Suzuki Jimny SZ5

REPORT 8 £18,499 OTR/£19,149 as tested/£252pcm WHY IT’S HERE

Can it possibly be as charming to live with as it is to look at? DRIVER

Ollie Kew

WE NEEDED A SUPPORT VEHICLE FOR THE VW T-ROC’S TRIAL-BY-TRAIL. The Jimny was perfect – handy in the rough, dinky enough to park out of shot behind a medium-sized leaf, and with the rear seats flipped flat, almost enough room for one of snapper Mark’s cameras. So, the Jimny was politely nicked from Stephen Dobie’s house for a day in the woods.

I don’t want to get mired in some Freudian debate about compensating for whatnot, but it was tricky not to feel intimidated when the Jimny tick-tocked into the quarry and barely reached the wheel hubs of some of our off-road enthusiasts’ toys. The Discovery could’ve used the little Suzuki as a chock.

When they descended from their driver’s seats in the clouds to the knee-high Jimny, I expected ridicule. I expected the 4x4-o-philes to accuse me of bringing left-handed safety scissors to a machine-gun fight.

But, it turns out the current Jimny is hugely respected in the ‘watch me submerge this DIY monster truck in a muddy bog for LOLS’ scene. Each of our assembled locking-diff loonies agreed the Jimny is exactly what their hobby cries out for: an affordable, simply built, honest to a fault 4x4 platform. They admired that Suzuki hasn’t bothered with driving modes to do the hard graft for you. They liked its approach angles and ground clearance, and the tailgate’s subtle gas strut assist, so it’s not unwieldy to open even with a full-size spare. The boot sill made a comfortable perch to sit and watch TG’s own Simon Bond heave his Defender’s spare tyre about after the mounting bolt sheared.

The whole crew was saddened to learn the Jimny is not long for this world. This is their Caterham, their Up GTI, a distillation of everything they hold dear. And it has one thing that no other faux-by-four crossover can ever have: authenticity.