[Doonite]

Originally Posted by gsferrari

Not every manufacturer is eager to dilute their brand by going against the core values of their marquee products. 2wd Jimny is not happening.

Manufacturers don't really care about diluting their brand as long as it gets them sales. If luxury brands brands like BMW, Audi etc. did it, so will Maruti, if it gets them the sales.
I've seen that people in Jimny threads love to bash Thar but if they're priced similarly or close, buying the Thar is a no brainer as it's a superior product.

Now 2WD Jimny will not happen because it has nothing going for it in the use case of an urban dweller except having character (which too, is overrated on team-bhp).

The hypothetical Jimny 2WD (for only city/highway driving) is:

• Underpowered and not fuel efficient either.

• The manual transmission is a pain as per the review. The AT is from dinosaur era.

• W-I-D-E turning radius, wider than a Gurkha!

• No creature comforts to speak of and is a pseudo 5 seater. There is no storage space in the cabin and you wouldn't want to place your smartphones in those crude places unless you love scratches.

If one's aim is to buy a 2WD vehicle, why would they buy a Jimny when they can get a similarly SIZED crossover with a plethora of features, decent engines, reliability and comfort? ** Not for people who own multiple cars.

[Bibendum90949]

Thank you Aditya and Chetan for the detailed review.

I get a feeling that all this talk of "premium" by Maruti folks are deliberate and to create a false impression that it's going to be priced higher than general expectation. Potential buyers tend to calibrate their mind on the price in the interim. And finally during price reveal, they set a price much lower than what was portrayed with those subtle hints during all these media talks. Maruti gets what they wanted and buyers pay a price lower than they were "made" to expect and everyone goes home happy.

It may well be 15-16 lakhs(B'lore OTR) for the top end Alpha AT and not 17.5-18 lakhs. Just my speculative mind at play here .

[Venkatesh]

Maruti Jimny 5-door bookings evenly split between manual and automatic.

- Price announcement on June 7

- First 1,000 units already built and is in the process of dispatching them to the dealers.

- Deliveries to begin by mid-June.

- Jimny bookings are currently around the 30,000 mark

- Maruti will not introduce a 2WD variant of the Jimny.

Source

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by Bibendum90949

It may well be 15-16 lakhs(B'lore OTR) for the top end Alpha AT and not 17.5-18 lakhs. Just my speculative mind at play here .

Question is will people like you and I buy it at such prices or not, considering our pre disposition towards Jeepy things and fondness of the wild roads and the propensity towards the unconventional.

[cool_dube]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Maruti Suzuki did consider the 3 door Jimny, but customer survey indicated a resounding NO

I'd take that with a bucketload of salt, please If the resounding success of the All New Thar is anything to go by, customer sentiment is very evident. They just did not want to take the 2-door Thar head on by launching the 2-door Jimny here, that's all. The optimist in me still believes that one day we'll see the 2-door Jimny on Indian roads as well.

[Motorhead1203]

Originally Posted by Aditya

Sunvisors are thick and feel sturdy. Both units get vanity mirrors with illumination, covers and ticket holders:

Thank you for the detailed review - I would like to point out a small correction. The sunvisors in the Jimny do not get illumination on the vanity mirrors.

I also noticed two new things on this car different from all other suzuki cars in India:
1. The rear power window switches near the handbrake appear to have illuminated switches for the first time. All other Marutis have illumination only on the driver side power window switch on the door panel.
2. The steering looks similar to other Marutis but this time it has an 'INFO' button next to the mute button. Does anyone have any idea what it's for?

[GeeTee TSI]

Lovely review of an adorable car (am sure MSIL will want to hype up that adjective)

Specific to the 3 door/5 door comparison (excellent images for giving that context) while the latter has a longer wheelbase, did it also make the front door shorter (length), something like the regular Polo vs GTI?

[Bibendum90949]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Question is will people like you and I buy it at such prices or not, considering our pre disposition towards Jeepy things and fondness of the wild roads and the propensity towards the unconventional.

Thar 4*4 HT has breached the 20 lakh mark. With respect to car prices, the 15 lakhs of today is clearly the 10 lakhs 3-4 years ago. Just few cars comes to mind. Skoda Octavia from the price of 23-25 lakhs had shot upto 36 lakhs when it was sold last. Jeep Compass is at 37 lakhs now from 23-24 lakhs. MG ZS EV has breached the 30 lakh mark. Fortuner moved from 20 to 55 now. Inflation notwithstanding, car prices have gone through the roof undoubtedly.

To answer your question, 15 lakhs today for Jimny looks very justifiable, especially when we see genuine civilian stock 2018/19 Gypsies are now being quoted 8 - 8.5 lakhs.

Personally, I may consider a pre owned Jimny 3-4 years down the line. Presently, as you know I'm having honeymoon time with my Thar. And Gypsy continues to give me unmatched joy and fun. Hence, Jimny can wait

[AirbusCapt]

Is it a worthy replacement for a gypsy? Absolutely! Is it a everyday family car? By most means No. Will it fullfill the duty of a second car on weekdays and a offroader on weekends? Maybe if one is ok with compromising on a harder ride, lack of road performance and a single digit fuel economy in the city.
Does it have a SUV street cred? No. It is compact and looks more like a big espresso rather than a smaller Harrier.

[vellatechie]

In times when Jeep is shoving 12.3inch screen in their proper SUV (Wrangler), the media should call out Maruti's bs for giving us this as a door handle and request a sensor in a (potentially) 18L SUV instead of romanticizing this as an 80s throwback.

This is worst than a roadside aftermarket job. If they can't give us 80s pricing, we shouldn't accept 80s features in a 2023 SUV.

[abhi_tjet]

Wonderful review guys! Jimny is the car which can take further what Thar has started. IMO, the compromises which it brings are all liveable.

Where it loses on a relatively lousy engine, it gains back with its smaller/narrower footprint which is a boon on narrow mountain roads.

Price will be the deciding factor and I hope it is cheaper than Thar by a fair margin.

Regarding tyres though, isn’t 26 psi quite low? I remember M800 needed 27psi. Also, is R15 195/80 section tyre relatively common?

[gururajrv]

If Gypsy survived like a king with a NA petrol, I believe with MS' brand image, Jimny will do decent numbers. I won't be surprised even if it gets shortlisted by the army in the coming years

Slightly OT: That said, I will pass it on and ogle at Thar all day long and buy it with a blink of an eye

[PaddleShifter]

Originally Posted by vellatechie

In times when Jeep is shoving 12.3inch screen in their proper SUV (Wrangler), the media should call out Maruti's bs for giving us this as a door handle and request a sensor in a (potentially) 18L SUV instead of romanticizing this as an 80s throwback.

This is worst than a roadside aftermarket job. If they can't give us 80s pricing, we shouldn't accept 80s features in a 2023 SUV.

Relax dear! Wrangler pricing is anyway a different territory so they have space to play with stuff.

Secondly, things like these are part of all “Jeeps” in this segment. Have a look at the Thar review and you will find similar stuff (design elements) from the 80s too. Exposed nuts, hinges etc and what not.

Maruti has now delivered everything people were asking for:
Features, sunroofs, 6 airbags, HUDs, hybrids, 4x4, turbo engines, 6 speed TC ATs (not 4 speed TC auto).

Every car has one or the other compromise, except Land Rover Defender.

[vellatechie]

Originally Posted by PaddleShifter

Every car has one or the other compromise, except Land Rover Defender.

My issue isn't with having compromise, my issue is companies like Mahindra and Maruti trying to cut corners (while charging a premium) and the media calling it authentic/retro/80s instead of calling them out.

I remember when Thar was announced, Thar's flappy door handles were called out as 'signature door handles' or something.

My issue is that people won't accept these door handles on a 9L Venue so I am not sure why we have to accept these on a 18L SUV?

I didn't see anyone pointing out these flaws by saying "This is unacceptable on a 15L SUV" and somehow anything goes when the car looks like a Jeep-ish SUV.

PS: I own a Thar. I just assumed that when Maruti is building an SUV, they will think about creature comfort a little more than a Mahindra.

[neerajku]

Dont think any other car has evoked so much outpouring of emotions in this forum. Closest, may have been Thar. This tells you that this will be a big money spinner for Maruti for many years; whatever be the pricing, and I am sure it won't be irrational. Maruti would have done research beyond Team - BHP columns.
Though Maruti leadership must go through these columns to get the basics of marketing, finance, branding, consumer satisfaction, right, which many of us believe they have no clue about. Just kidding folks...