utilitarian car, it’s not as much as the flagship XL auto makes an impression on its luxury feel.

Are you a bad guy for us? We’re well aware that the Jimny isn’t meant to be sex car. We’ll detail one of the details in our driving impressions – and that it’s here to serve a purpose – and this cabin is meant to reflect that intention.

So, as such, it’s not fair to expect more than the swathes of black plastic and cute-tough elements that theXL provides for its X. The steering wheel is the only place where there’s no leather (or even fake leather) and most of the key touch points are cold and hard.

But the lack of high-end appointments makes an undeniably strong interior, dominated by physical controls that suggest it was built in the mid-2000s rather than in 2026. Even a bad place to spend time isn’t even an unpleasant place for .

test here But you’re getting that in a $40,000 car, but the problem is your . This Jimny is hard to justify, even for larger, more powerful cars, that’s hardly chump change.

Yet, at least anything is working for a (or even the one who does not). The pseudo-three-dial climate system (the middle one is an info display), the basic controls are large and easy to find, and there are real levers/shifters for the handbrake, gears and low-range.

screens are also used to maintain the dependence of s at a minimum, and it is kept on screen. There is a 9 . A touchscreen infotainment system with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard is 0-inch touchscreen, which also provides very basic settings and economy information.

In front of the steering wheel there’s also a simple LCD-style display that gives you all information about the vehicle’t trip computer. It is as real and simple as everything else, especially the two large gauges that sit next to little display.

In fact the squared-off gauge housings are adorned with the Jimny’s only real interior design motif – if you can call it that is actually true. It’s that the bolt heads, as real as they look and feel, are exposed elsewhere across the dash/door cards.

But beyond that, it’s impossible to ignore how small the Jimny feels. The five-door XL’s body is still very narrow, and your front passenger will feel almost uncomfortably close even though you get extra length behind the front seats in its four-year term.

Suzuki also has slammed where it could be, as is the case with that limitation. With the exception of bolt-on armrests/grab handles, you’ll notice that the door cards are almost flat (with the window switches moved to the centre console).

There are no bottle holders either; only cupholders are located between the front seats, behind a handbrake lever and there is no bottles. That doesn’t mean that the Jimny is hard to live with; it’s just something you have to be used for.

A small tray is in front of the gear selector, a passenger-side glovebox and even ‘a little dashboard nook above that has. The box is no central storage for – and there’s no center armrest.

The seats are finished in relatively durable cloth, and they’re comfortable enough without imposing a new ergonomic benchmark. What does four-wheel drive standards say, even for a small one, is right with everything that’s appropriate when nothing else.

That’s also the case with the second row, where there is no facilities to speak of. This is a two-person bench, so passengers back here have ‘fairly room’; headroom and legroom are large enough to fit two grown adults with relative ease.

It’s still unfortunate that there is no fold-down armrest, and rear-seat people will have to fight those in front for the use of those two cupholders. A little more storage At least there are map pockets for a bit of extra space at the bottom of .

Unlike up front, the rear doors are equipped with window switches; however, while driver can also operate the back windows by using a pair of switches next to the handbrake – completely independent from the front window switch.

While the boot isn’t wide, it can be used as an example of what Jimny XL has done. If you’re Tetris, and your skills are up to scratch, then it can fit at least one big suitcase (or more than a dozen smaller suitcases and other bags) with the rear seats in place of offering 211 litres.

In fact, some strange solutions have been developed in the packaging requirements of such a small car (e.g., exposed latches that hold the rear seats at their back) to this problem. And perhaps it’s also the reason that seatbacks don’t fold flat like they do when a person is paraphrasing.

The side-hinged tailgate makes access to the boot a breeze, however, and it’s nice to have dilated 12-volt outlet and light on passenger side.

There’s a tiny cubby under the floor for changing tools of tyres, and you’ll get an entire Jimny range spare wheel mounted on the tailgate across the whole family.

| Dimensions | Suzuki Jimny XL |
| — | — |
| Length | 3820mm |
| Width | 1645mm |
| Height | 1720mm |
| Wheelbase | 2590mm |
| Cargo capacity | 211L (rear seats up) 1113L (rear seats folded) |

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What’s under the bonnet?

Our Jimny XL is 1-1, and we are powering our JimNy. This 4-cylinder petrol engine, which is 5-litre non-turbo four-cylinder engines, produces a meagre 75kW of power and 130Nm of torque. A part-time four wheel drive system sends Drive via a four-speed automatic transmission (with low-range) to drive.

| Specifications | Suzuki Jimny XL |
| — | — |
| Engine | 1.5L non-turbo 4cyl petrol |
| Power | 75kW |
| Torque | 130Nm |
| Transmission | 4-speed auto with low range |
| Drive type | Part-time 4×4 |
| Fuel economy (claimed) | 6.9L/100km |
| Fuel economy (as tested) | 8.3L/100km |
| CO2 emissions (claimed) | 161g/km |
| Fuel tank | 40L |
| Kerb weight | 1210kg |
| Payload | 345kg |
| Braked towing capacity | 1300kg |
| Gross vehicle mass (GVM) | 1545kg |

We had a week with the Jimny, which involved highway commuting and ‘fairly time off-roading’ in several Victorian national parks. A skew toward the crawling of low-speed was also part of our high fuel economy readout, which helped us to get back on track.

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How does the Suzuki Jimny drive?

It is a very similar story of two halves, and you think the Jimny will differ depending on how much time you spend in various situations.

Unless you spend most of your time on the road, especially in freeway, then the Jimny is frankly terrible. A. phrase about the Jimny works in its favour, almost nothing when travelling at speed on sealed surfaces and is still working with it as a reference to his work being used by s for this purpose.

This is an outrageous racket in the process, as it’s a secretly underpowered vehicle that takes some age to get up to highway speed and makes its way of getting up. But such is the performance suck that if you could defy the sound and vibration of engine, passengers would think driver was just very relaxed.

If you’re already moving, any throttle input from travelling uphill will make the gearbox kick down to what feels like (but isn’t) first gear and engine revs shoot up. But this is not the point here, performance or performance.

Then comes the steering, which is indirect at best. I hopped directly out of a Suzuki Swift – something fairly darty – and almost ploughed straight-on through a turn before realising how much steering lock it really needed.

The steering is also a wheeler and needs constant correction to keep the Jimny in sway at an intersection on the highway. Yet I haven’t found any straight JimNy, such as the steering gear and front-end geometry of a Jimny.

It doesn’t help this because of the tall body and soft, long-travel suspension that makes cornering at speeds above residential a big roll (and skinny tyres are not gripped) – especially in the wet.

When the Jimny is bumps, it bobbles about and the XL’s long wheelbase makes an odd dynamic balance as opposed to the three-door door. A driving on the freeway in high winds is a and having to drive with strong winds. Laughing, to say the least, of s.

– This is a big but BIG BUT, THIS IS THE MUCH A BORD of laughs.’ The Jimny has been made by those flaws and the barrel of laughters that make it so funny. Eventually you’ll get used to its weird road manners and wobbly dynamics, at which point you know just how fun it is to throw around.

Then, mechanical sympathy is thrown out of the window – it’s like you’re not driving properly if you are no longer wringing the engine or throwing it down side streets. No one cares about the car, but you think it’s made to be driven a little less loosely.

That is not always clearer than when you hit the trails, but at no time does that get it clear. The body-on-frame Jimny is a mountain goat, which happily feeds up any of the muddiest, rockiest, steepest and most harshest trails you can find.

When you drive four-wheels, you’ll be practically unstoppable – something you can only do on unsealed surfaces. When engaged, everything begins to make sense.

With its low power, the engine is deliberate, considered throttle inputs are more efficient and the automatic transmission is good for holding low gears without making any sudden shifts. Hence, while we weren’t just begging for the manual instead of s, it would have been even more fun.

Low-range ratios are also available when you can get the going even tougher. It’s worth making sure the shift lever is fully engaged, as its chunky action exerts some force to engage 4L with a bit of force.

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Unlike the standard Jimny off-road, its tyres are the only real mechanical limitation of an original Jimmy (a road-terrain rubber) that is well on the road but can be hard for grip on loose surfaces especially in the wet. When you slid the wrong way down a slippery clay slope, this became obvious.

But the skinny tyres and Jimny’s narrow body make it so easy to put tight trails, that’.’ That said ‘It is very simple to do this with such thin ties on tight trailing? Several deep ruts were found through washout of larger four-wheel drives, but the Jimny quickly straddled them and passed across with ease.

What the Jimny loses in track width, and what it compensate with generous ground clearance (and a portion of its length) for his song “Jimni”? We had to go into a deeper hole but we never saw anything scraping the vehicle’s underside – although that is when you’re four adults and it doesn’t change.

Both Jimny derivatives have similar steep approach and departure angles, which helps keep its front and rear bumpers scuff-free; the extra 340mm of wheelbase that makes the XL slightly more stable at speed (and thus reduces its ramp-over angle off-road), drag its belly much less easily over big woops and gnarly spoon drains.

Its piddly payload is the only weakness of Jimny XL that survives in all environments. Suzuki doesn’t quote an official payload figure, but it is a fair admission that the puny kerb weight of 1210kg from its 1545kg GVM gives us only 335kg.

If you load to capacity with four 80kg adults, and then have only 15kg left over for cargo if it’s loaded up? A seat with the rear seats also reduces Jimny’s rear ride height; we noticed more scrapes in areas that weren’t a problem when only two people on board.

The Jimny’s off-road skills are impressive, however, as is the case with his off road prowess overall. This helps to inspire confidence to overcome more difficult challenges, and take the road less traveled.

The only other thing worth mentioning is the safety gear, which we have just a few minor gripes with.

A single example is the self-controlled emergency braking system, which showed at least one phantom warning without doing anything; another is that reversing camera (which we’d be generous to call decent).

| Off-road dimensions | Suzuki Jimny XL |
| — | — |
| Track front and rear | 1395mm |
| Ground clearance | 210mm |
| Approach angle | 36º |
| Departure angle | 47º |
| Ramp breakover angle | 24º |

To see how the Suzuki Jimny stacks up against its rivals, use our
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What do you get?

Three grades of the Suzuki Jimny are currently on sale.

2026 Suzuki Jimny Lite equipment highlights:

• 3-door body
• 15-inch steel wheels
• Full-size spare wheel
• Auto halogen headlights
• Front fog lights
• Power-adjustable side mirrors
• Plastic side mirror caps
• Black front grille
• Black door handles
• Cloth upholstery
• Digital information display incl. digital speedometer
• 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system
• Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
• DAB+ digital radio
• 1 x USB port
• 2-speaker sound system

Jimny adds:

• 15-inch alloy wheels
• Auto LED headlights
• Privacy glass
• Power-folding, heated side mirrors
• Black side mirror caps
• Body-colour door handles
• Leather-wrapped steering wheel
• 9.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system

Jimny XL adds:

• 5-door body
• Grey metallic front grille with chrome accents
• 4-speaker sound system

Jimny XL removes heated side mirrors and a digital speedometer.

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Is the Suzuki Jimny safe?

The current model is unrated, and the Jimny’s three-star ANCAP safety rating from 2018 expired at the end of 2024.

Standard safety equipment highlights:

• 6 airbags, incl:

• Dual front
• Side
• Curtain

• Cruise control
• Autonomous emergency braking
• Front and rear parking sensors
• Hill descent control
• Lane departure warning + prevention
• Reversing camera
• Traffic sign recognition

Jimny XL removes lane departure prevention, traffic sign recognition, and front parking sensors, but it does get adaptive cruise control.

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How much does the Suzuki Jimny cost to run?

Honda Australian backed the model’s lineup with a five year unlimited-kilometre warranty. The Jimny is served every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first Servicing for the term “separate” (or one-half of its service), and servicing to this end.

| Servicing and Warranty | Suzuki Jimny |
| — | — |
| Warranty | 5 years, unlimited kilometres |
| Roadside assistance | 5 years (service-activated) |
| Service intervals | 12 months or 15,000km |
| Capped-price servicing | 5 years |
| Average annual service cost | $473 |
| Total capped-price service cost | $2365 |

Suzuki Australia’s individual service pricing is detailed below:

| Service | Price |
| — | — |
| 12 months, 15,000km | $449 |
| 24 months, 30,000km | $429 |
| 36 months, 45,000km | $589 |
| 48 months, 60,000km | $449 |
| 60 months, 75,000km | $449 |

Renault, for example, outlines five years of service pricing for the Duster as well as $2475 for four-wheel drive variants. It’s worth noting that the Duster’S service intervals are also longer at 12 months or 30,000km.

meanwhile, Subaru charges $2444 total for . Crosstrek maintenance 04 for five years of CrossTREk care. The service intervals of its are the same as Suzuki’s.

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childcareman.xyz’s Take on the Suzuki Jimny XL

The Jimny XL is not worth the cost for a small daily commuter and seriously flawed on the road, but it’s still lovable off-roader if you like heading bush and can make the value equation work.

The Jimny is able to sense off the beaten track where he makes his way off of the song. In fact, it will make you spend all day – or even the weekend – crawling through and climbing up. Similarly, it would be great to travel through the Simpson (the Cape or scaling the Flinders), but not so much for those epic destinations or doing the Big Lap in that movie.

To us, that means the top-spec XL probably isn’t the one to go for s.’ Which really makes it more like a toy?

It’s still good at what it is best to keep the five-door mainly for bush bashing, rather than trying to make it work as a typical SUV with four doors for the daily grind. In city, suburban and open-road scenarios, its compromises simply don’t pay the extra money.

Hence we’d recommend potential buyers to any of the three-door Jimny variants instead. There’s much less space for people and cargo in the back, yes there is a lot more compromises.’ But it can be better to defend as an off road plaything which also has commuter-if you need to travel on this side of the highway. And that’s the more ad-hoc and it’ll be cut.

I’m actually putting my money down on the base Jimny Lite if I was in the market – but only as a second car. It’s cheaper than the XL (still not cheap enough, Suzuki) and it’ll be realistically all Jimny you need — especially since its 2026 infotainment upgrade.

But the biggest drawcard is aftermarket support, though, is . In the beauty of the Jimny, you could re-write it exactly as your desire would allow for making the “Lite” a proper compact off-road rig with the right components and advice. If you save the money by not buying the XL, that would make it easier for s to do so, too.

We spent the bush with the XL, which was also far more fun because we could squeeze through tighter spaces than you would in a dual-cab 4×4 ute for game over in the dense wooded sections and deep ruts.

Its smaller turning circle makes the equally narrow three-door Jimny even in tight spots, and the shorter wheelbase will pay dividends almost everywhere off-road unless you’re planning to scale Beer O’Clock Hill.

But so for example, the Jimny is still a unique proposition and unbeatable in the right context. But while the three-door is generally more suited to its hardcore purpose, it doesn’t completely ruin off-road charm for the XL.

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