So, it is finally here. After 30 long years of waiting, the country’s leading automaker has decided to bring its longest running and possibly most popular 4-wheeler brand, in a 4-door avatar. When the Gypsy came to India in 1985, it was the cat among the Mahindra’s pigeons. It spawned off a new industry in rallying, modifications and customisation. Soon, a large segment of people wanted a 4-door version, both as individuals and as institutions.Adventure, rallying, policing and safaris are good for the individual, but what about the family? Maruti, otherwise an acutely customer-centric organisation, steadfastly refused to meet this request. Almost, as if it was doing a favour to Mahindra. A 4-door diesel Gypsy would have sounded the death bells for the Bolero and MM540. Guess this was more about the Japanese philosophy of ‘live and let live’. After all, Toyota had cut down production of the Lexus in the early 1990s to allow Mercedes-Benz to survive in the US!
There has been huge anticipation for the Jimny in India since Maruti Suzuki started making it for exports in 2021. And the company kept feeding the hype by teasing it at the Auto Expo. A delay meant that the 4-door version was being readied for this market. No more mercies to Mahindra. If the 2-door Thar could be such a runaway success, would Mahindra be allowed to run away with the 4-door version too? No way. So, finally the veritable 4-door 4WD Suzuki SUV is here.
This reminds me of the 1982 song from the Hindi movie Disco Dancer, “Jimmy, Jimmy… aaja, aaja”! The wait has been almost that long.
While the automotive journalists do a tear-down of its mechanical capabilities, let me attempt at assessing its very relevance for a market like India.
An assault rifle when you need an airgun?
The Jimny is a “cult” product. It started its journey in 1970 after Suzuki bought the Hope Motor Company in the hope that its tiny HopeStar ON360 would help Suzuki get into the 4WD segment. Now the thing about cult products is that they have certain irreversible givens in their technology that helps create their DNA. The Jimny is a thoroughbred all-terrain 4-wheel drive. It is designed and designated to conquer all terrains, especially the inhospitable ones. So, it feels at home in water, on snow, in sand and on gravel. That is its comfort zone.
Hence, it will always be a ladder-frame-chassis construction, with a coil-sprung solid-beam axle suspension, a recirculating ball steering mechanism and a manually-selectable partial 4WD system. This is the setup of a no-nonsense all-terrain conqueror. It is not the setup for going to the office, pub-hopping and Diwali parties. It is not the typical vehicle that people in India buy to look macho, sit high, coast over irregular speed-breakers and circumvent puddles of water.
The average Indian SUV buyer is buying the SUV not because it is an SUV in function but because it is an SUV in form. I have seen people in Endeavours and Fortuners sheepishly avoiding water filled potholes in India’s metro cities. Ask them to take the village road as a detour in a traffic jam and they squeal “No, that would be very uncomfortable.” Maruti Suzuki’s own SUV offerings in the Brezza, Fronx and Grand Vitara cater to such buyers by the thousands. So, who will the Jimny target?
All sports. No utility?
The motorsport-crazy and adventure-driven individual will be the perfect target customer for the Jimny then, right?
Well, yes, if you wish to be happy with selling 4000-5000 units a year, every 5 years. For that you might as well have set up an assembly operation. That would have created greater ‘exclusivity’ for the buyer.
So, the answer is “no”. The Jimny obviously intends to cater to the ‘young-and-adventurous-in-the-mind’ a buyer who is seeking lifestyle objects of desire; basically, the Mahindra Thar buyer who wishes there were a 4-door version instead. We are talking about volumes here. We are talking about the general upper-middle-class vehicle buyer. And the moment we mention the word “general”, it implies equal portions of left-brain thinking along with the right-brain triggers. It immediately means practicality of space, usage, comfort, bells and whistles. And that is where the Jimny loses out to its competition. It is a small vehicle, period. The usable width has increased by just about 80 mm since the Gypsy in 1993, if you leave aside the wheel-arch flares / housings. Now that is a bit of a dampener for a market that looks for comfortable seating for 5 adults, especially in a vehicle that costs upwards of INR 12 lakh.
, the Jimny is basically a Kei-class vehicle so its fundamental dimensions will be constrained. “Toy car”, as my friend Anuradha quipped when I told her the subject of my article. It will cater to the college goers, single professionals and at the most ‘Dink’ couples [Double-income-no-kids]. It can also be the second vehicle in the family. But the moment rationality kicks in challenging pure emotions, the customer could well look at the Brezza and Fronx as better options within the portfolio.
*with wheel arches
Does it mean that all is lost? Not at all. The Jimny should do extremely well on the special application front – defence, police, emergency services, forest services, highway patrolling, infrastructure projects, social projects, industries like fertilizer, agri-tech and oil & gas. It will be unbeatable in these areas where the customer will not get a more capable and robust vehicle. Maruti Suzuki should target such customer cohorts and even make customised editions for them. I remember the Indian defence forces used to purchase 4000-5000 Gypsies every year and they used to swear by its capabilities. The Jimny will cater to the right brain as a lifestyle vehicle and the left brain as a life-support one.
Global brand. Indian bland?
The Jimny is the first global product in the Suzuki portfolio. Since its inception, it has found acceptance and even popularity across the world for its no-nonsense posture. The only other vehicle I can think in the same genre is the Lada Niva. The Jimny is sold in every part of the world, from the US to Mexico, the Caribbeans, Europe, Africa, South Asia and Australia. It has been the best brand ambassador of the Suzuki badge and its DNA is being frugal, efficient and enduring. In its fourth generation, it has had different names in various markets like Samurai, Katana, Sierra, Farm Worker and Gypsy.
And it has always been pretty utilitarian in design and offering. While it has features that might delight an adventurer or rallyist, it pales in comparison to competition even within its own family. Indians love the hype about global brands being launched here but if they are not relevant, they become duds. Look at the VW Beetle. It is still ubiquitous in recall but a disaster when it came to acceptance. At the price point at which it was offered, hardly anyone saw value.
Even in its styling the Jimny will not be to everyone’s liking. The current generation has a definite retro look… clean, purposeful and deliberately spartan, in sync with its DNA. Even the lighting offered is not as extroverted as its competition. While it looks attractive in the character colours of ‘kinetic green’ and ‘sizzling red’, most will buy it in white, blue and grey where it does not look the most potent when placed alongside a Fronx or a Thar.
More heart. Less head?
Maruti Suzuki has its task cut out with the Jimny. It has to make it a success at any cost as part of its SUV onslaught to maintain market share. Also, it has its global reputation to protect. This is not like the Ignis or S-cross which had smaller global footprints. This is the flagbearer of the Suzuki badge across the world, even bigger a success than the Swift. And given the popularity of the Thar, Maruti Suzuki just cannot afford to get it wrong or it would add salt to its own wound of allowing Mahindra a free run.
They will have to play the game carefully and cautiously. The urban-lifestyle segment will give the image but no numbers. The special application segment will generate volumes and Maruti Suzuki has to build the Jimny legend around this aspect of the vehicle. The Indian Army used to print new year cards featuring the Gypsies on Rajpath on Republic Day making the customer the biggest brand advocate. It has to be the same for the Jimny. Its variety of customers have to become its brand ambassadors. It has to balance its twin roles of lifestyle and life-support…the right and the left brain.
The competition lies within Maruti Suzuki, with the Brezza applying left brain pressure and the Fronx right brain. This is just like 2001 when the company had the Alto, the Wagon R and the Zen in its hatchback portfolio. The first two appealed to the head. Zen was totally heart. And Maruti totally messed it up with the latter, leading to its demise five years into this internal battle. Just focussing on individual lifestyle in the egoistic urge to outdo outside competition in a Mahindra or a Tata will not reap benefits in the long run.
That will be a case of more heartache!
(Disclaimer: Avik Chattopadhyay is a brand strategy, marketing, and automotive product planning expert and the founder of brand strategy and solutions consultancy Expereal. He went entrepreneurial after 22 years in the automotive industry, across markets, cultures and organisations like Maruti Suzuki, ExxonMobil, Apollo Tyres, Stellantis and Volkswagen. Views in this article are his own.)
