The first one - the made-in-India 3-door Jimny has been exported to the global market, which gets the same 1.5-l B-series engine, so giving a new C-series engine to the Indian market would not make financial sense. The manufacturing facility unit in Gurugram exports 3-door Jimny to the left as well as right-hand drive global market. Mr. Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, shared that the 5-door Jimny would be exported to the SAARC, Latin America and ASEAN markets. Well, click here to check out the interview for more insights and facts about Jimny.
Coming back to the point.Secondly, the gearbox. It is also an old one that has been perfectly tuned with the older K-15B engine, which has 4WD capabilities along with Suzuki's AllGrip Pro low-range transfer gear. Whereas the newer engine is mated to a gearbox with a front-wheel drive layout, defeating the purpose of hardcore off-roading. Different combinations for the global and Indian markets would burden production unnecessarily. Moreover, re-engineering mechanicals take a lot of resources and time to make it road-perfect. So, manufacturers usually try to fit in a system that is well-tried and tested.
Their 1.0-l Booster jet turbo engine would have helped them to keep costs in check as it benefits from a lower tax bracket. Yes, an engine with less than 1.2-l falls in the lower tax bracket. However, drawing a balance out of the new engine and gearbox is still a challenge. Anyways Jimny is not going to be their most-sold product. Maruti Suzuki is aware of that, so better go with the old formula and excel on what's already good.
To read more about the Jimny off-road and on-road characteristics , click here. Top watch our review head to our Youtube channel to check it out.
