Everything we know about the upcoming Maruti Suzuki Jimny 5-door

That the Maruti Suzuki Jimny 5-door will be making its global debut at the 2023 Delhi Auto Expo is a well-known fact. The fourth-gen Jimny will be coming to India nearly four decades after a long-wheelbase version of the second-gen Jimny arrived in India, dubbed the Gypsy. While many have argued that Maruti Suzuki should have stuck to the Gypsy name in India, the fourth-gen Jimny is now a more globally acclaimed product, having been operational in international markets since 2018, albeit in three-door form.

Maruti Suzuki began manufacturing the three-door Jimny in India back in 2021, exporting it to both left-hand and right-hand markets, including Latin American countries like Peru and Colombia, along with countries in the Middle East and Africa.

Changes from the 3-door Jimny

It goes without saying that the 5-door version is longer than the 3-door version. Its wheelbase is expected to be roughly 300 mm longer than that of the standard Jimny (2,250 mm), allowing it to comfortably stay within the confines of the sub-4-meter segment. Although the extra doors mess with the Jimny’s whole mini-G-Wagen vibe, the design for this product has been handled with caution. As such the rear door appears to be shorter in length, with a quarter glass occupying the rear section of the car and breaking up the rear-section and lending the whole design greater symmetry. There’s nothing connecting the Jimny 5-door to the Gypsy, but it’s a neat looking SUV, which will pre-empt the arrival of the Mahindra Thar 5-door.

Powertrain

Although Suzuki’s 1.0-litre turbo-petrol is set to make a comeback, the Jimny will get the same 1.5-litre, four-cylinder K15B engine, along with the same 5-speed manual gearbox (and an optional 4-speed automatic). The same AllGrip Pro 4WD that’s found in the mild-hybrid Grand Vitara manual is to be found in the Jimny as well. The engine is good for 105hp which may not prove sufficient for the Jimny, especially when pitted against Mahindra’s 2.0-litre turbo-petrol. Unlike monocoque models like the Brezza and the Grand Vitara, the Jimny is a traditional body-on-frame SUV much like its ancestor, the Gypsy. This makes it a more adept off-roader than the Grand Vitara.

Launch

Although a market launch is scheduled around mid-2023, the Jimny 5-door will break cover at the 2023 Auto Expo, on the 12th of January. Until the arrival of the 5-door Thar, the Jimny will have no direct competitor other than perhaps the Scorpio, in that it too is a 5-door ladder frame SUV, with a hinged rear door and a full-size spare wheel. But the Jimny, with its 4x4 transfer case and low-range mode will be tailored specifically to the needs of off-road aficionados, and, it goes without saying, fans of the Gypsy. With its price point expected to be somewhere between Rs 11 to Rs 18 lakh, the Jimny 5-door is set to go into production later in 2023.