Bonjour à tous les Jimny-Freunde!

Hallo Zusammen, Moin Norddeutsche, Hello Everyone

[Untenstehende deutsche Version (maschinenübersetzung)]

I'd like to join your club of Jimny enthusiasts.

I am based in Sourh of France, Nice area. My German is pretty much non-existant, so further on I will write my posts in English only (if that's not forbidden). Please feel free to reply in German - anyways, I read this forum with google-translate.

The cube is 1 week old from the dealership, 240 km on the counter as of today. No need to say, it's an HJ. One year of waiting and here I am!

I think this is the most active and informative forum dedicated to the Suzuki Jimny. So I hope to learn from people and contribute whenever I can.

[DE]

Ich würde gerne Ihrem Club der Jimny-Enthusiasten beitreten.

Ich wohne im Süden Frankreichs, in der Gegend von Nizza. Mein Deutsch ist nicht existent, daher werde ich meine Beiträge weiterhin nur auf Englisch schreiben (falls das nicht verboten ist). Bitte zögern Sie nicht, auf Deutsch zu antworten - ich lese dieses Forum sowieso mit google-translate.

Das Würfel ist 1 Woche alt aus dem Autohaus, 240 km auf dem Zähler ab heute. Ich brauche nicht zu sagen, dass es ein HJ ist. Ein Jahr des Wartens und hier bin ich!

Ich denke, dies ist das aktivste und informativste Forum, das dem Suzuki Jimny gewidmet ist. So hoffe ich, von den Leuten zu lernen und beizutragen, wann immer ich kann.

Grüße

Danke SCHOKO-Kaiser und dir auch!

On the vehicle equipment:

- Side wind deflectors (visible on the photo) - I find them helpful to get some fresh air without rain water, so its a plus.

- Rear parking assistant (no camera, just sensors and "bip" alarm signal) - can't recommend that, as its a bit nervous and doesn't give you idea on which side the obstacle is. But well, in France, parking until bumper kiss is sort of a norm, so maybe I'm a bit biased about the assistant.

- Rubber floor mats - haven't tested, but they don't look very deep, planning to use in dirty trips only.

Pros and cons.

So far will write some points that I do and don't like. Might be helpful for those who are taking decision now.

"+":

- Interior quality - top.

- Suspension is surprisingly OK. Have seen hundreds of Youtube videos explaining that Jimny tends to roll over due to soft shocks - I personally think that suspension is reasonably soft for the type of car. I don't feel handicapped in the city.

- Highway speed: 110-120 kmh feels stable and fine. I guess you can't expect much more from a small frame car.

- Tires (Dunlop Grandtrek AT20). Obviously not the best tires you can find, but I think Suzuki had very good price from Dunlop (they retail higher than some decent ATs, like Cooper). Overall i think they work fine for casual driving and not the toughest/snowiest off-road.

- Interior heating speed - top.

"-":

- Interior back mirror. Would ideally like to have a wider picture than it is now. Will look for aftermarket mirror (Apio or similar).

- Missing 6th gear on the highway - would be helpful to reduce transfer case and cardan shaft noise. I'll avoid using "Jimny" and "highway" in one sentence further on

- Seats are a bit too high for me (179cm). Not sure it's possible to lower them down. Currently right side view (traffic light or pedestrians) is a bit limited from my perspective.

- Antenna: probably depends on country, mine was a bit too high, overall height ~ 2m which is hight that garage entrance

- The collision detector is too nervous, I might think to deactivate it later (can be done in the menu).

- Lack of side support in the seating (I think I will live with it).

- Lack of storage compartments (easy to add).

- Lack of arm rest (easy to add).

Grüße

Swapped the original antenna for an aftermarket one yesterday.

The gap (2.5 - 3mm) between the new antenna body and the plastic base looks a bit ugly. Maybe I picked not the best possible option.

so I added couple of gaskets in between to close the gap:

I think it now look better and a bit water-proof. Will make geometrically proper spacer out of solid piece of rubber.

Grüße

Hello BlackCat,

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Shall the Cube stay stock, tuned for offroad or overlanding?

It will stay almost stock for a little while. I first need to make it a bit more usable inside (e.g. storage compartments, luggage hooks, etc.). Regarding all obvious upgrades, like suspension lift, tires - i'll be making a decision once I face a track that I can't handle in a stock car. Here in the area the tracks are mainly rocks and people mostly drive unprepared cars. Probably one of the most popular off-roaders is Fiat Panda 4x4, but you can easily meet an old Renault Twingo (exclusively front wheel drive) on a mountain track.

Or even something quite special:

Les Alpes en 2cv 4x4

Parpaillon, Assietta, Sommelier, Jafferau, Sagnes, Mallemort, Viraysse, Pic Blanc, Caron, Mayt, Anon, Moutière, Cuguret, Roche la Croix, Emparis...Deux semai...

www.youtube.com

Overall I want to keep the vehicle to be in a condition "suitable for daily usage" though it's not the main commuter car currently.

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Does your Cube have a tow hook?

No, not yet. I'm not planning to tow anything yet. I may install a hook later on (in France it's usually not a problem for the local "TÜV") if I need to carry bicycles.

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When you want to change the tyres, then it's good to know what you want to do with the Cube for a good advice.

Yeah, thanks! When it's time I'll make a post about that. Most likely will stay in either the default size (195/80/R15) and not bigger than 215/75/R15.

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I don't know what kind of radio your Cube has, but if you want to change to an Android, then it would be good when it will have two video-entrance, so you can use one as a rear cam and one as a front cam, this is a good way to short "Angles de mordes" in front of your Cube.

Currently it's the "no-screen" very basic radio. I am still thinking in what direction should I go from there. If I decide once, main priority would be to have decent support of OpenStreetMaps and functionality of route GPS upload. But this might as well be a separate device. Got your remark about video ports, well noted.

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I don't know the law of France about the lights, but if you want a roof rack and a good High Beam, then i can advice the OSRAM LED-Lightbar VX1000-CB SM, 369,90 € for a mount in front of the roof rack or under the front the roof rack, how it looks can you see on my Cube-page BlackCat's schwarzer Würfel.

For the roof rack or support for extra-lights, it's a bit complex. If it's just a light bar than a stock roof bar will work (like the one your have on recent phot with trailer). If we speak of roof racks, I don't like anything available on the market, so I'll probably make one myself. Fortunately for me in France and Italy police is not too strict about vehicle upgrades (except noisy exhaust).

One mod that I will do quite soon is backseats retrofit (without additional airbags). Yeah, I know I'm in German forum, TÜV, etc., but I may need those occasionally, so, let's say, I will accept certain administrative risks, knowing that 95% of the time it will be a 1 or 2 people car, and the rest 5% will be nice to police officers

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and the rest 5% will be nice to police officers

Found this "Jimny conversion" photo on one of online forums. Actually real police car, close to Bordeaux (south-west) according to number plate.

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The one if have linked before ist a high beam light, which is allowed to use on the road and can be activated by the stock at the steering wheel.

Thats probably a more useful option for me. I think I saw a nice implementation in this vid:

Mounting Extra LED Lights on my Jimny!

Hey guys!I have found myself needing some extra light on my jimny, so i got it outfitted with extra LED power!Hope you enjoy!I have put the files for the 3D ...

www.youtube.com

P.S.: No idea how to make a youtube video embedded in the page (to not open new tab). Is it some limitation for newbies or just silly me?

Nice Christmas light show!