Suzuki Jimny XL 2024 Review

The 2024 Suzuki Jimny XL is available in Australia in just one fairly basic GLX model grade, priced from $34,990 plus on-road costs for the five-speed manual.

Even when the price is upped to $36,490 for the four-speed automatic, it’s still one of the 4x4 bargains of the decade.

Assembled in India, the Jimny XL costs $3000 more than the Japanese-built three-door Jimny GLX, but you get more than just two extra doors and a stretched wheelbase, which we’ll go through in the next section.

Okay, so the compact 4x4 off-road SUV has no direct – or even indirect! – rivals. You could level the crosshairs at similar-sized vehicles like the Hyundai Venue (from $22,000) and Toyota Yaris Cross (from $28,000), but these are roadgoing runabouts; the Jimbo, on the other hand, is a bona fide rock-crushing superstar, with nary a care for nicety or subtlety.

Perhaps the only rival comes from within in the form of the three-door Suzuki Jimny which starts at $28,490 plus ORCs for the Lite manual.

Either way, you’re going to play the waiting game – between six and nine months – after placing an order for any Jimny, with automatic models having the longest wait times. Suzuki Australia told us it held almost 3000 orders for the Jimny XL when it launched in December 2023, showing that buyer demand is still strong.

While newcomers like the Tank 300 (from $46,990 drive-away) are making big inroads with sharp pricing, one area where the Jimny cannot be beaten is in resale values. Just have a look at used Jimny prices on carsales to see how in-demand they are.

Like most modern new cars, the Jimny XL is backed by a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty and five years’ roadside assistance.

Capped-price servicing costs $2265 over half a decade, which works out to roughly $450 per year – which is expensive for a small, cheap and basic SUV.

The 2024 Suzuki Jimny XL GLX shares a lot of equipment with three-door models, such as LED headlights and 15-inch alloy wheels with Bridgestone Dueler highway-terrain tyres, complete with a full-size spare wheel on the tailgate.

As well as the bigger body and extra doors, the $3000 premium over the regular Jimny GLX buys you things like wireless Apple CarPlay displayed on a larger and much prettier 9.0-inch central touch-screen (up from 7.0 inches).

The two-speaker stereo is upgraded to four speakers (but still sounds dreadful), you get a digital radio tuner, which is nice as it adds a plethora of new radio stations when in metropolitan areas, and there’s also rear parking sensors now.

This is the sort of equipment that Hyundai had on its cheapest cars more than a decade ago but, hey, it’s better than a poke in the eye.

Other standard equipment includes single-zone automatic climate control, a leather-covered steering wheel, one USB-A port and two 12-volt power sockets (one in the front and another in the boot), plus cloth upholstery with basic four-way manual front seat adjustment.

There are two rear seats which come with dual ISOFIX and top-tether child seat anchorage points, and the kids’ seats fit in the back more easily than in the three-door Jimny models. The two extra doors make access much easier too.

Jimny XL also scores a new stereo camera system in lieu of a solo lens and laser radar system and automatic models get adaptive cruise control and night-time pedestrian recognition as a result.

Six colours are available: Chiffon Ivory Metallic (which is what we’re testing here), Jungle Green, Arctic White Pearl, Bluish Black Pearl, Granite Grey Metallic and Sizzling Red Metallic.

Red and Ivory are available with a contrasting Bluish Black Pearl roof, while all other paint jobs get matching roof colours.

Dealer-fitted options include a set of five multi-spoke matte black alloy wheels ($1453), an air-conditioning filter ($57), front and rear mud flaps in black ($162 a pair) or red ($122), a roof rack kit ($453), bike carrier ($395) and a tow bar kit ($937), to a name a few of the more popular items.

There is no ANCAP safety rating for the 2024 Suzuki Jimny XL, but three-door versions tested in 2019 carry a poor three-star rating out of five – which expires at the end of this year.

That gives you an indication that the Suzuki Jimny does not carry the high safety credentials we’ve come to expect from every new car sold in Australia.

Today’s testing protocols are also much tougher than they were five years ago.

There are six airbags fitted standard, along with autonomous emergency braking (AEB), lane departure alert, high beam assist and a reversing camera with rear parking sensors.

The biggest tech upgrades in the 2024 Suzuki Jimny XL include the fitment of a higher-quality 9.0-inch central touch-screen and upgraded twin-camera auto braking and cruise control system.

The new central touch-screen looks good, is easy to navigate, and although it doesn’t have GPS sat-nav, which is handy when you’ve got no phone reception, it is compatible with Android Auto (wired) and Apple CarPlay (wired/wireless) – and both work really nicely.

Bluetooth connectivity is part of the package, and the in-car microphone delivers good quality for recipient callers.

The 2024 Suzuki Jimny XL uses a 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, codenamed K15B and not majoring in the performance stakes – to say the least.

It produces a measly 75kW at 6000rpm and an underwhelming 130Nm of torque at 4000rpm.

Revving the engine anywhere near its 6000rpm power peak results in the sort of thrashy, raspy and unrefined harshness that would make a 1997 Hyundai Excel baulk.

We note that Suzuki engineers have added a more robust prop shaft and made improvements to the auto transmission, although the shifts can still be clunky.

Of course, we could say that the drivetrain’s utterly flawed elements add character and even charm at times. But let’s not kid ourselves.

You can tow a trailer with the Jimny but make sure it’s not too heavy, with capacities set at 350kg unbraked and 1300kg braked.

Our car’s engine was revving at 3300rpm at 110km/h in top (fourth) gear on the freeway, which not only hurts fuel efficiency but makes phone calls and conversations somewhat challenging.

The Japanese car-maker reckons the 2024 Suzuki Jimny XL averages 6.9L/100km (6.4L/100km in the manual), and while we managed 8.6L/100km during the national media launch last year, our longer testing this time saw that figure blow out to 11.0L/100km.

That’s not great, even with an off-road component thrown in. Given the tiny 40-litre fuel tank, we were filling it up every 400km.

The 2024 Suzuki Jimny XL is pretty lousy to drive on the road.

It has about as much charisma as a burger left in the sun too long, the agricultural three-link solid axles with coil springs (front and rear) doing a good impersonation of a pogo stick when interacting with potholes and bigger bumps in the road.

Cornering comes about as naturally to this vehicle as humility to comes to one former US President, but the Jimny XL’s compact sub-four-metre length (3965mm) make it pretty handy around town and fairly easy to park in general.

However, the lethargic engine, heavy steering and woeful turning circle (11.4 metres kerb-to-kerb, up from 9.8m in three-door Jimny) often conspire to make things a little trickier than they should be – especially tight U-turns.

Big rectangular mirrors and excellent sight lines out of the slab-sided windows make lane changes nice and easy on the freeway.

But even with its extra 90kg of mass over the regular Jimbo, the 1200kg XL weaves gently within its lane at freeway speeds, not helped by its light weight and brick-like design that cuts through the air like a toddler’s plastic knife cuts through stale bread.

For all that, there is something undeniably charming about this car. The flaws are so obscene they’re oddly likeable in some respects.

Such as the way you really have to take your time overtaking, plan your merges, and decelerate early approaching traffic lights because the brakes aren’t the best. It uses inferior drum brakes at the rear, although the front disc brakes are ventilated now, improving heat dissipation over the solid rotors found on the smaller Jimny.

Suzuki has also fitted an extra crossmember in the ladder frame to maintain chassis rigidity with the longer, heavier XL body, but it doesn’t come close to matching the refinement levels of mainstream compact SUVs from other Asian car brands.

Where the 2024 Suzuki Jimny XL shines brighter than the binary stars of Beta Reticuli is when it leaves the path well-trodden and heads off-road.

Fair dinkum, I’d forgotten just how capable this little mountain goat is on rough terrain, feeling far more nimble and spritely off-road than on it.

Wheel articulation is reasonably good from the solid axles, but it’s the vehicle’s tiny footprint, good approach, departure and rampover angles (36, 47, 24 degrees respectively) that give it more swagger than Aerosmith’s lead singer, Steven Tyler, when bush-bashing.

The XL’s ultra-light weight means it can tackle most ascents, descents and tricky obstacles without much forethought – it just grips and goes.

Sure, the Jimny has a small fuel tank and could do with more mumbo from its wheezy little engine. Not to mention a bit more clearance than 210mm.

But whack it into low-range (4L) and it still manages to clamber up ludicrously demanding inclines and navigate treacherous passes and washed-out trails.

The lack of locking diffs doesn’t seem to hinder it, largely because it’s light on its feet, negotiating bush tracks and tricky fire trails with an effortlessness that’s breathtaking.

It does all this with incredible self-assurance, despite riding on highway-terrain (H/T) tyres. We can only imagine how capable it would be with a set of serious all-terrain (A/T) rubber.

The 2024 Suzuki Jimny XL is more than 30cm longer than the regular Jimny, bumper to bumper. The wheelbase is also a bit longer and this frees up extra space in the back seat and cargo area.

This gives the Jimny XL a more pragmatic outlook, its four seats now accessible via individual doors, while the boot is now double the size – although that’s not saying much…

Boot space is up from 85 litres to 211 litres, while folding the 50/50-split folding rear seats opens up 1113L of cargo space, up from 830L.

It’s a shame the rear seats don’t fold completely flat as you could put a foam cover or mattress in there and sleep in it. Which is legal in most of Australia – except Queensland.

The overall look and feel of the cabin is suitably rugged with a blocky motif that mirrors the exterior and more grab handles than Melbourne tram.

Material quality levels are crummy with cheap plastics everywhere and the cloth seat upholstery feels more like fine sandpaper than a comfortable textile.

Some plastic mouldings are very loosely attached to the vehicle’s subframe (hello cup holders!) and the steering wheel is only adjustable for rake, not reach.

Yet for all its shoddiness, the Jimny XL still manages to be charismatic and appealing.

If you can get your hands on one, then yes, buy one. For starters, the way the Suzuki Jimny has appreciated in value over the past few years – often costing more than double second-hand as they did when new – suggests it’s a sound investment.

It’s a paradox in so many ways because on an intellectual level many buyers will see the Jimny as an outdated jalopy that’s failed to keep pace with the modern automotive world. It certainly doesn’t fare well against our assessment criteria.

Others, however, will revel in its agricultural nature.

One could argue that owning a Suzuki Jimny XL is comparable to being a parent; it can sometimes be vexing and troublesome and janky and contradictory.

Yet that’s what makes it so endearing.

2024 Suzuki Jimny XL GLX at a glance:
Price: $36,490 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol
Output: 75kW/130Nm
Transmission: Four-speed automatic
Fuel: 6.9L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 161g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Not tested