The light at the end of the tunnel for a production pause on the three-door Jimny is drawing closer, as stock left in dealers is whittled down.
The three-door Suzuki Jimny 4WD is confirmed for a return to Australian showrooms – after going on hiatus earlier this year – once it is engineered with updated crash-avoidance technology to meet new regulations.
But it's yet to be confirmed when the Jimny three-door will go back on sale, and production for Australia will resume before stock in dealers runs out.
The five-door Jimny XL is not affected, as its AEB system complies with the operating parameters defined in the rules.
It was promised at the time that "investigations in overcoming this are already at play," and plans to re-engineer the AEB system to return the car to showrooms "are yet to be confirmed".
Suzuki Australia general manager, Michael Pachota, told Drive this month the return of the three-door Jimny is "not a matter of if, it’s only a matter of when."
He said Suzuki is "waiting for production timings" on when the upgraded safety system will be implemented before re-opening order books.
The executive said remaining stock of the three-door Jimny built prior to the pause is "OK to fill current back orders," but growing demand means supply may start to "thin out" over the coming months.
Suzuki has reported 3629 Jimny deliveries over the first five months of this year – across three- and five-door versions – down slightly on the same period last year (3915), likely not helped by the production pause.
Over the 2024 calendar year, 9697 examples were reported as sold – up 93.9 per cent on 2023.
Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner
