Gen3 v Gen4 performance?

Hi gang, I am looking for a bit of advice, I have had a few Gen3 Jimnys, has anyone had a Gen3 and upgraded to a Gen4 and noticed an improvement in performance with the bigger 1500cc engine?

I drove an old shape daihatsu terios for eight years, it had a 1.3 12 valve starlet engine in it.
That vehicle took me places that it really shouldn't have, and having the low down torque was great.

I've had the Gen 4 Jimny for a number of months now, I really don't get on with it being a 16v, I want the power low down. I pretty much never rev the engine above 3000 revs.

My experience of driving the new Jimny on the road at low speeds is it feels completely gutless. I drive it on forestry tracks too, and its okay at that, but less confidence inspiring than the old terios was.

I wouldn’t have said the Gen 4 feels gutless. I’m willing to bet they make more low end grunt than the Terrios did. The difference is the engine doesn’t fall on its face at higher rpm.

It's good for what I need it for, which is going to my woodland, but the power delivery is absolutely soul destroying.

Personally I can’t relate. On the road using the gears and regs does make the best of what it has. But as said, 16v engines generally match or exceed 12v at low rpm. Then massively exceed at high rpm. So you don’t have to rev it.

I certainly don’t feel short changed at all. By contrast my other two 4x4’s are a 4.6 V8 and a highly tuned 200Tdi turbo diesel.

To answer the ops question. I’ve not owned a Gen 3. But have driven a couple, albeit not for many years. My recollection is the Gen 4 does the same, just better.

It's so slow when I go to work I take my wife's fiesta instead.

She loves the J-Wagon but it's painfully slow.

We've got a Gen3 and Gen4 at home and when you jump from one to another it's hard to tell the difference. The older car rattles more and the newer car is smoother (it bloomin' well should be). If I had a late Gen3 it would be a fairer comparison but out '08 has seen life. I feels to me that the extra power of the 1.5 has got lost in the plumbing. Doesn't matter they're both good cars. Chris

I’ve driven two Gen 4 Jimnys.

The first last year was a 1,300 mile silver one and it felt a bit gutless, l wasn’t that impressed.
The second was a 6,300 mile yellow one this month and it was a lot better, it seemed more eager and generally pulled better.
Maybe the yellow one was just a good one, or it had loosened up better after 6,000 miles.

Another thing. I was impressed with how well they pull low down. 30mph in 5th for instance. And will pull sub 1500rpm in top too.

Flat out the Jimny pretty much matches my V8 Range Rover to about 80-85mph.

The 1.3 12 valve Starlet engine comes from the Toyota stable and if it has been grafted into a Terios then it may or may not be standard. Also don't confuse a probably noisy engine that gives the impression of power with the installation of a modern engine in the gen.4 that is impressively quiet. I bought my gen.4 in March this year and due to lockdown I have only just clocked 1300 miles and the engine is still not fully run in but 50 - 70 in 5th gear in 13 seconds is still impressive for a car with the aerodynamics of a brick on edge.

You can't change gear at 3,000rpm and then complain the car is slow! It's a small petrol engine that makes peak power at around 6,000rpm, and it is designed to be driven accordingly. If you choose to only use a third of the available powerband of course it will be slow. Use it how it's designed to be used and it will be fine.