What did you do to your jimny today?

If i owned a 5 door I wouldn't have it loaded up anymore than my 3 door. Although I would go for even bigger tires than my current two Jimnys as I feel the 5 door would look awesome with super beefy tires.  It would actually work better than my SZ5 tbh as I could put my work gear in the boot rather than having it across my seats and in the passenger footwell on my SZ5. I do like a car to be tidy without having clutter everywhere or the seats rearranged. Thats why my LCV works best as my daily as having the entire space just to chuck stuff in without it sliding everywhere is great. 

Hey there,
Having only recently ordered an XL (5 door), here's my 2 cents for what it's worth...
I have always loved the latest iteration of the Jimny's, but that was based solely on appearances as I'd never driven one.
Being in a position to buy one my intention was to purchase a 3 door Jimny, but wanted to drive both to compare.
First - I'm not buying the car for its power obviously, so to drive a Jimny and criticise it for a lack of power is in my opinion pretty stupid. It is what it is. Simple.
Likewise, a lack of room. Really?
Handling however needs to be a consideration purely for safety reasons, if nothing else.
So, first impressions (my wife came along too, and agrees with my summary here). Both cars we drove were manuals, as this is what I intended to purchase.
The 3 door is such a fun car to drive, I was smiling as soon as I got it on the road. And it isn't anywhere near as bad to drive as I'd been lead to believe.
Around town it goes fine, handles well, has excellent visibility all around, and is surprisingly roomy as far as seating position goes. 
So lets get it out on the Motorway.
Ok, it certainly revs more that the small hatch it's replacing, and isn't as smooth on the road. But that much could probably be assumed simply by looking at it. At 100-120kmh it seems fine to me. No, I won't be overtaking in the same manner as I do now, but that just means an adjustment of driving style to suit the car. Still happy. And that turning circle is amazing.
The handling however seems to be an area of concern. Over 100kmh the car does seem to be a little unstable, by which I mean it seems not to want to maintain it's line, and is too easily affected by imperfections in the road, tending to "bump steer" somewhat. This I found to be disconcerting, and that effect worsened as speed climbed.
Not the end of the world and easily rectified with some better shocks I imagine, but there it is.
Next, we took out the XL (5 door).
To be honest, the difference in performance around town seems negligible. No doubt it's a little slower, but not so much that it spoils the drive. So far, just as fun as the 3 door. And for those who want to complain about the increased turning circle over the 3 door, you need to get out more. it's 800mm bigger than the 3 door at 5.7m - my current small hatch (comparable to many others) is 10.6m. So get over it!
Now for the highway loop.
Again, the additional weight does not take away from the overall driving experience as far as performance is concerned.
But the handling difference is considerable. This one feels a lot more planted and stable right up to 120kmh.
So in summary...
With the improved safety features, extra room, much better handling, I've ordered the 5 door. For me, I feel it's just better value.
Hope this is of some help?
 

All things been equal the 5 door will be more stable than the 3 door, especially at main roads speeds due to the extra 340mm of wheel base and the extra 100kg of weight, mostly distributed over the rear axle, the driven wheels.

The penalty for the extra weight is reduced performance.

I have a 2020 3 door, I find it stable enough at speed limits on UK roads, but seldom do 70mph.

Power wise, it would always be nice to have more, but at 105 bhp, it’s a good deal more than the Gen 3 I had at 84 bhp and my feeling is it is enough, although if I was lugging an extra 100kg of car weight, plus kit I then leave in and more passengers, I would like a bit more power.

I also fitted a steering damper to my Gen 3, it felt very light and wandered on the main roads in stock set up, but the Gen 4s in the UK have one fitted at the factory and it’s perfectly fine.

I wonder if the Aus 3 door don’t have a steering damper fitted or if there was something wrong with the 3 door you took for a test drive, I wouldn’t have expected that much difference.

I haven’t had the opportunity to drive a 5 door, it wouldn’t be my first choice over a 3 door, the extra boot space would be nice, but I seldom carry a passenger, so my rear seats are mostly left down.

I do a bit of off-roading and some trials, so the extra wheelbase wouldn’t be an advantage, but that is me.

Robin

As an owner of both the three & five door Jimnys, the immediately noticeable difference is the increased stability & ride quality/comfort that the longer wheelbase provides, and whilst I'm sure the increased weight does have it's impact on performance, it's not the same "in your face" impact that the improvement in stability & ride quality has.

Because my three door is a five speed and the five door is the automatic, I can't do a head-to-head comparison and I cannot say definitively that the "zing" that the five door does not exhibit is due to the weight or the transmission, but I will tell you the five door automatic is no slouch, and I find myself opting for it more often than the three door.

The three door is parked on the street outside, the five door is in the driveway, it's a little more effort to get it out, but I find myself doing it, even for short trips, and definitely for the longer ones.

My wife will take the three door every time, it's smaller & easier to park.

The SJ was very dusty and muddy from the offroading and long trip.
Sunny and warm still here so I pressure washed it.
Inside and out. Interior and all
Opened the bottom plugs in the SJ410 and just gave it the full treatment.
Large improvement, most likely never been this clean inside the last 20 years.
There are no carpets and i was a bit more careful with the dash cluster.

Replaced my 2016 steering wheel. Got fed up with the leather peeling. New one from eBay Japan. Also removed the dealer fitted side steps and managed to get the cone washers out from the chassis.