SUZUKI JIMNY - A JOURNEY

For those civil engineer have been involved under massive construction works during 1995 - 2000 at Putrajaya, KLIA, Bukit Jalil, LRT Project, Cyberjaya etc. absolutely have an experience driving the small 4 x 4 Suzuki Jimny. When i was in final year studying in Engineering at UKM, i saw a lot of construction peoples from Putrajaya Project park their Suzuki Jimny  at Sekyen 1's Stall, Bangi  for having a lunch.  It was an amazing car and become a symbol or trade mark for the people that as automatic recognized the driver of Suzuki Jimny surely working in construction site.

Eventhough there have other type of  4 x 4  vehicles such RWD  Pajero, but it only for higher ranking in Construction Site such as Project Manager and Project Director. Suzuki Jimny normaly used by Engineer and Supervisor (some company using type of colour to identified the post  i.e  White Colour for Engineer, Blue Colour for Supervisor while Red Colour for Land Surveyor).


The history of Suzuki four-wheel-drive cars dates to 1968. Suzuki bought former Japanese automaker Hope Motor Company which had introduced fifteen small off-road vehicles called the HopeStar ON360.

The first Suzuki-branded 4-wheel drive, the LJ10, was introduced in 1970. The LJ10 had a 359 cc air-cooled, two-stroke, in-line two-cylinder engine. The liquid-cooled LJ20 was introduced in 1972 with the cooling changed due to newly enacted emission regulations, and it gained 3 hp. In 1975, Suzuki complemented the LJ20 with the LJ50, which had a larger 539 cc, two-stroke, in-line three-cylinder engine and bigger differentials. This was originally targeted at the Australian market, but more exports soon followed.

The Jimny8/LJ80 was an updated version of the LJ50 with an 800 cc, four-stroke, in-line four-cylinder engine, followed by the Jimny 1000/SJ410 and Jimny 1300/SJ413. An updated version of the SJ413 became known as the Samurai and was the first Suzuki officially marketed in the US.



The SJ40 Jimny 1000 was introduced for 1982 to replace the LJ80 range. The Jimny 1000, sold as the Suzuki SJ410 in most export markets, used the F10A - a larger 1 litre version of the LJ's 0.8 liter four-cylinder engine. This engine produced 45 hp (34 kW) and it had a top speed of 68 mph (109 km/h). The Japanese market models claimed 52 hp (39 kW) at 5,000 rpm.

A four-speed manual transmission was standard, as were non-power assisted drum brakes front and rear. The SJ410 came as a half-door convertible, long-wheelbase pickup truck, two-door hardtop (called "Van" in Japan), raised-roof hardtop, and no-glass hardtop (panel van). In Japan, the pickup truck was intended as a bare-bones work vehicle and did not receive fender extensions, and had diagonal tires on black-painted steel wheels rather than the sportier wheels fitted to the regular Jimny. Maximum payload is 350 kg (770 lb). Later, a covered long-wheelbase version was added for export markets.

The SJ410 was also produced in Spain by Santana Motors in their Linares, Jaén factory as of March 1985 and was sold as a domestic vehicle in Europe due to its over 60% native parts content, thereby evading limits on imports of Japanese-built automobiles.[8] Some later models of the SJ410 would switch to disk brakes in the front depending on the factory they were made at. In March 1990, Santana-built versions received the same chassis developments which turned the SJ413 into the Samurai; this version was sold as Samurai 1.0 where it was offered ("Samurai Mil" in Spain).

The suzuki jimny become famous at malaysia in early 1996 during the golden era of construction work started with KLIA, Putrajaya,Cyberjaya,ERL, Bukit Jalil and etc.

My  dream become true on April 2000 because it is the first time i have been given Suzuki Jimny 1000cc by my company after atmost 2 year involved in construction site. My feeling at that time.... not a single word can express how proud i am that time.....Every time i stop at stall to have a breakfast and lunch, all the people will asking about my project. ( because my suzuki jimny in White Colour so people automatically known that i am an engineeer (LOL) ).


However the great era of Suzuki Jimny finally  have been taken away by Perodua Kembara with officially launch on 24 August 1998 and enter the market early 1999.

Between myself and Suzuki Jimny have a lot of memories because it become my buddy for more than 8 years ( 2000 - 2008 ) when it was break up when i was assign  to use Perodua Kembara.