One long weekend, we went down South going to the province of Laguna, Santa Cruz bound. There’s something quietly rebellious about this Suzuki Jimny 5-door. While most SUVs keep ballooning in size, weight, and price, Suzuki’s pocket-sized off-roader has simply added a pair of rear doors and said, “That’ll do.” The result is a charming, body-on-frame 4×4 that still feels more like a tool than a fashion statement — and one that, for once, delivers proper off-road credibility without the bulk.
The Japanese manufacturer made it really compact, and to be honest, it’s a very nasty tiny beast of its own! It packs a nasty punch especially when your outdoors, offroad and jumpacked. Before this, i was able to drive the 3-door as well on a short trip up North to Clark last year, and it really had the same feel and comfort without discount the power they put into this compact SUV.
Every family trip with friends will surely be full of adventure especially if you have modified this to a camping tent with a sleeping area and i was surprised quite a lot of Jimny’s were present in that area during that long weekend.
The Engine: Small, Honest, and Surprisingly Efficient
Under the bonnet sits Suzuki’s familiar 1.5-litre K15B four-cylinder petrol, producing around 102 hp and 130 Nm of torque. Those are modest numbers on paper, but the Jimny weighs barely 1.2 tonnes, so it never feels anaemic around town. The engine is mated to either a five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic — a sign of Suzuki’s “if it ain’t broke” philosophy.
First order of business is breakfast so we head out to our favorite spot in Calamba, Laguna. The cockpit of the Suzuki Jimny isn’t intimidating and doesn’t set off lady drivers unlike the big and bulky SUVs out there in the market. This makes city and country driving where parking maybe an issue. The Suzuki Jimny 5-door 4×4 SUV fits any small size parking just like Japanese homes are made.
Fuel economy is one of the Jimny’s quiet achievements. The 5-door is officially rated at around 6.4–6.8 L/100km on the WLTP combined cycle, depending on transmission. In real-world driving, owners typically report figures in the high-6s to low-7s, which is remarkable for a vehicle with proper low-range gearing and a body-on-frame chassis. The 40-litre tank translates to a realistic range of roughly 550–600 km between fill-ups, making the Jimny a genuinely viable daily driver, not just a weekend toy.
AllGrip Pro: Real 4×4, Not Just a Badge
This is where the Jimny earns its stripes. Suzuki’s AllGrip Pro system is a part-time four-wheel-drive setup with a low-range transfer case — the same hardware architecture you’d find on serious off-roaders costing twice as much. A centre console lever lets you toggle between 2H, 4H, and 4L on the fly at low speeds, locking the centre differential for maximum traction.
Key off-road hardware includes:
- Solid axles front and rear with a three-link coil-spring suspension — the proper setup for articulation over rocks and ruts.
- Ground clearance of around 210 mm, with approach, departure, and breakover angles that embarrass most crossovers.
- Hill Descent Control and Hill Hold Control standard across the range, automatically managing throttle and braking on steep gradients.
- A ladder-frame chassis that resists twisting forces far better than the monocoque construction used in soft-roaders.
In short, this is not a styling exercise. The Jimny 5-door can wade through water, scramble up rutted tracks, and tackle terrain that would leave many modern “SUVs” searching for a tow truck.
The 5-Door Difference
Adding the rear doors has stretched the wheelbase from 2,250 mm to 2,590 mm, which sounds modest on paper but transforms daily usability. Rear-seat passengers finally have actual legroom, and the boot has grown meaningfully behind the second row. It’s still compact — overall length is just 3,825 mm — which means it slips into parking bays, narrow city lanes, and overgrown trails that would defeat a Land Cruiser.
The extra length has done little to dent the Jimny’s off-road geometry, thanks to its short overhangs. Visibility remains exceptional thanks to upright glass and slim pillars, and the turning circle is tight enough for U-turns on forest tracks.
The Honest Trade-Offs
No car is perfect, and the Jimny 5-door makes no apology for its priorities. The 1.5-litre engine feels breathless above 100 km/h, the automatic gearbox is slow to think, and refinement on the motorway is more agricultural than luxurious. Safety equipment has improved with modern driver assists, but it remains a small, light vehicle by contemporary standards.
And that’s precisely the point. The Jimny 5-door is a vehicle that knows what it is. It’s not pretending to be a family hauler, a luxury cruiser, or an EV. It’s a small, honest, mechanically simple 4×4 that will outclimb cars costing three times as much, return genuinely frugal fuel economy, and put a smile on your face every time you slot it into four-low.
In a market obsessed with size and screen real estate, that’s a rare kind of charm.
Approximate vehicle specifications. Fuel economy figures based on WLTP combined cycle; real-world results vary with driving style, terrain, and load.
