Suzuki Jimny waiting list now up to a year in the UK

www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/suzu...ing-list-now-year-uk

It mentions a possibility of another plant in India to help with the demand. Dacia had the same idea and initially built the UK Duster in Chennai. The quality control was terrible, Dusters had rusty paint work within 12 months. After two years Dacia had to stop the import from India and use their Romanian plant to limit the damage to the brand.

The more I read about the new Jimny, the more it is starting to put me off. I certainly wouldn't pay £20K for one that didn't have a VIN starting with J.

The Spanish built Honda I had was awful, even the plastic parts corroded, and that was supposedly built to Honda's exacting standards, my woeful Renault Nissan was built in Sunderland, by the build quality and total lack of QC you'd have thought it came out of Longbridge in 1981.

Now if it was at Indian prices, like the £7000 it was originally supposed to be, I'd definitely buy one...

Do/did the Spanish built Jimnys (these may have been the convertible variants) such as the O2 have a QC issue?

When I started looking for a Jimny, I approached Cotswold Jimnys and they claimed they wouldn't touch the convertibles because of parts issues and other problems, explaining that they were Spanish built, but to be honest I found them neither particularly helpful or friendly, and couldnt decide if they were just trying to sell me something else.
(As a result after buying mine elsewhere I noted they were selling two convertibles)

They didn't weld the back axle very well, and they are known to split in half at the diff housing on the long side.

Don't know about the paint, but my old Spanish built Terrano wasn't well painted, nor that Honda.

Popular rumour has it that they used whatever engine they happened to have in stock when they built them (Nissan UK did the same with my car, whatever they didn't have trim wise, they didn't fit, so some have pic-a-nic tables in the seats, and cubby boxes, some don't)


I know all about the dangers of stereotyping, but if it is my £20k I want to see a J on the VIN. I may bite the bullet and get a late current model, even with the electric transfer to go wrong......

mlines wrote: Not convinced there is much difference in overall build quality apart from the person who found a beer bottle welded inside the sill.

I've heard of a lot of odd things found built into cars but that just about tops the lot! Cheers!