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IF you fancy a new Suzuki Jimny don’t waste time comparing it to the competition – there isn’t any. Really.

If you want an affordable, no nonsense 4x4 that will take you just about anywhere and come up smiling it’s the Jimny or nothing.

A Jeep Wrangler does the same back-to-basics job but is much bigger and twice the £17,999 asked for the dearer – and likely much the bigger selling – of the two new Jimny models.

And Land Rover’s upcoming Defender, coincidentally spied in heavy disguise on roads used for the new Suzuki’s debut, will be dearer still, for sure.

So it’s little surprise that the world has beaten a path to Suzuki’s door, creating waiting lists stretching months into the future.

In the UK alone, 10,000 people have shown a continuing interest on Suzuki’s website, while the company expects to have a mere 600 cars to sell in the first half of 2019.

Seldom has such a niche machine created such a swell of interest and seeing your first new Jimny in the metal will only encourage more kerbside adulation.

It looks terrific in its slab sided frills-free way, small but perfectly formed and quite obviously a modern interpretation of the third generation Jimny that pulled in buyers over two decades.

The newcomer is actually a little (30mm) shorter but 45mm wider and 20mm higher than before and remains a properly compact car. That has consequences, good and not so good.

Modest dimensions and weight make it a star off-road, romping easily over the slipperiest of