[VW2010]

What started as an emotional roller coaster ended on a happy note as we picked up a cute little buggy, The Jimny.

Read here - https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...xperience.html (Death before purchase | Nexon EV | Great car, Great brand | Tata dealership & sales experience)

Starting with thanks to Prassy(PrasannaDhana), Guru(gsferrari) who played a vital role in bringing Jimny home.


Buying process

We started with a few Nexa dealers and we got some quotes. I gave my number that would close the sale and walked out from most branches. During this time, the Nexon story happened and so at one point, we decided to not buy any cars for the year. From impossible to match my asking price to suddenly can we discuss as we have the last few vehicles in stock is a sweet spot for the buyers. I got a call from one of the dealers who dropped the price very close to my asking price. The only caveat was they were not ready to allow inspecting the yard or car in the yard. At the same time, two more dealers called and I did not hide the fact that I had an offer in hand and asked them to do better. I also clearly mentioned that I would have to inspect the vehicle and the yard before I booked. So 1 dealer who had 3 cars sitting in their lot refused to PDI and kept insisting I chose a color so they could bring it to the showroom to check. The second dealer was very open and matched the quoted price. The second dealer till that point was indicating the car was in their ECR yard and came home to have a conversation to finalize the numbers. In the end, he confessed that the car was in Trichy's yard. We wanted a delivery as early as we could and the executive confirmed they could get the car out in a week. Once he said Trichy I know my brother Prassy will not even think twice about helping me out. I called Prassy and explained and even before asking for help, he requested me to share the details of dealership contact to do the PDI. This was a grey Jimny Alpha AT. Making Prassy do PDI was much easier for me than doing it myself. Once Prassy said Ok, it was a no-brainer to go ahead and make the booking. Here are some of the pictures that Prassy shared.





Prassy Interior Check


Engine run and check


Underbody for flood issues


Thumbs up from Prassy at this point.


Few things I asked for include -

• When will the car be ready for pick up in Trichy with Temp registration and delivery?
• When will they be able to get the permanent registration?

The usual switch after the bait happened where the dealer now was not sure how early he could deliver the car. He gave reasons like there was so much pending RTO work that it may take 2 weeks. I asked for a day to decide.

On the same day, gsferrari informed me the dealer he bought the Jimny from had a kinetic yellow dual tone, the last one in their yard for sale. Narendran was the sales point of contact and a thorough gentleman throughout the process. gsferrari accompanied me and we went to check the car. The main concern was flood-affected vehicles and by the time we reached the end of the yard, we knew our concerns were fair and right. Too many flood-affected cars in the yard. In the middle stood the yellow Jimny. A couple of pictures below.























We were convinced that the car was probably not under water and we went ahead and negotiated a good deal. From Grey to yellow seemed extreme but the yellow grew on us and my wife loved it. This was her car and once I shared the pictures she was happy to upgrade to the Nano.

The whole buying experience was extremely smooth starting from negotiation to delivery. This is the second Maruti after almost 16 years and Maruti delivers that experience. Considering what we went through with Tata, Maruti felt like royal treatment. Narendran was extremely professional, friendly, and customer-centric.

[VW2010]

Delivery experience

This is our son's first car delivery experience. While I have always ensured to keep it extremely quiet and subdued, my son took the call on taking the delivery with the unnecessary madness of revealing a car and getting those giant-size mindless fake Keys. Having hated such a delivery I realize this may be a decent memory to create with the kid and went with the flow.

Unwrapping the Jimny and since it was a replacement for my wife Nano, she drove the car or moved it first. We filled it up and went back home. I have no regrets about the upgrade we did from Nano. We see it as a replacement for Nano and it satisfies all the needs from size, space, safety, and more.









Here are a few first-week pictures painting Chennai with bright yellow.



RBI check










The following set of pictures just shows how cute Jimny is among its peers. Most pictures are taken at work and as a proud owner, I have to say it does look good.

















Enough ownership threads are dissecting this car both inside and outside which I am avoiding in this thread. I will focus on how practical this car is and if I would recommend this and if so to whom?

A little background from the date of purchase. I have completed 6000-odd km now with no offroading but a few long-distance driving. This car is also chauffeur-driven during weekdays or work days.

The positives
- Not a Tin can
- Beautiful looking irrespective of bias towards Jimny or bias towards Thar
- Small yet spacious
- Surprisingly comfortable seats
- Excellent cooling in hot summer, thanks to the tinted glasses and the AC
- Good ride quality over bad roads and decent over good roads.
- Cruise control
- Decent 4 people vehicle
- Excellent to ride over patches and broken roads without worries.
- Wonderful Android system with one pain point
- Entry-level speakers are at best not (really) bad.
- Decent boot space to carry enough for 4 people
- Full size spare wheel
- Cheap parts and overall ownership cost.
- Excellent service experience with Khivraj here in Chennai

The not-so-ones
- Poor quality handbrakes and 4*4 gear lever. In other words, classless.
- Jimny drinks fuel and is not frugal. 7 to 8kmpl in the city and 12-14 in highways. 10/11 if you are driving at 100-120 constantly.
- The rear seat is uncomfortable for long distances compared to the front two seats. My other car Endy is a luxury boat (Lorry) even in the second seat for comparison.
- Rear passengers can get nauseous if the driver is hard on acceleration and brakes.
- Interior lights are dull and useless.
- Noisy ride quality once you cross 90
- It is strictly a 4-seater if the group is moderately sized. 4 Large males or females will feel like riding RC390/or a sports bike with a 100 kg pillon/or any Pillion. Extremely uncomfortable for all 4.
- Android Auto takes complete control over your phone app, meaning you cannot cut or ignore the call or change speaker from car to phone or vice versa. This is ok as long as you are the driver. But if you are using a driver, I usually disconnect the Android Auto.
- The turning radius is big and you are made to treat this small car like a big endeavor when turning or taking a U-Turn.
- The car is very slow compared to all cars in any segment. It will not crunch highway miles and it is more suited for off-road than covering major distances in a day. Having said that if you are anyway a patient 90-100kmph driver in highways, this car can perform around that range.
- Extremely comfortable between 70-90 and gets a little busy beyond 100 with fuel efficiency dropping close to 11 at those speeds.
- Lack of space for bottles
- Lack of center armrest.


In summary, this is a great second car for most. This is a great first car for a small family of 2 adults and 2 kids at the best.

Question:- Is this car a good car to purchase at 15+ L? Yes and No.

Yes if you are planning to do a lot of offroading. It is a fine car for the price compared to most in this segment. It can be a solid beater car for offroad enthusiasts as parts are extremely cheap and you are not worried about braking some parts.

No, if you want a family car to do everything including long-distance cruising at some high speeds where speed limits are higher than 100.

At 15L most buyers are going to choose something fuel-efficient and easy on pocket or an EV.

Question:- What is a good price point for first-time buyers of this car?
Please wait and you should be able to land one around 13.5 or 14 in Tamil Nadu. I strongly believe the demand has bottomed out as most who wanted Jimny irrespective of its weakness have already bought it and those who are in the market for their 1st or 2nd car at a 13-17 price point will not consider Jimny for its obvious weakness on Frugality and lifeless engine.

Overall summary as a user:- We love the car. It is a perfect replacement for Nano for us. Uses the same space as Nano, safer, faster, and comfortable than Nano. Has enough space for 3 of us and is extremely easy to drive around the city. While not frugal it doesn't hurt us as our running is sub 10K a year. It has its quirks but it is underutilized at this point without any offroading and I plan to try a few courses with gsferrari soon and complete the whole 9 yards with this little car. This is a fabulous buy for my wife to replace the Nano and we are having a lot of fun with this small car.

For potential buyers, if you can see beyond frugality(or the lack of it) and a comparatively weak engine for higher cruising speed, you will enjoy this car. I would have not bought this at the original price but I paid around 15.3x after the insurance return without an extra warranty and other accessories in Jan.

EDIT: 10,000km update after 7-day highway trip. This car is exceptional for highway cruising. Read more below for further details.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Reviews section. Thanks for sharing!

Going to our homepage today

[PrasannaDhana]

Lovely review brother!

A humungous Ford endeavour 3.0 & a cute little Jimny. Both equally capable of taking really bad roads. It was such a lovely car to be in. I was pleasantly surprised with the space on offer, given its tiny footprint. Loved driving it too. The 1.5 with AT felt really at home at 80-100 kmph on the highways. I was also shocked to take sharp curves only to realise this little car has a turning radius that is larger than my hulky Safari Storme.

Man you have an appetite for bold colours. A bright yellowish Jimny and a bright green Ninja ZX4RR!

I am secretly hoping you to replace the Endy 3.0 with the 320d so that I can have a blast in it. Lol.


Congratulations and have a long long peaceful ownership!

[zinbart]

Congratulations on your (Wife's) new car.
I always found Yellow to be the color, if anyone of buying a Jimny.
One shocking thing is Mileage, for such a small car - its horrendous.

[VW2010]

On 19th September, I posted this thread when the odo read 6000 and odd km. I have clocked close to 10,000km and my perspective about Jimny has completely changed. Hang on for the ride and this may influence some to consider Jimny as a potential single car.

Before we head to the summary here are some of the memories with Jimny over the last 10 months.

Marking its spot in and around chennai

CSK Owner house but more for checking the polishing job








Trip to trichy to meet Prassy

With gsferrai and his jimny

Now coming back to the two trips which I will detail further in later posts with pictures

1) One-day trip to Bangalore from Chennai via Old Madras Road
2) Trip to Trivandrum, Trichy, Thanjavur, Kumbakonam, Karaikal and Chennai.


The total distance covered was close to 3200 km. It was me, my wife, and my son loaded with luggage for a 7-day road trip.

The biggest change in my impression:-
- Solid highway car with exceptional comfort for both front and rear passengers as long as it's a small family.
- Brilliant AC/Tinted windows combination
- Once the engine was open on our Bangalore trip, the car easily cruises even at 120kmph on empty stretches with ease.
- Body roll is there only if the roads have horrible bumps while it is not unnerving to take corners at cruising speeds
- Excellent on all kinds of roads which was evident when traveling from Nagercoil to Trivandrum. I could just drive over all the bad patches with no discomfort while many sedans and crossovers were slowed down drastically.
- Fuel efficiency when pushing it close to 100mph was around 10 and I do not think it has enough engine power to consume more or go faster. So at standard cruising speeds between 100-120, the car was returning 12 at the best.
- EVC is a must and it helped through these two drives.
- Has enough power to cruise on the highway and enough fun to play around in the palar river.


What has changed? From thinking it is not suitable for highway drives, this is a perfect high way car for a small family. I will edit the above summary to include actual 3000km long drive experience.

I am very happy with its performance and the evidence is that I did not hesitate to sell the endeavor which I wanted to keep for long distances.