The Suzuki Jimny (aka Samurai) Story 

Erratum: When I said Suzuki exited the North American market in 1995, it wasn't clear that I meant the Samurai had exited, not all Suzuki cars.

I've never been impressed with Consumer Reports, they treat cars like an appliance. But I believe they attacked the Samurai, like they did, because SOMEONE put money in their pockets to do it. Chevy and Ford both had off road vehicles, and Jeep definitely would have had reasons to see the little Suzuki 4X4 go away.

Suzuki Jimny: *exists* Consumer Reports: WHY WON'T YOU JUST TIP OVER?!

Here in the mountains of Romania the Suzuki Jimny is almost ubiquitous. Funny how we have very curvy roads but I've never seen a rolled over Jimny, while I see a crashed or rolled over BMW almost every week. Consumer Reports is trash.

I own a 16 year old Suzuki Samurai 1300 CC MPFI with a wide track and longer wheel base. It has been sold as the Maruti Suzuki Gypsy in India since 1985. They stopped production in 2019. In all these 35 years, the biggest customers for this vehicle have been the Armed Forces and Police and Govt agencies. And this is because it is a completely versatile vehicle. Total 100% reliability. Lightweight and narrow. Easy to literally go anywhere and be sure of getting there. It is a superb little vehicle. And I am not selling mine. Thank you!

Almost 10 years ago I worked for a very remote cattle station in Western Australia. Guess what we had a fleet of to aid in mustering on that million acre station.. No one can tell me they are not one of the best off road vehicles ever made. In a place so remote that reliability is life or death, where new parts are a 14 hour drive away through the desert, where a car needs to survive everything you can throw at it. A car when if all else fails, a few of you can grab it and physically lift it out. Yuppies stopped buying it for fear of it rolling over on the way to the wine bar? Ha. Do me a lemon. Brilliant car.

The second gen Jimny is known as the Sierra in Australia and is still popular even today. They are long lived and very reliable, far more so than the Land rovers being compared to in the video. 🙂 Built in a time when the Japanese companies actually built their cars in Japan and monitored their quality standards. As a young mechanic, I worked on a few LJ50 models and loved the very simple nature of the cars. Everything was on the car for a purpose, there were no extras 👍 Really love the true to spirit look and design of the latest Jimny 👌

The Samurai was my first 'new car' purchase back in late 1988. It was perfect. I still love it so much that I recently bought a replacement 34 years later! It went anywhere. No issues of rolling over and I even turned around on an approximately 75 percent grade off road.

I bought a used Samurai as my first car back in 1992. I live in Greece and its small dimensions, lightweight and perfect off-road abilities made it the ideal car for visiting every single island. Not so highway worthy, but omg, I've managed to reach with it so many beautiful but difficult to get to beaches. I bought many off-roaders ever since but I still miss how spartan and easy to fix this car was.

It's a absolute design masterpiece equal to the Defender in its rightness of purpose.

It didn't fail in India... Its a legend here.. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️Gypsy King

K.Pratt I once owned both hardtop and convertible Samurai models. Excellent in bad weather conditions, open fields. Reliable, great gas mileage; both engines quit and the engine blocks split and broke in the same area. Gave them both to a guy called the Suzuki Doctor here in Nashville, TN. I still miss them. Thanks Suzuki!

In Italy the little Sukuzi is very popular, especially on the mountain area, for they are unstoppable on the snow. It is not unusual seeing Sukuzi dating back from the early 80’s! Great video anyway, very captivating as usual!

The best 4x4 ever. Because is a great 4x4 and its cheap too. We want the Fiat Panda story :D

I have owned 3 over the years, absolute bulletproof reliability. And extremely capable off road! Love them👍

In germany many people call the new Jimny the small G-Wagon, becuase of the design. But I like the new one. No round design, no downsizing engine.

In Canada, we had the LJ80 then the SJ410 which evolved into the Samurai. All of them were fantastic off-road. Lovely machines.

Being from the states, I didn't know it's history. These are in high demand here now. They've always been fantastic 4x4s. I truly wish they sold the new version here. What a great little gem!

I drove mine with common sense and I remembered it was an off-road vehicle being used on road. Only careless and inexperienced drivers gave it a bad reputation.

Honestly one of your best vids. I've always been a Jeep fan (still am) and as a teenager and early-20's adult with a CJ5 I remember joking about the Suzuki "Somersault". Years later, I came to appreciate what a simple, reliable, lightweight, and capable offroader it really was. It's criminal CR was allowed to slander them and drive them out of the market, and the latest version would be a hit here in the US with the 'retro' movement the Defender and Bronco are leading. Honestly, I'd love one if it was really affordable tody!

Thank you for this video! I have a 1986 Suzuki Samurai, it was my first car and I still drive it! Never lets me down! And, still has the original motor!

My mate drove to mongolia from northern england and back in a £400 jimny he absolutley loved that car

This is such an underrated channel! You make great content, keep it up!

There was once a flood in my city. All cars were trapped including Landrovers. All, except this one brave Jimney. The car went on despite the water was already at the same level as the hood.

Nice! It would be really cool though if the new Jimmy was sold in the US, as a Bronco/Wrangler competitor. Also really dig that Lego display, too! :)

I wish Suzuki would return to the US market. I owned two of them ( a Swift GT and Aerio SX ). They were the best cars and you got a lot for your money. I would definitely buy another one given the chance.

I used to have a friend that had one of those. Man, that thing would go ANYWHERE! 😆

I absolutely love my Suzuki Samurai, had it since 2011 and I’ll never get rid of it. And to those who need more power to keep up with modern traffic, swap in the 1.6 MPFI engine from the larger Suzuki Sidekick/Vitara

I have a friend with an 88 Samurai. It's absolutely brilliant. Super capable, and equally at home on a snowy mountain road or driving along the beach.

The SJ 410 was the first car which drove with my grandfather (3 Years old), and it was the first car which drove entirely alone (6-7 years old). I drove it up on an old broken ruin. He even has it nowadays and he drives it still with his 4x4 club.

I imported my '93 Jimny to Canada from Japan this year and I love it! Very cheap and very easy to build up into a seriously capable offroader!

My first new car was an1987 Samurai. At 7995. plus tax it was a bargain. It came with manual everything and I had to pay extra for a back seat and a mount so I could put in a radio. It was super reliable and great off-road and in the snow. If the sold the Jimny in the U.S. I would buy one.

One of our friends dad has a Samurai 410(Santana) bought in 87 . It still works well and has done 500.000 km with the same engine!!!

It was a sad day when Suzuki left Canada a few years ago. We haven't seen a Jimny since 95 but the Vitara was here till the end.

I live in Arizona and I have a 1986 Samurai and it will go anywhere I point it. It has no top end but the places I drive it you can't go fast anyway. This is a unique vehicle to say the least. I have summer doors and winter doors, they just lift off to change, put on a half top for shade or a full top for warmth. The engine has been overhauled, there is no rust anywhere and it's never been rolled. It's worth more now than when it was new. I wish I would have known the value would appreciate so much, I would have kept my other ones,( this is my fourth one). I don't think I will ever part with it.

Greetings from Canada , I've had several of those little 80s Suzy's , they were the real deal , straight axel , short wheelbase tough as hell ! Just as bad ass as an old Toyota , wish I could find one !

My 2 jimnys are members of the family, the older one is retired to light duty as a picking vehicle on the farm. My main works vehicle and daily driver is used everywhere, and we are hoping to wecome our newest arrival next year. For those who need one there is no other.

I wish it was still sold in the US, I love the current gen one.

I had the joy of renting a Jimny in the Greek island of Kefalonia for six weeks in 2015 the little car was made in the mid ninety's and I loved it to bits! I was working as a hotel and villa safety auditor so had to navigate all kinds of crappy roads and mountains to get to some of the properties. I doubt the little guy had ever been serviced properly but every day without fail it started and took me on my journey ... what a car!

My first 4wd was a Suzuki LJ50 with a 3 cylinder 539cc engine and raw 2 stroke power. Although it sounded like a lawnmower, it would run rings around anything out bush, a brilliant little vehicle. Never tipped it over on the road, very stable...but did tip it over a couple of times on rough goat tracks. No problems it was just pushed back up on it's feet to keep going. Pulled out a bogged Range Rover once - told me my car wouldn't be up to it; then drove straight through the bog afterwards.

I still have my 1988 Samurai jx. Is not fast but gets me everywhere when Im off-roading.

So glad I found this video. Well done. I still daily drive my 87 Samurai and its never let me down. I love driving it. I wish Suzuki was still in the US.

I had an 87 longbody with the fiberglass top. It was a surplus vehicle sold off by the Canadian military. It was unstoppable and it could pull absolutely everything! If I could get one in Canada , I'd buy it today !

I actually think the new Suzuki jimny is the best retro design of all manufacturers. They haven't tried to hard to incorporate old looks into a modern car. A++ to the designers, you guys knocked it outta the oark

So glad somebody finally makes a good history video about this amazing vehicle. I own two, a 3rd gen 2003 16-valve SOHC G13BB version and a 2nd gen 1998 JA22W 660CC K6A turbocharged version. These will go anywhere and will keep up with any other stock off roader (including my buddy's defender), and in some cases will go even further than others. I love them both and I'm never selling my G13BB baby. You did make a few small mistakes here and there in the video, but the biggest one is stating the 3rd gen came outright with the dashboard buttons to select between 2wd, 4wd and 4wd low, but this update only happened with the facelift models in 2005 you mention later. The 4th gen also uses a lot more design elements from the 2nd gen instead of the 1st gen you show. I also don't think you truly emphasized enough how far Consumer reports went to discredit the Samurai. They altered the course ONLY because they wanted it to tip and discredit it because it was was a Japanese car which actually TIPPED LESS than the American competitors it was actively outselling. They made it run the course over 70 times while testing the others on a simpler course only 15 times, and outright lied about it tipping over easily by a simple manoeuvre without doing 'stunt driver steering imputs', but video footage shows the test drivers turning the steering wheel over more than 2 full rotations in seconds in attempts make it tip, and kept bragging about it for years how they destroyed the sales of one of the best selling SUV's of the day.

I live in Japan (Kumagaya) and I'm buying a Jimny! Black JB64. Gunna be sweet!

Jimny has a long waiting list in Australia. The name quietly changed from Sierra to Jimny some time ago.

I purchased a Samurai a few months ago instead of a UTV/side by side off-road machine and I definitely made the right choice. My little Samurai has become my daily driver and off-road, this little thing is like a mountain goat and I have a heater (nice to have here in the rockies of southwest Colorado) and I don't have to trailer. Turns out the Samurai has incredible off-road capability and I rarely truly need 4-wheel drive. In addition to it's off-raod ability, I think it's the spartan, no-frills design that I like. The gearbox has a definite mechanical sound to it as you go thru the gears, and it's extremely economical to drive. She's happiest on back country roads and or speed at about 50-60 mph but mine will easily cruise at 65-70 but she's turning a lot of rpm and her highway manners are not the best with minimal soundproofing. I filled up today on the way home from work taking 6.8 gallons of gasoline after traveling 183 miles which is 26.9 gal per mile. Not bad for a 1.6L 8 valve engine (mine has a transplanted engine from a '91 Tracker. I'm looking forward to driving it this winter in the snow !

Called as maruti suzuki gyspy in india . One of the offroading legend

The Gypsy,still have it runs good,safety:0,utility: 💯.

A mate brought a second hand Jimny a few years back & i was ripping the piss for months!!. We then took it out shooting a few rabbits one night & i had to take it all back, amazing little off roader, it was getting us through some places another mates Land rover had made look hard!. It earned my respect!.

My father had this vehicle way back in 1976, and I used to drive it around. It was a great little 4X4. It was called 'The Steel Donkey' in my country!

When I first saw a Samurai I thought what a toy. I needed some transportation and had a chance to buy a 1988, it brought back the joy of driving. Ran into some hard times and had to sell it. Wish I hadn't, I had more fun driving the Samurai, than any car I have ever owned Never found a place it couldn't get me into and out of, never felt unstable, and never let me down. If I ever find another that I can afford, I will get it. More smiles per mile that any other car I have ever owned.

This is my favorite off roader and always well be. Thanks for sharing.😀

I love the car's honesty, the fact that is an underdog, funny that along its entire history its always seemed to missed the spotlight, funnily enough the story is repeating here in Europe with the redraw o the new model. In the last 10 years always rented Jimnnys in the summer vacations on the Greek and Balearic islands, such a cheerful character, absolute of-road mountain goat, exploring wild beaches and going on mountain trails is an absolute blast.

I had the LJ80 as a young man. Did everything, went everywhere. How I wish I still had it.

I have to say the jimny deserves such a video!

I work at a Suzuki dealer, so regularly work on the 2 recent generations, but it's interesting to find out the history of it. Btw I'm surprised you didn't mention how the sales of the current generation Jimny have been strangled by CO2 average company emission rules (as it's Suzuki's thirstiest car in the UK, and Europe too I believe). As a result they switched to making a van version, which are not covered those rules! lol. Demand far out strips supply!

A few years ago my wife and I were sitting at home when I heard a fast approaching car. A few tyre blips and crash and scraping sounds later it went quiet. Upon walking outside I saw a dude climbing out the driver's side window of a yep Suzuki Jimny. 20 minutes later 5 guys show up, tip it back onto its wheels and drove off 😆😁😁😆🇦🇺

Great little trucks! I towed a Ford Transit Beavertail complete with a Ford Focus off the M6 once with a 1 litre Van version! The Transit driver couldn’t believe it! Low range off course but it did it and dragged the Transit 3 miles to the services from the hard shoulder where it had broken down due to a failed cam belt! Unreal little Trucks.

Good to know the history of the Jimny. So the Gypsy which I am using for last 8 years as my primary car is descendant of Hope Star 😊🤘

In Australia they were called Sierra and aso sold by Holden (GM), who called it the Drover. LWB models also had a fibreglass roof and back wall added to the cab to become the stockman ute.

It's called Gypsy here in India and has earned a tittle of Mountain Goat. Mostly used by enthusiasts and Millitary, Gypsy is one of the most respected off roader in my country

So glad you mentioned India and our Indian Gypsy. Although gypsy failed in sales, it has a huge fan following now in India. People are building them to be extremely capable off-roaders and doing all kind of crazy stuff with them. The indian army is still receiving the 2nd gen gymny (Gypsy) on special request from the Indian government. The prices for Gypsy s in the used market is very high due to high demand. It is the only petrol powered off roader India got so it is still a favourite for all the off road enthusiasts.

I had a Samurai years ago. The 1.0 engine was slow and had no confort on the road, but of road it was great!

Another great video! My grandpa owned the first two generations (One of them he keeps for farm work) and I might buy a new one. Mighty little cars.

Have an 87 samurai and its the beat and most fun vehicle I have ever owned.

I love these Suzuki's. I had an 88 samurai and it was awesome off road! Jumped like a quad. Gas mileage was incredible also!

Damn I want one! The new one is absolutely amazing and special! Thank you for this really pleasent story! In Greek islands there are a lot of Jimnys because of rough roads and hard to cruise landscapes!

These history lessons are fabulous for their detail!

The ideal vehicle for those wishing to get into off roading seriously, because they are highly affordable, there are tons of parts available to modify them, they are easy to work on and pretty reliable too.

I have the current generation and I absolutely love this car - my other car is a 2018 5 series but I cannot help but gravitate back to this little charmer. I get so many waves in the Jimny from fellow owners and other drivers. It did take 12 months to arrive but I love the darn thing.

Big Car saves my sanity once again. Top work as always, sir. :)

I remember the Suzuki Samurai. It was sold back in the 1980s. I was still too young to drive at the time, but I used to know people who have owned them, and despite its reputation for tipping over when making emergency manoeuvres, they didn't have any such handling problems.

We had a Samurai in when they first hit the shores in the USA and I went to own a Tracker in the late nineties and again in the mid 2000's. Great vehicles for the purpose of their design. CR is the poster child for why we should not believe the media. Sad that we cannot have these vehicles here because I would love another one.

Aka Suzuki Sierra & Holden Drover for Australian markets. extremely popular with farmers especially the ones with the flat beds on the back. Easy to drive & very simple layout. The small engines never suited me but friends I know who bought them, swear by them. When the Vitara came along I bought those due to the larger engine. I'm amazed that Suzuki 4x4's were never popular as these things defied what you threw at it. I've even seen them tow out the bigger boys when they got stuck due to their weight. I've driven plenty over the years & if you want something ultra-reliable, you'll never look back. I'm very tempted at the moment to buy the current model & watching this reiterates why I want one. Great story.

sadly Indians won''t get the new jimny, it didn't fail, the factory were not bothered to fix the car. plus MPVs became huge deal at that time

The new 4th generation jimny is a beautiful car imo

As the owner of a 2016 3rd gen Jimny, I can confirm that these little cars are fantastic. They are super capable and practical. I wouldn't trade it in for any other car.

My uncle has had two gen 3 jimnys and I almost bought a gen4 this year. See them around pretty often around Australia

08:04 Im watching this video precisely from Chile Greetings from the end of the world And keep up the good work!

Thanks for reminding me of this vehicle. You are correct, here in the States we don't even know they still exist. Shame, the latest is awesome looking. I owned a Samurai hardtop for a short while in the late 80's. It was a fun little car. I came close to rolling over once when someone pulled out from the side of the road and hit the right rear wheel. I didn't roll over fortunately, but I did go a few yards on 2 wheels. Fun times!

Funny story that maybe they wouldn't get in Japan. Here in Canada (Greater Vancouver BC area) we got the first glimpse of these little buggers in the early 80s or so. The LJ80 model from what I see here is what I recall. I had a buddy that spotted them at a local car dealer. I believe it was the Ford dealer locally who brought them in or possibly the motorsports dealer next door to the Ford store. My friend who was an avid outdoors type had had owned a couple of interesting off-road 2 cycle powered tracked vehicles for fun and hunting but thought something more street-able was the ticket. He saw these little Suzuki rigs and thought that would be just the vehicle to take hunting etc. He said "let's go check those little ATV buggies out" I want to measure one and see if it will fit in the back of my Chevy pickup truck. I'll tell you, it was quite a moment when the salesman started talking MPG and highway speeds to my pal. He just laughed at the salesman and said "ya, if you could license them for the street!" "no" said the salesman, they are a fully functional street vehicle. "They can run up to like 60MPH." In the words of Thin Lizzy; "man we just fell about the place". We were pretty sure the salesman was off his rocker. No way these things are street driven. Thus was our introduction to the now iconic little 4x4s that took Canada by storm as well. Well the 2nd generation did. Those early ones never really were taken seriously. That is until one pulled up to me at a traffic light!

I love my samurai SJ413 from 1995,what a 4x4, it still amaze me how tought he his.

Fantastic video - I especially like the Land Rover comparison: spot on 👍🇬🇧🇯🇵

Love the videos you make, really enjoyed this episode of the Suzuki sj I have the grand vitara and I love it never let me down and surprisingly capable off road, not a flying machine especially when it’s designed like a brick but good fun

I remember back in high school, one of my buddy's older sister had a "Samurai". I thought they were pretty cool, not realizing how under powered they were for US roads. I'd still take one today for around town driving, or for dirt roads to go camping and/or fishing.

I still drive my 1990 Suzuki Sierra sj70 (Australian name for Jimny/sj413) 50km a day in city traffic and taken it from Canberra to Cape York and into the desert. They are cheap to fix and go anywhere. Only things letting them down off road are the lack of power in 5th (so it hates hills at highway speeds), and the low range could be lower for crawling (but they are still pretty unstoppable)

Had one, and I regret selling it.

I spent a month driving an old Jimny around Costa Rica. Hilly off road tracks and river crossings no problem.

I knew a mechanic whose mum owned a Jimny in the 80s. It had a commercial conversion kit to install a Toyota 4K motor (1290cc). Compared to the original motor he said "it could climb a vertical wall".

I remember a snow storm hit and i couldn't get up a steep hill with my groceries... a neighbor stopped in his sidekick and we just went up with no problem at all....I was very impressed. No other car was able to make it. the sidekick was in its element.

I have a 2018 gypsy... In india It is awesome on snowy himalays

Thank you for all your wonderful videos. I’m from the USA so I appreciate hearing about cars that either never made to my shored or left this market but continue around the globe. Again thank you.

I had a 91 Samurii lifted on 33s. I miss that thing. It would go anywhere.

I drove my 87 Samurai on the Stampede Trail in AK, best 4x4 I ever had!

Thanks for the detailed review. This is quite a very capable yet an underrated car.In Kenya,they were commonly used by govt veterinary officers and was advertised in drum magazines as "farmers gumboot"

Love my '96 Vitara convertible to death, just a fun car to enjoy the back roads in the region in the weekends. Great to see the whole Jimny story and the short branch of the Vitara/Sidekick, although the Vitara is not a larger version; it's more sort of a luxury SUV styled variant.

I love suzuki samurai and Jimmy open roofs or hard top etc i love them all 😍😘❤👍

I sure wish we had the Jimny here in the US. What a cool and capable vehicle! Suzuki builds the perfect 4x4-good size, good performance, turning circle like a go kart and bulletproof mechanicals. I've got a 2004 Vitara 4 door 5 speed V6 and it's driven daily in a variety of situations, including off road. Never been stuck, never had a mechanical issue. They just don't break. It's the perfect 4x4-Jeeps are too big, too plush and too costly. If Suzuki came back to the US I'd buy a Jimny as soon as I could.