Would You Buy A Suzuki Jimny For A TOAD, If Available?

[Ex-Calif]

Had a Suzuki Sidekick ragtop when we lived in Hawaii in the early 90's. It was the perfect Hawaii car. All plastic interior and mats with floor plugs. Get home from the beach, pull the mats and plugs and hose it out.

I would definitely have a vehicle like this if they were still made.

 

[Tulecreeper]

My brother in law worked at a dealership that sold Suzukis. I walked into his bay and there was a Samurai engine taken apart. It had a broken crankshaft. A lawnmower engine has a beefier crankshaft!

On the other hand, if it had more horsepower it would probably kill you.

I feel the same about Hyundai vehicles. When I was a teenager, Hyundai made 2nd-string yard equipment like weedeaters and leaf blowers. Then the name went away for a number of years. Then all of a sudden I started seeing cars with the name on them. Never trusted a car made by a weedeater company.

 

[Skookum]

I had a pretty strong distaste for Kia/Hyundai. They built junk in the 80's and spent decades producing cheap cars with imitative styling. But now, I regard them as generally good cars and many of them are actually excellent by objective measurements.

Suzuki has always built generally good vehicles too, the Samurai being very long-lived, reliable. As a big dude I just don't enjoy truly small vehicles. Some SxS feel bigger than a Samurai, and they are! lol

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I think Americans are preoccupied with HP. The knock on our 4cyl. Outback was it’s underpowered. It merges in Dallas traffic with ease. It cruises at 80 here in Texas with no problem. Not exactly sure why it needs more HP.

No, it's American car magazine writers that are enamored with Hp & torque, not to mention extreme cornering and maneuvering. Most of the rest of us are more focused on comfort and decent fuel economy and are satisfied with merely adequate performance. But folks like that don't buy car magazines or follow car blogs, so the writers give them only a few sentences of coverage.

 

[Ex-Calif]

I would argue that Americans, or more precisely boomers, are enamored with displacement.

The F1 1.6L V6 produces around 850hp and around 1,000 when the electric kicks in...



And if you wanna have something that you or I might be able to afford. How about a 345hp 4-banger...



Having said that, I'll still take a late60's muscle car any day - LOL...

 

[Onyrlef]

I had a pretty strong distaste for Kia/Hyundai. They built junk in the 80's and spent decades producing cheap cars with imitative styling. But now, I regard them as generally good cars and many of them are actually excellent by objective measurements.

Suzuki has always built generally good vehicles too, the Samurai being very long-lived, reliable. As a big dude I just don't enjoy truly small vehicles. Some SxS feel bigger than a Samurai, and they are! lol

In S. Korea automakers and the like are heavily subsidized by the gov't in their start up phases. In many cases entrepeneurs were brought into a smoky back room and not given much choice in the matter.

 

[CharlesinGA]

There are some fairly good engine conversions for a Samurai, notably the 1.6L 16 valve from a later model Sidekick (or other).

Charles

 

[CharlesinGA]

Spotted this in Spearfish SD while walking from the campground to the Enterprise rental car place about 4 blocks away.

Charles

Mini G Wagen anyone?

 

[Ray-IN]

If street legal and emissions legal, and flat towable, why not? Lots of Suzuki Surami, Suzuki and Geo models use for TOADs, so why not? Thing is, you cannot, it isn't street legal in the US.

Charles

I wonder if one may be imported from Canada? The downside is, in Canada a 2023 Suzuki JImny is $42,686. A 2002 model is $12,xxx.

 

[IBTripping]

I had a Sidekick for a while. Loved it. Great offroad vehicle that only sipped fuel and was easy to repair. However, I've always preferred vehicles with a lot of horsepower. But, a 1,000 hp vehicle doesn't appeal to me. And would most likely get me in a lot of trouble.

 

[ButchW]

Well, I pulled the lil' beast out to the desert (Anderson Dry Lake, CA) this weekend.... It performed flawlessly, both in towing, and playing mountain goat... I didn't use it a lot, because my Son has a new Polaris RZR (SxS) that we were going really fast in... The Samurai will go about any place the RZR will, but at a much, much slower pace... Both vehicles fun but in a different way... And, in deed, the RZR is bigger in every dimension than the Samurai.... So the Zuk will go places the RZR won't fit.....
Butch

 

[Old_Crow]

Well, I pulled the lil' beast out to the desert (Anderson Dry Lake, CA) this weekend.... It performed flawlessly, both in towing, and playing mountain goat... I didn't use it a lot, because my Son has a new Polaris RZR (SxS) that we were going really fast in... The Samurai will go about any place the RZR will, but at a much, much slower pace... Both vehicles fun but in a different way... And, in deed, the RZR is bigger in every dimension than the Samurai.... So the Zuk will go places the RZR won't fit.....
Butch

I watch Matt's Off-Road Recovery on YouTube. Last year he built a vehicle billed as the World's Largest Off-Road Wrecker. This year he's starting a Samari that he's calling the World's Smallest Off-Road Wrecker. The stated purpose of the Sammy is going to be to recover broken side-by-sides on the width limited trails that they have in his area.

 

[Ray-IN]

No, it's American car magazine writers that are enamored with Hp & torque, not to mention extreme cornering and maneuvering. Most of the rest of us are more focused on comfort and decent fuel economy and are satisfied with merely adequate performance. But folks like that don't buy car magazines or follow car blogs, so the writers give them only a few sentences of coverage.

Yup, my 1932 Chevrolet Confederate BA has a 194CI, in-line 6 cyl.(stove-bolt 6) with 85 HP and a 5:36 differential. It ain't fast but it gets there.
I wonder what would happen to today's automobile fuel mileage if the industry applied the same 100# to 1 HP we use to gauge MH performance?

 

[Oldgator73]

We bought a Suzuki Samari back in the late 80’s for an assignment to Hawaii. The assignment was canceled and we ended up in Louisiana. Neat little vehicle. Wish I still had it.