Suzuki Australia gets together with a number of Suzuki 4X4 clubs to celebrate 50 years of Suzuki Jimny.
Photos & video: Offroad Images
50 years of Suzuki Jimny?! Thats right! The most diminutive of all 4X4s has clocked up half a century. To celebrate the milestone, Suzuki Australia got together with several Suzuki 4X4 clubs for an off-road tour around Belanglo State Forest just south of Sydney, NSW.
Suzuki Australia’s General Manager, Michael Pachota, took part in the festivities and said, “The idea was to get everyone in the one place to celebrate the 50 year anniversary of the Suzuki Jimny… we chose some fantastic fire trails to take the Jimny vehicles, and some of those Grand Vitaras as well, on a fantastic adventure that was put together by some of the local community four-wheel drive clubs which are dominant in Suzukis.”
“It was awesome today to get everybody together, in this forest, to do these fire trails together, and some of the old girls turned up, some of the old Suzuki Sierras, the LJs, it was awesome to see the JB74s all come together, current Jimny owners, having fun like you should in a Suzuki.”
Pachota freely admits that he’s no seasoned off-roader, but he relished the opportunity to take the “old JBOX” out into the bush and get it all dirty. The Jimny JBOX was the first of the new-generation Jimnys brought into Australia, and it was sent off to ARB early in the piece to be kitted out with pre-production gear such as bull bar, roof rack, side steps and more… which it still wears to this day.
Pachota said that demand for the current generation Jimny was absolutely still outstripping supply… and he hinted that there could be other Jimny-based “platforms” in the future, possibly suggesting a long-rumoured long-wheelbase Jimny could be on the cards?
When questioned about the possibility of a long-wheelbase Jimny… and a ute variant, Pachota responded, “We can’t confirm that just yet, but I’d like to say if it starts with Jimny, it’s definitely going to work in the Australian market.”
It looks like the Jimny is in a solid position for the next 50 years.
See the gallery blow for some of the action from the trip celebrating 50 years of Suzuki Jimny.