I say this because the adorable off-road champ that is the Suzuki Jimny just got a five-door version. All of us at the Autopian are in love with it. Well, maybe not our professional designer Adrian, who put this new version on his “how the fuck does that move?” list. I think 103 horsepower from a 1.5-liter four is just fine! Just, never leave the right lane. Perhaps David said it best when he drove the two-door version: “The 2018 Suzuki Jimny Is the Off-Road Bargain of Your Dreams, and the Highway Cruiser of Your Nightmares” Adding two doors can’t help that. But who cares, just look at this pint-sized rugged 4×4!
It’s a full two feet shorter than my Volkswagen Touareg. Heck, it’s two feet shorter than my Passat wagon. And you could probably score the wee little guy for under 30 large in some markets. I think Ranwhenparked has the right idea here with this COTD winner: For some context, some of Bricklin’s ventures left a wake of pissed-off people around the world when they failed. Vehicles like the SV-1 and the Proton Saga came with big sales promises, but they never quite came to fruition. For an example of what I mean by pissed-off people, just read this article from WapCar, a Malaysian car news site. Wowza! Believe it or not, Bricklin is still in the car industry even at 83 years old. Currently, he wants to sell you a Bricklin 3EV, a space pod-like EV with Tesla parts. Come on, Bricklin, give us a Jimny, too! Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member. A turbo version might struggle less and do better with gas mileage, although the absolute brick shape will drive those numbers down severely above 55-65 mph. Safety regs? Europe allows the new Jimny to be sold, albeit in commercial LCV version due to the poor emissions performance. Suzuki would do well to put in some newer engine tech, like a 1.0 or 1.2 liter turbo and a 6 speed manual. The Suzuki Samurai and the Geo variants were every where back in the 80’s and 90’s and they’d certainly have a market right now. Please, somebody bring this new Jimny back to our shores. Why are we constantly denied vehicles like this in the USA? Sadly. This sounds exactly like my Tacoma. Lifted, bigger tires, diffs re-geared, ARB lockers, pop up camper shell, dual battery system, armor and a 150hp 4 banger. A beast off road, but sucks on the highway! Don’t let the title put you off, as it is not at all a take-down of the Yugo, which it immediately takes down the oft repeated trope that the Yugo was the worst car ever. In fact, the tale of all the work they did improving the car to try and make it good enough for the American market had me rooting for its success as I was reading about it, even though I already knew it had long since failed! Anyways, the book is if anything a takedown of Bricklin. I had always thought of Bricklin as a kind of wacky engineer/salesman whos eyes were just bigger than his stomach. Nope. Total friggin’ shyster. Should have been in jail before he even had a chance to bring Yugo to America. Unfortunately now thanks to you I cannot unsee that… thing. That’s not a bullet point, it’s a stoned executive. Which Lamborghini? What are you talking about? I sure hope they were less frugal in the design department than they are in the advertising department.
