2026 Suzuki Jimny Review

The Suzuki Jimny does not need an introduction so much as a disclaimer. It is simultaneously one of the best and one of the worst cars on sale in Australia, depending entirely on where you point it. 

On sealed roads, it wallows, drones, and struggles to maintain highway speeds with any composure. Point it at gnarly rock crawls and muddy trails, though, and it will embarrass vehicles costing three times as much. That is the Jimny experience in a nutshell, and the 2026 update does not change that fundamental duality one bit.

What has changed? Well, in true Suzuki fashion, not a crazy amount. A stop-sale caused by non-compliance with Australian safety regulations forced the brand's hand, and the result is a Jimny that now comes standard with autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assist, front and rear parking sensors, and a new nine-inch touchscreen on the Jimny grade. 

The five-door Jimny XL already had most of this safety kit, so the three-door has essentially been brought up to parity. It is roughly $2,000 dearer across the range for the privilege. Who do you think you are, Suzuki?

I should also disclose that I am a recovering Jimny owner. I had the JB64 - the kei-spec version with the tiny three-cylinder turbo - and I have driven thousands of kilometres in this platform across highway slogs, city commutes, and properly gnarly off-road trails. I know exactly why people love these things, and I know exactly why they probably should not.

How Much Does the Suzuki Jimny Cost?

The 2026 Suzuki Jimny range opens with the Jimny Lite at $31,990 before on-road costs (or $36,490 drive-away), a manual-only entry point riding on steel wheels with a seven-inch touchscreen and halogen headlights. 

That is actually still pretty decent value for a proper ladder-frame 4WD. Step up to the Jimny grade and you get LED projector headlights, a nine-inch display, alloy wheels, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, and privacy glass, starting at $33,990 before on-roads for the manual or $36,490 for the automatic - the variant tested here, which comes to $40,990 drive-away. Forty grand. For a Jimny. Let that marinate.

Here is where it gets painful. In Japan, the Jimny Sierra starts from ¥2,220,000 (roughly AUD $19,885) for the five-speed manual, and at that price it includes keyless entry, push-button start, and heated front seats - none of which feature on the Australian-spec car at any price. 

There are blanked-out buttons on the dashboard where push-button start and heated seat controls would go. They are literally right there, taunting you. Suzuki Australia's markup is substantial, and while the new safety equipment goes some way toward justifying the latest $2,000 increase, the overall value proposition has eroded over successive updates. 

Realistically, this is probably a $20,000-something car wearing a $40,000 price tag.

2026 Suzuki Jimny 3-Door Pricing

• Jimny Lite 3-Door (manual) - $31,990 before on-roads / $36,490 drive-away
• Jimny 3-Door (manual) - $33,990 before on-roads / $38,490 drive-away
• Jimny 3-Door (auto) - $36,490 before on-roads / $40,990 drive-away
• Jimny XL 5-Door (manual) - $34,990 before on-roads / $40,490 drive-away
• Jimny XL 5-Door (auto) - $37,490 before on-roads / $42,990 drive-away

Drive-away pricing excludes Queensland and the Northern Rivers region of NSW.

Boxy, Honest, and Impossible to Mistake for Anything Else

Whatever your opinion on the Jimny's on-road manners, it is hard to argue with the way it looks. The JB74's design is a masterclass in purposeful simplicity - slab sides, round headlights, a flat bonnet, and proportions that make the car look like it was drawn with a ruler. 

It wears its off-road intent openly, from the short overhangs to the fat fender flares that accommodate the wider track of the Sierra-spec body. It has the charm of a Tonka truck that grew up and got a real job.

For 2026, the front bumper has been subtly reshaped to house the new radar sensor for adaptive cruise control and the parking sensor array. It is not a dramatic change, but it does give the nose a very slightly more finished appearance. 

The LED projector headlights on the Jimny grade are a genuine improvement in output and look more modern than the Lite's halogens, though the daytime running lights remain halogen across the range. Tail lights are also halogen. At this end of the market, full LED lighting front and rear would have been a welcome inclusion.

The tested car wore the Kinetic Yellow with a Bluish Black Pearl roof - one of the more eye-catching colour combinations available. Electrically folding mirrors with a black painted finish, body-coloured door handles, 15-inch alloy wheels wrapped in Dunlop AT20 Grandtrek tyres, and the full-size spare mounted on the tailgate round out the exterior. 

Those factory tyres, it should be said, are nominally all-terrain but overwhelmingly biased toward on-road use. Most owners would benefit from swapping them for a more capable all-terrain tyre early in ownership.

Functional, Spartan, and Unapologetically Basic

Climb inside the Jimny and your expectations need to be recalibrated immediately. Every surface is hard plastic - scratchy, hollow-sounding, and entirely devoid of any soft-touch material. The doors thud shut with all the solidity of a biscuit tin. But honestly? That is part of the deal. The Jimny's cabin was never designed to impress, and it does not try to.

The most notable interior change for 2026 is the new nine-inch touchscreen, which replaces the previous unit and adds wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard on the Jimny grade. If you know anything about Suzuki Jimny lore, you will know they have gone through about four different head units over the years, some of them truly dreadful. This one is fine. 

It is responsive enough, reasonably intuitive, and does its job without drama. A new digital speedometer in the instrument cluster is another quiet win - everyone give Suzuki a round of applause - replacing the old analogue-only display and showing a useful spread of trip and driving information via the steering wheel controls.

What has not improved is the audio system. Four speakers do their valiant best, but the result is tinny and borderline awful. As a previous Jimny owner, I can confirm there is not much that aftermarket tweeters will salvage here - the cabin's acoustics are actively working against you. 

Other notable absences include a wireless phone charger, heated front seats, keyless entry and start (you are spending $40,000 and you still get a physical key - meanwhile the $19,000 Japanese-market version gets keyless entry, because of course it does), and any USB-C connectivity. You get a single USB-A port and a 12-volt outlet. Welcome to 2026.

On the positive side, the leather-wrapped steering wheel feels markedly better than the plastic unit in the Jimny Lite, and the analogue-style climate control dials are a paragon of simplicity - intuitive and satisfying to use in a way that many touchscreen climate systems are not. The seats, surprisingly, are more comfortable over long distances than their thin padding would suggest.

Surprisingly Liveable for a Car This Small

The Jimny is technically a four-seater, and the rear seats are weirdly good - more usable than the car's compact dimensions would lead you to believe. At 5'11" (180 cm), I was able to sit behind my own driving position with adequate legroom, good toe room, and plenty of headroom. 

The wheel arches intrude into the footwell but also serve as a surprisingly convenient armrest. It is basic - there is no centre armrest or rear air vents - but it genuinely works.

The caveat is payload, and it is a significant one. The Jimny's gross vehicle weight of 1,450 kg and a kerb weight of 1,110 kg (automatic) leaves roughly 340 kg for occupants and cargo. 

Fill all four seats with adults and you are flirting with the limit before you have put so much as a sandwich in the boot. It is a car that can carry four people, but ideally not four people and their stuff at the same time.

Best Thought of as a Two-Seater with a Bonus Row

Boot space with the rear seats in place is a claimed 85 litres. To put that in perspective, that is enough for a small backpack. Maybe a bag of groceries if you are shopping for one. 

There is a modest amount of underfloor storage, and the rear seat backrests can be tilted forward to a few different angles to free up a bit more boot depth - though at their most upright, your rear passengers are sitting almost bolt upright at close to 90 degrees, which is not exactly comfortable. The fundamental limitation is the car's 3,650 mm overall length. There is simply nowhere for the cargo volume to hide.

Fold the 50:50 split rear seats flat, though, and the space opens to 377 litres - which is genuinely usable and transforms the Jimny into what it honestly works best as: the world's most capable two-seater. If boot space is a priority, it is worth noting that the five-door Jimny XL offers 211 litres with the rear seats up versus the three-door's 85 litres, though interestingly the XL actually has less space with the seats folded (332 vs 377 litres) due to its different rear seat configuration. 

A full-size alloy spare on the tailgate is a practical touch, particularly for off-road use. Towing capacity is rated at 1,300 kg braked and 350 kg unbraked across the range. Anyone expecting daily SUV-level practicality from this footprint will be disappointed, but that was never the point.

The Numbers Behind the Noise

The 2026 Jimny carries over the same 1.5-litre (1,462 cc), naturally aspirated, four-cylinder petrol engine with variable valve timing, producing 75 kW at 6,000 rpm and 130 Nm of torque at 4,000 rpm. 

It is available with either a five-speed manual or, as tested here, a four-speed automatic with overdrive. Both transmissions feed into a part-time four-wheel drive system with a low-range transfer case, selectable via a lever on the centre console.

For context, 75 kilowatts is modest by any modern standard - though it is a meaningful step up from the 47 kW three-cylinder turbo in the kei-spec JB64. The engine runs on regular 91 RON unleaded from a 40-litre fuel tank.

Official ADR combined fuel consumption is 6.4 L/100km for the manual and 6.9 L/100km for the automatic. Real-world economy in mixed driving conditions sits closer to 8.0 L/100km, and off-roading will push that figure considerably higher - we saw well north of 15 L/100km during our time on the dirt. With the 40-litre tank, expect a real-world range of roughly 500 km in mixed conditions, less if you are spending time off the beaten path.

Kerb weight is 1,095 kg for the manual and 1,110 kg for the automatic, making this one of the lightest 4WDs on the market. Gross vehicle weight is 1,450 kg, and braked towing capacity is 1,300 kg.

One of the Worst Daily Drivers You Can Buy - and That Is Not Entirely a Criticism

Let's be direct: the Suzuki Jimny is a genuinely poor on-road car. The rigid-axle suspension, short wheelbase, tall body, and narrow track conspire to produce extraordinary amounts of body roll in even moderate cornering. 

We turned a corner at 40 km/h during testing and it felt like a nautical event. Wind noise is significant at highway speed, the cabin is loud, and crosswinds from passing trucks will physically push the car sideways in its lane. It is, to use a technical term, poopy.

The four-speed automatic deserves its own paragraph here, because on the open road it is where the Jimny's age really shows. It includes an overdrive button on the gear lever - and if that does not scream "1990s transmission," nothing will. To be fair, it pairs surprisingly well with the modest power output at low speeds. 

It shifts cleanly around town and is perfectly adequate in stop-start traffic. For most buyers, it is probably the better choice over the manual. But on the highway, the Jimny has to work extraordinarily hard to maintain speed. Plant your foot and the engine note climbs enthusiastically, but the car itself is far less enthusiastic about actually going anywhere. It screams more than it moves. 

The gap between effort and progress is wide, and with only four ratios to work with, the engine is always either buzzing away at high revs or lugging in the wrong gear. It is not dangerously slow, but it is noticeably underpowered by any modern standard.

On extended highway drives - we have done Melbourne-to-Sydney stints in a Jimny, and yes, we question our life choices - it is fatiguing. The engine drones, the ride is jiggly over surface imperfections, and the tall, slab-sided body catches every gust. Getting sucked into the slipstream of a passing truck is a genuine white-knuckle moment. 

The suspension, being a three-link rigid axle setup front and rear with coil springs, is designed for articulation over rough terrain, not for absorbing motorway undulations. Every expansion joint, every patch of rough bitumen, gets transmitted straight through to the cabin. It is, candidly, one of the worst cars I have driven on the open road. If you are only ever driving on paved surfaces, this is not the car for you. Please do not buy it for that.

That said, around town the experience improves noticeably. The tiny footprint and 4.9-metre turning circle make it absurdly easy to park and navigate tight urban streets. You can thread it through gaps that would make a HiLux driver break out in a cold sweat. 

Chuck on the new adaptive cruise control at low speed, and you are not even going to notice the four-speed auto - it is actually completely fine in that context. The lane keeping assist genuinely surprised me: the steering wheel nudged itself back when I drifted toward a lane edge, which in a Jimny feels like watching a dinosaur scroll through TikTok. 

You just do not expect it. It will not actively centre you in the lane, but it will bounce you back if you stray toward a marking, which is a step beyond a basic lane departure warning. At city speeds, the body roll is less dramatic, the wind noise is manageable, and the Jimny's compact charm starts to outweigh its dynamic shortcomings. 

It is never comfortable, but it is endearing - and for short urban commutes, it gets the job done.

This Is Where the Jimny Earns Every Dollar

If the on-road section reads harshly, this is the counterweight. The Suzuki Jimny is a staggeringly capable off-road vehicle, full stop. Its ladder-frame chassis, part-time four-wheel drive with a low-range transfer case, three-link rigid axle suspension front and rear, 210 mm of ground clearance, and class-leading approach (36°), breakover (27°), and departure (47°) angles give it a mechanical toolkit that many dedicated off-roaders costing twice the price cannot match. 

The five-door XL shares the same approach and departure angles but loses out slightly on breakover (24° vs 27°) due to its longer wheelbase - so if you are doing serious rock crawling, the three-door has the edge. If you buy a Jimny for on-road driving, you are buying it for all the wrong reasons. This is an off-roader first and foremost, and it is brilliant at it.

Everything that makes this car terrible on the highway - the short wheelbase, the light weight, the tall ride height, the rigid axles - becomes an advantage the moment the bitumen ends. The suspension that jiggles over motorway expansion joints suddenly makes sense when it is articulating over rocks and ruts, keeping tyres planted where an independent setup would lift a wheel. 

The narrow body and tiny overhangs mean you can pick lines through tight sections of bush that would have larger 4WDs turning around. And at 1,110 kg, there is simply less vehicle to get stuck.

On our test route - a mix of muddy moguls, steep inclines, deep ruts, and rocky sections - the Jimny simply got on with it. Engage low range, point, and the combination of light weight, short wheelbase, and mechanical grip does the rest.

It is a proper rock crawler in miniature, scrambling up inclines that you would look at and say "no, you can't do that" - and then it does. The traction control intervenes intelligently, braking spinning wheels to redirect torque where it is needed, and the hill descent control is effective and confidence-inspiring when picking your way down steep, loose surfaces. The manual handbrake is a welcome inclusion for holding position on a slope while you select low range.

At slow off-road speeds, all of the Jimny's on-road weaknesses disappear entirely. You do not hear the wind noise. You do not notice the body roll. The underpowered engine is actually fine because you are crawling at walking pace. 

The four-speed auto shifts unobtrusively and does not hunt between gears the way it does on the highway. It is a completely different car out here, and the smile factor is enormous. Literally anyone can off-road in this thing - you do not need to be an expert, you just need to trust it and let the mechanicals do the work.

The one genuine frustration is the updated parking sensor system. While the audible beeping can be muted by holding the dashboard button, the visual sensor graphic persists on the instrument display, effectively obscuring the new digital speedometer and trip information. We tried everything to dismiss it fully - holding the button, pressing it repeatedly - and at one point it seemed to glitch and refuse to turn off entirely. 

For an off-road-focused vehicle where you want full visibility of your telemetry, this is a dumb oversight. It completely undermines the benefit of the new digital display when you are actually out on the dirt, which is presumably when you would want to see speed, inclinometer data, and trip information the most. 

Suzuki needs a software update that fully dismisses the sensor display when the sound is deactivated. It is the kind of detail that matters to the enthusiast demographic this car is built for, and right now, it makes an otherwise fantastic new screen basically useless when you need it most.

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A Significant Step Forward for the JB74

The safety upgrades are the headline change for 2026, and they are the whole reason this update exists. The Jimny was literally pulled from sale in Australia because it did not meet current regulations, so Suzuki had no choice but to add autonomous emergency braking. To their credit, they did not stop there. 

Every variant in the three-door range now comes standard with Suzuki's Dual Sensor Brake Support II system, bundling AEB via a front-mounted camera and radar, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and prevention, weaving alert, high beam assist, traffic sign recognition, and front and rear parking sensors. 

A reversing camera is also standard across the range. It is worth noting that the Jimny XL five-door misses out on a few items that the three-door gets - lane departure prevention, high beam assist, and traffic sign recognition are not available on the XL - though it does get rear parking sensors and adaptive cruise control on the automatic.

In practice, the adaptive cruise control works well, tracking the vehicle ahead smoothly and bringing you down to zero in stop-and-go traffic - you just need to press the brake at a full stop to re-engage, which is close enough to full stop-and-go. 

The AEB triggered during off-road testing when we accelerated toward the back of another car on the dirt - it stepped in decisively. The pre-update Jimny achieved a three-star ANCAP safety rating back in 2018, but that rating expired on December 31, 2024. 

The updated 2026 model is yet to be rated under current ANCAP standards. The addition of active safety systems is a meaningful improvement, though the Jimny's inherent structural limitations - small size, light weight, and body-on-frame construction - mean it will never offer the passive crash protection of a larger, heavier vehicle. Buyers should weigh this accordingly.

Standard Safety Features (Jimny Lite & Jimny)

• Autonomous Emergency Braking (DSBS II) - Standard
• Adaptive Cruise Control - Standard
• Lane Departure Warning - Standard
• Lane Departure Prevention - Standard
• Weaving Alert - Standard
• High Beam Assist - Standard
• Traffic Sign Recognition - Standard
• Front & Rear Parking Sensors - Standard
• Reversing Camera - Standard
• Hill Descent Control - Standard
• Electronic Stability Control (ESP) - Standard
• Front, Side & Curtain Airbags - Standard

Reasonable Servicing, But the Purchase Price Stings

Suzuki backs the Jimny with a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty. The unlimited-kilometre component is a positive, though the five-year term itself is fairly standard in the Australian market - some competitors, like GWM with the Tank 300, offer seven years with unlimited kilometres. The warranty is fully transferable to subsequent owners, which helps resale value. Commercial and fleet vehicles are covered for five years or 160,000 km, whichever comes first.

Suzuki also offers a five-year, 100,000 km capped-price servicing programme. Service intervals are every 12 months or 15,000 km (whichever comes first), and the costs are relatively modest for the segment. 

The first five scheduled services total $2,265, working out to an average of $453 per service. The most expensive individual service in that period is the 36-month visit at $589.

Capped-Price Service Schedule

• 60-day inspection (2 months / 2,000 km) - Free
• 12 months / 15,000 km - $449
• 24 months / 30,000 km - $429
• 36 months / 45,000 km - $589
• 48 months / 60,000 km - $449
• 60 months / 75,000 km - $349

Total over 5 years / 5 services: $2,265

The Jimny runs on regular unleaded (91 RON), which keeps fuel costs manageable despite the underwhelming economy figures. The 40-litre tank is small, so expect frequent fill-ups if you are commuting daily. 

Suzuki's warranty coverage and dealer network are well-established in Australia, and the Jimny's strong resale values historically offset some of the purchase price premium. Parts availability is generally good, and the mechanical simplicity of the platform means independent servicing (post-warranty) should be straightforward.

What Do You Get with the Suzuki Jimny?

Jimny Lite ($31,990)

• 1.5L four-cylinder petrol, 75 kW / 130 Nm, 5-speed manual only
• Part-time 4WD with low-range transfer case
• 15-inch steel wheels with Dunlop AT20 Grandtrek tyres
• 7-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
• 2 speakers, DAB radio
• Halogen headlights with LED daytime running lights
• Front and rear parking sensors, reversing camera
• AEB (DSBS II), adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and prevention
• Hill descent control, hill hold control, ESP, traction control
• Air conditioning (manual), fabric seats
• Full-size steel spare wheel

Jimny ($33,990 manual / $36,490 auto)

Adds over Jimny Lite:

• 9-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
• 4 speakers
• LED projector headlights
• 15-inch alloy wheels
• Leather-wrapped steering wheel
• Electrically folding door mirrors (black painted)
• Body-coloured door handles
• Digital climate control
• Rear privacy glass (quarter and tailgate windows)
• Centre cabin light
• 12-volt outlet in luggage area
• Full-size alloy spare wheel

Jimny XL 5-Door ($34,990 manual / $37,490 auto)

Key differences versus the three-door Jimny:

• Five-door body with longer wheelbase (2,590 mm vs 2,250 mm)
• 211 litres of boot space with rear seats up (vs 85 litres)
• Rear power windows
• Ventilated front disc brakes (vs solid on three-door)
• Rear privacy glass as standard
• Rear parking sensors only (no front sensors)
• Adaptive cruise control on automatic only (manual gets standard cruise)
• No lane departure prevention, high beam assist, or traffic sign recognition
• Breakover angle reduced to 24° (vs 27°)
• Kerb weight 1,185 kg manual / 1,200 kg auto (vs 1,095 / 1,110 kg)

Final Thoughts on the Suzuki Jimny

The 2026 update does not reinvent the Jimny. It was never going to. What it does is address the most pressing regulatory shortcoming - the lack of autonomous emergency braking - and layer on a sensible suite of active safety technology that makes the Jimny a meaningfully safer vehicle, particularly on the highway stretches between trails. 

The adaptive cruise control and lane keeping assist are genuinely useful additions for a car that, let's be honest, the vast majority of owners will drive primarily on sealed roads. Most Jimnys are pavement princesses, and now they are safer pavement princesses.

The fundamental equation has not changed, though. The Jimny remains one of the most charming, capable, and compromised vehicles on the Australian market. It is an extraordinary off-roader in a pint-sized package, and it is a thoroughly mediocre (at best) road car. 

If you are buying one because you love the way it looks, because it brings you joy, and because you plan to get it dirty at least occasionally, very little else on the market will deliver the same experience for the same money. If you are buying one as a sole daily driver and you never leave the bitumen, please do not. You are spending $41,000 on the wrong car.

The $2,000 price increase is justified by the safety additions, and most buyers should consider it worthwhile. If the three-door's practicality limitations are a dealbreaker, the five-door Jimny XL starts from $34,990 before on-roads and offers a more liveable package with extra boot space and rear doors, though it sacrifices a touch of off-road geometry in the process. 

But the broader pricing trajectory - a car that starts from under $20,000 in its home market now commanding $41,000 drive-away here - remains the Jimny's most difficult conversation. For the right buyer, none of that matters. And the right buyer knows exactly who they are. Here's to Suzuki still selling this thing in 2035.