New boy alert!!

Hey all,

As with many others I've been lurking for a while and doing some reading up on the Jimny.

To Be Honest I never though about buying a Jimny till recently

I've been thinking about a 4WD motor for a while.
Initially I was thinking about ruffin it in a Defender, this was after using them for years on shoots and fishing and found them to be indestructable and unstoppable.
But as I'm not getting any younger I started looking for a more comfort and warmth based 4WD.
This lead me to the Disco, but as there rot boxes and having enough to do on my track car, the Disco was dicsounted.
So further to a conversation, drunken, which involved a Suzuki Vitara the suzuki wheels were in motion.

Currently I'm in Angola and with the state of the roads there are many 4WD motors here.
They are mostly Toyota's but there are Suzukis too, especially Jimny's.
On our staff house street there are 6 Jimny's, all looking fresh.
Due to the climate rust isn't a problem out here.

Anyway, after some serious lurking it sounds like the Jimny is the one for me.
I'll save you the usual questions, as I've done my home work.

But

I have found it very difficult to find much about the OEM specification Jimny on here.
I have been on a Seat forum for 8 years which has taken my Leon from a 'I'm not doing anything to this car' to a fully stripped out heavily modified track beast, lol.
So I fully expect the spending rot to set in quickly but for now the plan is OEM.
How capable is an OEM Jimny with decent MT?
Will it take me places that others fear to tread?

I fish, I shoot and I snowboard.
I'm hoping the Jimny will be the perfect partner for me in my hobbies.
I'm in North East Scotland and have been used to bad conditions all my driving life.

I have already been looking into the snowboard racks.
Can a Jimny handle a 4 snowboard rack?
I see there is one for sale but fail to see how a Jimny has the space for one?

Do all Jimny's in the UK come with roof racks?

Anyway, its refreshing to see such a friendly forum. When doing my research into Landies I found one that was positively brutal.
Amazing to see guys designing and selling engineering solutions to issues too, don't we all like to improve and fiddle with our toys.

New too! As you might guess I love bees. My jimmy is brilliant for my bee keeping, bought it 18 months ago, second hand. It is absolutely brilliant, love it almost as much as my bees. Can get 4 hives in the back (with the back seats out) and can go over field and Dale to where ever my hives may be. Good in the winter too ( especially last year in the snow). Can I ask a quick question here - payload. Safe to put about 700lb of boxes laden with honey with me driving??

As far as i am aware, all jimny's have roof rails... but don't actually come with the crossbars/roof bars.

As for fitting 4 boards in the back... i'd say it will be tight... and there is no way you'd fit the four people in to ride them!
I use a towball mounted rack to haul my powerkiting gear around with me. Buggy on the back, with my board and kites in the boot... and one passenger.

The roof will be the best place to stick the boards, they should fit side by side. Might be worth buying an expedition roof rack type thing.


That could work quite well.

A standard Jimny with AT/MT's will go where defenders won't... in most cases. Although, after being a young Jimny owner, a Defender is where i'm going next. Just using the Jimny to see out the silly insurance price stage.

@ Bees and Bobs 700lbs (320kg ish) is a fairly serious amount of weight

all hardtop jimnys come with roof bars, none on the softop version.

I don't think you would get many snowboards inside, certainly don't think my wakeboard would fit and snowboards look a fair chunk longer.

In standard spec they are very capable off road but struggle a little on ground clearance and width if you are using tracks well worn by bigger 4x4s. (otherwise no problems)

@bob 320kg is a fair old amount but its only a little more than 3 large adults which most people wouldn't think twice about. Bet it effects performance somewhat!

Hey Adam,

Thank you for the info.
If I was carrying 4 boards it would be a park and freeride board each for two people.

Many of the Jimny's I see in Angola don't have roof bars and some even seem to not have ever been fitted with them. Perhaps there a dealer fit option over here.

So is it not possible to seat 4 adults in the Jimny?
My Jimny will probably end up van like.
I doubt I'll use the rear seat much and not one for dragging about things I'm not needing, extra weight = less speed + less MPG.

Hey Goatboy,

Thank you for your reply.
I hadn't thought about the track width.
Having looked at the Jimny's out here I thought the ground clearance looked very good for a road vehicle.
Way better than my track car and Audi A4 family car.

My snowboards are 1.60m long.