jimny,good or bad !!!!

well,time will tell.it could be that I am reading more into the gearbox noise then needed,and the suzuki dealer did say that they didnt sell many pulleys,so maybe the fault has been corrected.I would like to keep the car,as despite what some peole seem to think I do like it,I cant think of any other car that has the same character,I was just telling it like it is,and dindnt come on with the intention of slagging Jimnys off as one member said, and even I accept that the past was then,and this is now,but for what its worth,I agree about the Escort. re, the gearbox noise,someone on one of the Suzuki forums works at a gearbox centre,and in his opinion, the semi synthetic 75w oil specified for the manual gearbox is too thin,and he suggested using a thicker viscosity mineral oil,so this morning I changed the gearbox and transfer box oils to 85w ,but it seems noisier then before,so think I will go back to the specified oil.then again maybe the crankshaft pulley failing has left me a bit paranoid ,as I said, time will tell.

Mine is newer than yours but has a higher milage and whilst I have had to fix the front axle, that was due to the car being slapped about by a motorbike and not being repaired properly. The issues you outline are not ones I have been subjected to even with an extra 10k plus miles in 3 less years but I have serviced mine as required. What is of concern in your account however is that you bought a fairly new car at a discounted price without a service history, and to myself that implies a healthy dose of caviat emptor, and to be honest I think I would consider myself lucky to be getting away with only a pulley and a box rebuild on a car with no history that someone evidently wanted shut of.

yes.if I am honest,I have to agree,and should have been a bit more "savvy" in the first place,but the car seemed a bargain in view of the low mileage,and good condition.I havnt as yst had to do anything on the gearbox,but after reading the problems on the later vvt gearboxes,any sort of bearing type noises coming from that area makes me suspect the worst.will just have to see how it goes.At least the engine runs well,though the crank pulley came apart, have replaced that,so hopefully should be ok,for a while anyway.I do like the jimny,but having to depend on it for work,often in the early hours of the morning,means I have to have a car,so its a case of deciding if to keep it and maybe regret it later,or sell it.Annoying thing is I got rid of my previous car, a Toyota Avensis, which was totally reliable,but had over 120,000 miles on the clock,to replace it with the Jimny.anyway,as I say,will have to see how it goes,

Many many modern cars use the same design of pulleys, and yes they do occasionally fail on any car. I suspect the person replacing several of them had another problem causing the pulleys to fail prematurely, or was buying cheap poor quality replacements. Your point about being able to set up points and carbs is entirely redundant because no car since the early 90s has had either, and we are all better off for it! Even the plugs in your Jimny are good for 36,000 miles, compared to a few thousand on old petrols. The reason people aren't so good at fiddling with cars now is because they simply don't need fiddling with! And if you do get an engine problem, the OBDII diagnostics system on your car is much more user friendly than trying to find a fault with an old engine. You can buy a code reader for less than the price of a tank of fuel.

Anyway, my point is if you want to avoid all those things you are unhappy about, then get something from the 70s. Then you'll appreciate the reliability of the Jimny!

Have you confirmed with mots etc that the mileage is correct? Just a thought

Got two, an 02 with about 78k and an 06 with 88k. Normal wear and tear but ultra reliable. Kingpins of course and a head gasket on the 02 but both sweet as a nut. S**t loads better than my £5000 L200 which I sold asap (part ex for daughter's jimny!)

Love them, honest car, easy maintenance, if it had a starting handle as well it would be the dogs kahunas!