New Maruti Jimny 5 door is planned for launch in 2023 – Will be a direct rival to upcoming 5-door Mahindra Thar and Force Gurkha
Arguably, one of the most awaited cars from Maruti in recent years has been the Jimny. There have been multiple flip-flops in media reports, some indicating that Jimny will come to India while others strongly disagreed. However, Jimny fans can finally rejoice as spy-shots of 5-door Jimny undergoing tests across the country.
Interestingly, Maruti has taken some of the test mules to Leh – Ladakh, possibly to test and adapt Jimny’s off-roading capability for Indian conditions. Latest spy shots of Jimny 5 door were clicked in the city testing condition. Hat tip to Prabhi Singh for sharing the spy video.
Maruti Jimny 5 Door Manual K15B Petrol
Jimny carries a butch and upright stance in terms of design. It looks boxy and adventure ready. A thick bumper, slatted grille, large alloys and prominent fenders add to its masculine appeal. In India, we have been seeing only 5-door test mules, indicating that the Indian market will be getting a 5-door variant only. Internationally, Jimny is sold in 3-door avatars.
Under the hood, Jimny feature a 1.5 litre K15 petrol motor which should be able to dish out about 104 bhp and 138 Nm of peak torque. It will be mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox as standard and an AT functionality might be provided as an option. Globally, Jimny gets a 4×4 system with a low-range transfer case.
In terms of features, Jimny isn’t known to boast of a long creature comfort list. However, we can still expect Maruti to bring in some key features, which have almost become necessary in today’s times. Maruti could bring in a 9-inch touchscreen infotainment unit, steering mounted audio controls, FATC (Fully Automatic Temperature Control), Auto ORVMs etc in the Jimny. The leaked photo also shows the presence of LED headlight.
On the safety front, Maruti could bring in 6-airbags, ABS with EBD, traction control, hill descent control and hill hold control in 5-door Jimny. International model (3-door variant) also gets high beam assist, weaving alert, dual sensor brake support (DSBS), traffic sign recognition and lane departure warning.
Competition and Launch
Competition for Jimny is all set to rise as both, Mahindra and Force have been working upon 5-door iterations of their products from this segment. Mahindra is clearly the segment leader as of now, with its new gen Thar and Force is trying to improve its market share with its Gurkha. Both manufacturers are now working upon 5-door versions of Thar and Gurkha.
Jimny is relatively the smallest of the lot (in terms of size) and with a limited feature list and heavy localization, it could very well undercut Thar and Gurkha in terms of pricing. An aggressive pricing could help Maruti to gain massive market share and at the same time, expand the segment.
