Prospective Jimny owner looking for advice!

My lad had the three door Vitara and it was just like a bigger Jimny to drive. If you are on the large size then I would go for that but they are juicier being 1.6 so perhaps your tight pockets will steer you to a Jimny. Both of the cars can suffer from the dreaded rot so do your homework regarding reading the forums here about the rust spots to check for before parting with your cash.

Why is it that you can't keep the Jimny in 4wd all the time? I know you obviously don't want to have it in 4wd when barreling down an A road, but if it's covered in snow or ice then why not keep it in 4x4 mode? Total noob to this so sorry if I'm being woefully ignorant! The old Vitara is selectable 4wd as well isn't it? Does the same apply to that? I like the idea of selectable 4wd in the hopes of keeping day to day running costs down. I'm not aware of any others with that feature so let me know if there actually are and I'm just being ignorant.

The meatier 1.6 does entice me though despite obviously higher running costs, the piddly 1.3 is honestly the only thing that puts me off a Jimny, certainly as a daily driver anyway. Not that I'm a speed demon or anything, but I do like to gun it on nice long, quiet stretches of road.

More research is needed I think. The Jimny is a very endearing little thing so I'm very drawn to it but perhaps something else will be more sensible...

And don't worry mick, as a Ford driver I'm well acquainted with rust! Sometimes I wonder if Ford cars come with rust pre-installed lol. I'm lucky with my current one, just a few surface patches that I'll need to deal with soon. It's always the first thing I look for when I look at cars

The piddly 1.3 makes it more fun to drive

You certainly can get the Jimny going with the 1.3, so don't let that put you off! People complain they can't keep up with modern traffic, and they have to sit at 50 mph everywhere. I find modern traffic often struggles to keep up with me, catching me up in 30 mph where I sit at 30, and then dropping far away as soon as we hit some open road. Even on dual carriage ways, no trouble sitting at 70 or even 80 mph plus. Fit a steering damper to make it more stable, and only in high winds can it be interesting when shifting along. And because there slow with the 1.3, you have the excitement of driving to the limit when you want to have some fun! And it'll then crawl around off road just as capably.

If you want cheep to run, original fiat panda 4x4. Bloody brilliant in the snow.

Chewster wrote: Why is it that you can't keep the Jimny in 4wd all the time? I know you obviously don't want to have it in 4wd when barreling down an A road, but if it's covered in snow or ice then why not keep it in 4x4 mode? Total noob to this so sorry if I'm being woefully ignorant! The old Vitara is selectable 4wd as well isn't it? Does the same apply to that? I like the idea of selectable 4wd in the hopes of keeping day to day running costs down. I'm not aware of any others with that feature so let me know if there actually are and I'm just being ignorant.

The meatier 1.6 does entice me though despite obviously higher running costs, the piddly 1.3 is honestly the only thing that puts me off a Jimny, certainly as a daily driver anyway. Not that I'm a speed demon or anything, but I do like to gun it on nice long, quiet stretches of road.

More research is needed I think. The Jimny is a very endearing little thing so I'm very drawn to it but perhaps something else will be more sensible...

And don't worry mick, as a Ford driver I'm well acquainted with rust! Sometimes I wonder if Ford cars come with rust pre-installed lol. I'm lucky with my current one, just a few surface patches that I'll need to deal with soon. It's always the first thing I look for when I look at cars

Because 4WD jimny is 4WD-LOCK only... there is no center differential.