Sometimes it can feel like enthusiasts’ cars don’t get the love they deserve. Manual transmissions have been abandoned by the masses and tons of folks keep buying soft SUVs that lack off-road capability and ride like cars. That’s why it’s so refreshing to hear that, according to an Autocar interview with Suzuki’s UK boss, the new body-on-frame, solid axle-having, boxy Jimny is coming out of the gate hot.
I haven’t driven the new Jimny yet, but I love the way it looks, and I like the fact that it’s retained its rugged, old-school solid-axle suspension and frame despite their inherent on-road drawbacks.
So that’s why I’m delighted to hear about Autocar’s talk with Suzuki UK boss Dale Wyatt, who told the site that 4,500 people had signed up on the company’s website as “interested” in the new Jimny. This, Autocar says, is “a first for the brand,” and represents “150 percent of the previous model’s best annual volume.”
Meeting that demand could be an issue, because apparently folks in Japan are also excited about the Jimny, with Autocar writing:
The problem for Suzuki is going to be the number it can build, because demand in Japan has been “staggering”. Wyatt is looking at 1100 cars in the first year and then 2000 per year thereafter.
Two thousand cars a year may not sound like much, but Suzuki only sold about 1,000 of the outgoing models a month throughout Europe according to Carsalesbase.
It seems people actually appreciate the boxy little niche off-roader; proving that there is in fact a car god.