Suzuki Jimny Light Commercial Vehicle review (2023)
Tiny off-road marvel is a tough sell as a van, even by commercial 4x4 standards
PROS
- Very capable off-road
- Well priced
- Standard kit covers the basics
- Keeps the Jimny alive as a two-seater
- Van conversion neatly done
CONS
- Poor on-road driving experience
- Payload rating is just 150kg
- Load area smaller than a Fiesta Van
- Short service intervals
- Not especially cheap to run
Summary
The Suzuki Jimny may be small, but it also something of an off-road icon. So the announcement that the latest version would no-longer be sold as a passenger car in the UK and Europe due to CO2 emissions issues was met with dismay. But Suzuki has found a way round this by reinventing the Jimny as a commercial 4x4, so in 2023 a limited number of Jimny LCVs are available to buy here.
The Suzuki Jimny Light Commercial Vehicle – to give it it’s full title – is, quite simply, the passenger version with the rear seats removed and replaced with a flat load surface. A load partition (a part-mesh metal bulkhead) is added behind the remaining pair of front seats to keep the occupants separate from whatever’s in the back.
Compared with the Jimny car, the van offers slightly more load space than what’s available with the rear seats folded, but it’s still not a very large space. Plus the official payload – just 150kg – is absolutely tiny.
For a more detailed payload explanation as well as info about its size inside and out, see our dedicated Suzuki Jimny van dimensions page.
What is the point of the Suzuki Jimny LCV?
It’s clear that the use case for this vehicle is going to be specific: small, lightweight items that need to be transported to locations away from regular roads. For the Jimny remains an exceptionally capable off-road machine, the mountain goat of the van (and car) world.
Putting its limited working credentials to one side, however, the conversion to light commercial vehicle is a ruse that has allowed Suzuki to keep selling the Jimny to an enthusiastic customer base that mostly only require two seats anyway. So in many respects, that it’s not actually all that good at being a van probably doesn’t matter too much.
Those enthusiasts mostly appreciate the Jimny for its off-road credentials. With old-fashioned recirculating ball steering and a non-turbo 1.5-litre petrol engine, the on-road experience is more of an exercise in toleration than enjoyment. Longer trips and higher speeds are something we would prefer to avoid.
Are there any rivals to the Suzuki Jimny van?
Reasonably aggressive pricing makes the Jimny’s closest rival the new Dacia Duster Commercial – although only the top-spec versions of those are actually four-wheel drive.
The Duster substantially out-does the Jimny for load space and payload, regardless.
If you actually need a serious working 4x4 with lots of both of these, you’re probably best served by the Land Rover Defender Hard Top or the Toyota Land Cruiser Commercial – which both come in short- and long-wheelbase versions, and are properly good off-road as well.
They are substantially more expensive than the Suzuki, though – as are the soon-to-be-discontinued Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Commercial and Mitsubishi Shogun Sport Commercial; Mitsubishi will stop selling vehicles in the UK by the end of 2021.
There are also some extremely proficient off-road vans, including the diminutive Vauxhall Combo Cargo 4x4 and the potentially massive Iveco Daily 4x4. These can carry vast amounts more payload and have far larger load volumes than any commercial 4x4. But they are also expensive, and cruder to drive.
Splitting the difference, a pickup may also be a more suitable vehicle for your needs. These range from utilitarian machines to plush lifestyle and family wagons – you can find out more about the top choices in our best UK pickups article.
Verdict: Is the Suzuki Jimny Light Commercial vehicle any good?
The Suzuki Jimny LCV is a great toy if you want a compact, lightweight off-roader with two seats. As a working tool it’s much harder to justify – unless you need something small but with greater weather protection than a quadbike or ATV (all-terrain vehicle).
And while the price may appear tempting, you’ll have to put that up against the Jimny’s relatively poor on-road experience and its not especially efficient petrol engine. UK supply is quite limited, so even getting hold of one in the first may prove tricky.
Likeable, then, if hardly something we’d ever consider a must buy. The rest of this review goes into the Jimny commercial’s strengths and weaknesses in greater detail.
Skip to our full verdict on...
- Outstanding off-road capability shows the Jimny at its best
- Small, nimble, light and tenacious – with a proper four-wheel drive system
- On-road driving experience is less enjoyable thanks to vague steering
This is very much a tale of two parts, as the Jimny is excellent off-road but pretty horrible to drive on it.
Suzuki Jimny LCV engine details
Under the bonnet is the same 1.5-litre, non-turbo petrol engine as used by the standard Jimny. This produces just 101hp and 130Nm of torque, enough to reach a top speed of 90mph (quite a scary prospect) but not enough for Suzuki to bother quoting a 0-62mph acceleration time.
Picked for its flexibility and linear power delivery, the Jimny’s engine might not be the most exciting motor on the road (especially compared to Suzuki’s excellent turbocharged Boosterjet units) but it certainly gets the job done off it.
Those 101 horses are paired to the same five-speed manual gearbox as the passenger version, too. This has rally-car short ratios and a long gear stick that feels a bit like it’s in second when it’s actually in first. But you soon get used to it. Sat behind this is a stubby lever used to select two- and four-wheel drive, plus an additional low-range 4WD mode for really tricky conditions.
Use the latter on ropey or steep terrain and you’ll need to work the manual gearbox in order to keep the Jimny’s engine from getting bogged down or revving itself into an early grave because of the aforementioned short ratios, but that’s all part of the fun of off-roading, isn’t it?
What’s the Suzuki Jimny commercial 4x4 like off-road?
Where the Jimny has always excelled is making light work of gnarly trails, and it does so by being small and agile, skipping over the surface, in almost complete contrast to many of its lardy and tech-laden rivals.
Take a Land Rover Defender or Discovery into the wilderness and it feels like it bullies the trail – digging into mud to find grip and pushing boulders aside. The Jimny on the other hand tracks along the surface like a needle on a record.
The flipside of that is the Suzuki can get a bit bouncy, particularly on rocky terrain, where the air-suspension of a luxury off-roader would offer more of a cossetting ride. There’s no sophisticated chassis here – you make do with rigid axles and a functional rather than fancy selectable four-wheel-drive system. This should at least prove solid and dependable.
Being so tiny, you thread the Jimny between gaps and pick lines around obstacles that are not available in a large off-roader. This all contributes to a very tangible feeling of invincibility – we’ve driven this car in many different guises and configurations and it’s never felt even remotely phased by tricky terrain. It is absolutely brilliant off-road, in fact.
Check out the Jimny Light Commercial Vehicle off-road stats here:
- Ground clearance: 210mm
- Approach angle: 37 degrees
- Ramp breakover angle: 28 degrees
- Departure angle: 49 degrees
That’s quite the astonishing set of figures, really, and underlines just how nimble this little 4x4 can be.
What’s the Jimny like driving on the road?
Most modern vehicles use precise rack and pinion steering. Not the Jimny, which instead has a recirculating-ball steering system. This is compact but vague – not a problem at low speeds off-road, but can quickly become nerve-inducing at higher speeds on road.
Add to this slightly wobbly steering a bouncy ride, plenty of body roll in the corners and such a short wheelbase (the distance between the front and rear wheels, which has a dramatic impact on stabaility), and you’ve got a vehicle that’s not likely to inspire many drivers to press on.
Despite the front and rear suspension being so close together, there’s a distinct difference between the way the two ends of the car respond, something removing the weight of the rear seats has, we suspect, only exaggerated.
Sudden bumps can really upset the Jimny – and that’s when travelling in a straight line, let alone when you throw in a corner as well. Braking even moderately hard can quickly see the little Suzuki become squirmy to the point of alarm, though the stability control reins things in swiftly.
- Feels somewhat Spartan inside with few luxuries
- Rear seats removed entirely to create load space
- Cramped for larger drivers and passengers
Inside there are no major changes to the passenger car (aside from the lack of rear seats and the riot-grille style bulkhead) but the commercial Jimny is based on a basic spec, so it feels a bit Spartan.
That means no luxuries like heated seats, and a regular stereo rather than a sat-nav screen. The essentials remain, however – the windows are electric and you can connect your phone to the media system via Bluetooth, and there is manual air-conditioning at least.
Plus you do get safety tech like autonomous emergency braking and hill descent control.
The load partition means the seat doesn’t go back as far as it did in the passenger version, so the driving position will feel a bit on the cramped side for a taller driver, but not so much that it’s unusable.
Elsewhere the ergonomics are very good – the long gearstick means it’s never far from reach, and the wheel is large enough without scraping against your knees.
- Inexpensive to buy
- But comparatively costly to run with short service intervals
- Not a great deal of standard equipment
In commercial 4x4 terms, the Jimny LCV is not an expensive vehicle to buy – though in van terms it isn’t very practical beyond its off-road ability, so the sense that you get what you pay for is very clear here. Especially as it also doesn’t come with a huge amount of standard equipment.
Fuel economy, together with the CO2 emissions that have prevented it carrying on as a passenger car aren’t anything to be especially proud of, either. Though that’s hardly unusual for a commercial vehicle.
However, with so few being imported into the UK, it may hold its value well – especially as the Jimny has something of a cult following in 4x4 circles.
Suzuki Jimny Light Commercial Vehicle mpg
Official combined fuel economy for the Jimny van is 36.7mpg.
That’s according to WLTP standards, which we typically find to be reasonably accurate. Expect less if you’re gunning it flat out everywhere, though with such a small payload rating we don’t believe loading it to its legal extent will be a big drain on the fuel tank.
The official CO2 figure is 173g/km – someway off the 95g/km average EU regulations like to see from passenger cars.
Suzuki Jimny Light Commercial vehicle service intervals
Another blow to your running costs budget here: the Suzuki Jimny LCV has service intervals of just 9,000 miles.
Any pickup truck on the market will go at least a third further between dealer visits, with many vans travelling far further than that.
Suzuki Jimny Light Commercial Vehicle warranty
The Jimny’s warranty is three years or 60,000 miles, whichever is sooner.
Again, not especially generous for a commercial, but perhaps not an issue for a vehicle like this, that is most ideally suited to off-road work rather than long-distances.
Suzuki Jimny Light Commercial Vehicle standard equipment
The Jimny van only comes in a single trim level; here are the standard equipment highlights:
- Cruise control with speed limiter
- Electric front windows
- Two 12v sockets – one in the front, one in the cargo area
- Manual air-conditioning
- DAB radio with CD player and two speakers, Bluetooth and USB connector
- Steering wheel audio controls
- Automatic headlights with high-beam assist
- Electric door mirrors
The only factory option is a choice of paint colours.
For details of the safety equipment, see the Safety section below.
- Suzuki is a reliable brand
- But is the Jimny a reliable product?
Only launched as a commercial vehicle in 2021, it’s a little hard to call the Jimny’s reliability in this role.
Suzuki has an excellent reputation as a maker of reliable cars overall, but the Jimny has, on occasion, been called the firm’s ‘problem child’. Older models were prone to rust, and the passenger version of this one has been subject to a few recalls and experienced issues with the way its electronic safety aids function.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that the Jimny wasn’t engineered as a commercial vehicle, and so may not stand up to that kind of life as well as a conventional van.
- Only two airbags
- But a good amount of other safety items
- Alarm and immobiliser as standard
The Jimny Light Commercial Vehicle comes with fairly good amount of standard safety equipment, though only two airbags
Suzuki Jimny Light Commercial Vehicle safety equipment
As well as the expected electronic stability control, the Jimny has an autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system that Suzuki calls Dual Sensor Brake Support, hill-start assist (called Hill Hold Control) and hill descent control.
You also get tyre pressure monitors and eCall, which automatically contacts the emergency services in the event of an accident.
The AllGrip selectable four-wheel drive system should take care of slippery surfaces, too, and there’s a full-size spare wheel mounted on the side-opening tailgate.
Suzuki Jimny Light Commercial Vehicle security equipment
An alarm and immobiliser are fitted as standard, alongside remote locking.
However, unlike other commercial 4x4s, the Jimny's rear side windows haven't been blanked out. Which means would-be thieves can easily see in. Great if there's nothing in there worth stealing, not so great if you've had to leave your tools unattended.
Which Suzuki Jimny Commercial is best for me?
With only one model and engine to choose from, and an options list limited to the choice of colour, the biggest decision you have to make here is whether a Jimny commercial is right for you at all.
If you’re looking for a vehicle to put to work we can’t help thinking there are more practical choices. But with that blend of off-road capability and relatively low cost, we can certainly see the appeal.
Suzuki Jimny Light Commercial Vehicle review, 2021, side view, black, splashing through muddy water
Suzuki Jimny commercial 4x4 review, 2021, rear view, black
Suzuki Jimny commercial 4x4 review, 2021, front view, black, driving through water
Suzuki Jimny commercial 4x4 review, 2021, front view, black, tackling water off-road
Suzuki Jimny commercial 4x4 review, 2021, rear side view, black, driving off-road
Suzuki Jimny van review, 2021, front view, black
Suzuki Jimny commercial 4x4 review, 2021, rear view, black
Suzuki Jimny commercial 4x4 review, 2021, side view, black
Suzuki Jimny commercial 4x4 review, 2021, cab interior, steering wheel, dashboard
Suzuki Jimny commercial 4x4 review, 2021, load area
Suzuki Jimny commercial 4x4 review, 2021, front view, white, splashing through muddy water
Suzuki Jimny commercial 4x4 review, 2021, rear view, white, driving off-road
Suzuki Jimny commercial 4x4 review, 2021, side view, white, fording water
Suzuki Jimny commercial 4x4 review, 2021, rear view, white, driving on track
