Rugged and robust little Jimny

This is a car I bet most of you thought didn’t exist anymore.

The Suzuki Jimny has, incredibly, been in production since 1998 and is still on sale. If you don’t see too many of them on the road that’s because it’s a niche vehicle designed for a particular purpose.

The Jimny is not intended to be the last word in comfort or luxury. What it does best is go farther off-road than anything in its price range.

The Beast from the East came at the right time to put that to the test. Work took me from Dundee to Aberfeldy on a snowy afternoon.

The gritters and snowploughs had done their job clearing the main roads, but coming through Griffin Forest the surface still had plenty of snow on it.

My destination was a cluster of houses down a rutted farm track. These hadn’t been touched by gritters and the snow was still well above ankle depth.

The little Jimny tore through snow, slush and ice with no trouble whatsoever – a front-wheel drive car could easily have got stuck.

The Jimny can run in front-wheel drive or one of two four-wheel drive modes. I kept it in high range 4x4 but there’s also a low range 4x4 setting for getting through the very toughest stuff.

The Jimny is powered by a 1.3 litre petrol engine. By modern standards it’s a bit behind the pace – 0-62mph takes a slovenly 14 seconds and economy is around 40mpg. It’s noisy when revved but otherwise does its job well enough.

Don’t expect much in the way of luxury inside.

You won’t find a touchscreen infotainment system in the Jimny, just an old-style Panasonic stereo (it does at least have digital radio). There’s robust switchgear and hard wearing, wipeclean plastics. This is a car you can jump into with muddy boots on, chuck your wet coat in the back and set off.

Jimny prices start at £12,444 for an SZ3 model and my higher spec SZ4 was £14,784.

If you only occasionally need fourwheel drive then cars like the Dacia Duster or Fiat Panda 4x4 offer better on road manners.

If you need a car that’s cheap and cheerful yet rugged and capable of getting as far off road as anything this side of a Land Rover Defender, there’s nothing that can touch the Suzuki Jimny.

What it lacks in on-road manners it more than makes up for by feeling virtually unstoppable off-road.

The little Jimny tore through snow, slush and ice with no trouble whatsoever