Jeep Wrangler vs Suzuki Jimny

Both are the real thing, ladder-frame with low range, which already sets them apart from any soft-roader. The Wrangler goes further on hardware: front and rear locking diffs, a disconnecting sway bar, 255mm of clearance, a 43.9-degree approach angle and 760mm of wading depth. The Jimny counters with the things weight and size buy, a sharper 47-degree departure and 27-degree breakover, and an 1,110kg kerb that has less mass to bog or break. On a serious, rutted climb the Wrangler is more capable. On a tight, technical goat track the little Jimny slips through gaps the Jeep cannot. Two different tools for two different jobs.

It is not close. The Jimny opens at $36,490 drive-away for the manual Lite and tops out near $40,490 for the five-door XL. The Wrangler starts around $87,638 drive-away for the Rubicon two-door, about $81,990 before on-road costs, and climbs past $90,000 for the four-door Unlimited. So the cheapest Wrangler costs roughly two-and-a-half Jimnys. The Jeep answers with hardware, cabin quality, removable roof and doors and far more power, but nobody buys a Wrangler to save money. If your budget is the deciding factor, the maths only point one way.

This is the honest caveat for both. The Jimny is unrated: its old three-star score expired at the end of 2024, and builds from January 2025 carry no rating. The Wrangler is in the same position, its 2019 three-star result having expired at the end of 2025. Both come with six airbags and autonomous emergency braking, and both have adaptive cruise control. The Wrangler adds the wider net, with blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert the Jimny goes without. Treat the missing stars as untested rather than failed, but if a five-star result is non-negotiable, neither of these ticks that box.

In town the Jimny wins; on the open road the Wrangler does. The Jimny is tiny, 3.65 metres with a famously tight turning circle, so it threads through traffic and parks where nothing else fits, and it is cheap to run. But reviewers are unanimous it is slow, wanders at speed and gets blown around, and the three-door seats four in theory only. The Wrangler is the calmer highway companion, with a plush cabin, five seats and, in four-door form, a usable back seat and boot, though it is heavy, thirsty and, by common consent, asks for patience through vague steering. For a city second car the Jimny wins. For the only car in the driveway, the Wrangler four-door makes more sense.

The Wrangler four-door is rated to 2,495kg braked, the two-door to 1,497kg, against the Jimny's 1,300kg. Neither is a heavy-duty tow rig, and both fall well short of a dual-cab ute's 3,500kg, but the Jeep will pull a small van or a decent boat while the Jimny is happier with a box trailer, a couple of bikes or a tinnie. On space it is no contest: the Wrangler seats five and swallows real luggage, while the three-door Jimny's 85-litre boot barely holds a weekend bag. The five-door XL lifts that to 211 litres, still small by any normal measure.

The Jimny wins ownership hands down. It sips a claimed 6.4 to 6.9L/100km on regular unleaded, comes with a five-year unlimited-kilometre warranty, and its capped-price servicing runs about $2,365 over five years. The Wrangler drinks 10.2L/100km of premium, carries a five-year 100,000km warranty rather than unlimited, and caps servicing at $399 a visit. Both real-world fuel figures climb behind their brick-shaped aerodynamics, but the Jimny starts from a much lower base and costs a fraction to fuel. Over a few years of ownership the gap only widens.

The engines are in different leagues. The Wrangler's 2.0-litre turbo four makes 200kW and 400Nm through a modern eight-speed automatic, so it never feels short of muscle. The Jimny's naturally aspirated 1.5 makes just 75kW and 130Nm and has to haul a tall, boxy body, so it works hard on the highway. If you do choose the Jimny, take the five-speed manual: the optional four-speed automatic is a generation old and blunts what little urge there is, and the manual is the more satisfying drive off-road too. The Wrangler comes only as the auto, and it is a good one.

For most people the Jimny is the smarter buy. It delivers real low-range capability from $36,490 drive-away, less than half the Wrangler's money, and it stays easy to park and cheap to keep. Pick the three-door for purity or the five-door XL for the back doors and bigger boot. Choose the Wrangler if you want the more serious off-road hardware, the removable roof and doors nothing else offers, a far nicer cabin and the grunt to tow, and can accept the near-$88k drive-away, the thirst and the untested safety. The four-door Rubicon Unlimited is the Wrangler to have.