Introduction to this new version of the make’s didy rock-hopper asked for steady nerves and plenty of revs.

NICELY bigger at the back, needs more up front, great to see it all the same because there’s nothing more nuggety for the money: Should do well.

There it is. Summation of Suzuki’s latest rock-hopper, hastily scrawled into a notebook during a break taking on a famous trail near Queenstown, rated as one of the world’s most dangerous routes.

A route hand-carved 140 years ago by gold rush miners keen to plunder the Shotover River, when it was regarded the “richest river in the world”. Skipper’s Canyon Road is a decently gut-sucking 17km test of driver nerve and a vehicle’s mechanical aptitude.

Even in a diminutive vehicle - which Jimny remains because, aside from being longer, it’s the same as the three-door - you rue meeting oncoming traffic on the sections of high narrow cut in the middle of a sheer cliff with dizzying drop-offs of hundreds of metres.

All the same, no need for suspense as to how the Jimny tackled it. More grunt definitely wouldn’t go amiss - more on that soon - but all up, Suzuki New Zealand’s newest sports utility was true to the type’s diddy trekker tradition.

Robustness personifies in an upsized, but still pert package.

Getting this car just over a year after its unveiling is a big win for Suzuki New Zealand. They reckon on seeing 800 five-door registrations this year, a count comparable with last year’s rate for the three door, here since 2019.

They’re keeping everything simple. The lineup comprises just a single common trim manual and auto, the first at $40,990 and the second at $44,990, both having a two tone paint option that adds $510; the same choice that apples to the three door, which spans five variants but is $5000 less in comparable trim.

The Clean Car Standard is built into the latest prices, which means there shouldn’t be any price hikes in the near future. As is, the five-doors infringe into the same price zone as the entry Vitara hybrid all-wheel-drive.

The five-door brings updates not seen on the donor, too. There are a few extra goodies, such as a 9.0-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto (from the S-Cross) and it debuts ‘dual camera braking support’, which replaces the other cars’ single-camera-plus-laser automatic emergency braking. It’s not said to be better. Just different.

Adaptive cruise control in the automatic will add value and other safety stuff includes lane departure warning, weaving alert, a reversing camera and rear parking sensors. So, more than the three-door gets.

The cabin retains the funky functional grab handles and plastic exposed 'bolt heads’, but Jimny has always been also flavoured by materials chosen for being muck-wipeable.

However, a minimal audio speaker count and it lacking built-in satellite navigation speaks to cent-saving. Likewise the optimistically one-size-fits-all approach with front seats lacking height adjust and no telescopic for the steering wheel.

Putting wiring in the doors is a cost avoided; ‘spot the window switches’ is a game continuing in the five-door, with a twist. As in the three-door, those for the front glass retain in the centre console bank. But but there’s no room for those for the rear ones. So these locate …? Well, awkwardly, and just as illogically. Next to the manual handbrake.

Still, the central touchscreen has nice, crisp graphics, the analogue dials are easy to read and have a digital screen between for extra info. It also has automatic headlights, hill hold/descent control and 15-inch alloys, the spare being a standard rim and tyre.

There’s a change of sourcing. The three-door continues from Japan but the five-door is from India, where it is built up from parts fabricated at home base.

Quick once-over comparison between the types suggested no immediately obvious difference in general build quality, but perhaps Japan’s finishing is a bit tidier. Also, opening the rear doors on two of the five-doors revealed a curiously stiff resistance from the hydraulic strut at the mid-way point.

As said, the car’s growth is more precisely a stretch. Width and height are unaltered. Wheelbase and overall length are where change has occurred, with an additional 340mm between the front and rear axles.

It’s not a lot, yet enough to likely leaves this baby in the family way. I’m tall and, with the front seat, it was possible for another ‘me’ to sit behind - something that’s not achievable in the three-door - though headroom is tight.

As for the boot? Well, it finally gets one. Two hundred and 11 litres’ space, rising to 379 litres with the rear seats folded down (and measured to the window line) is way better than the three door’s 85 litres, and though the back seats don’t fold full flat, the load area is sensibly sized.

Before taking it on that big run to Bunnings, keep in mind that the space has to be used with consideration to weight. It’s a light car and engineered for lightish loads.

Regardless of the inherent benefits of that ladder chassis, the towing capacity is 1300kg and the GVM is only 1545kg, which means a 360kg payload for the manual. Conceivably, with four adults onboard you’re left with as little as 40kg capacity for gear.

Also influencing is the powertrain. Small cars with small engines are Suzuki’s gig; we know this. But the best small engines are those that feel mightier than their capacities and cited outputs suggest. The Swift has one. The Jimny, sadly, doesn’t.

Sure, it’s exuberant and, likely as not, unbreakable. And the cars we drove were very new and likely mechanically tight. Perhaps a few thousand kilometres under the belt will loosen ‘em up. Yet the questions raised when the three-door came out in respect to the moral fibre of this 1462cc four-cylinder are more insistent with the five-door, given it has another 100kg to haul.

The cited 75kW and 130Nm outputs aren’t big counts even for this capacity and, in operability with us, the upshot was big rev perkiness but not a lot of punch.

As is the case with small petrols, the muscularity is well up the rev band, so at times it needed punishing before it would truly torque. A colleague likened the manual to being like driving a classic car, you are constantly engaged; the four-stage auto has even less brio. Expect 0-100kmh in 12.5 seconds from the first and near on 14s.

That it does so well with so little power is testimony to its overall mechanical grit. We brought a manual out and found it necessary to resort to first gear for sections that were steepish, but hardly Hillary-grade. You know you don’t have a lot to play with when switching off the air con makes a tangible difference.

Talk of this car going to something akin to the hybrid drivetrain now in Vitara is not new, and stems from a design study for the generation Jimny having shown with one.

However, Gary Collins, Suzuki NZ’s general manager of automobile sales, says there’s nothing in the product plan for at least two years, nor is there any sign of a tune up for the power plant as it currently presents.

Working as strenuously as it did on the drive rather undermined Suzuki’s reputation for thrift. That the manual is officially rated at 6.4L/100km and the automatic 6.9L/100km reminds the test lab condition is not all like Skipper’s. The best end of drive consumption I saw was 10.4L/100km. Gulp, indeed.

Having run the whole route in four-wheel-drive would have contributed to this. Conceivably the road condition was good enough for rear-drive - but only just; we departed just as a rain front hit. But even with dry surfaces under those Bridgestone Duellers, moving the stubby lever back to engage four-wheel drive gave reassurance. We had no need for low-range, though.

Open road driving was limited. It is a better car there than the three-door, in that the longer wheelbase makes for a more comfortable ride than the famously jittery smaller type lends. Still, vehicles that are great in the rough are invariably a bit rough on the smooth.

A high centre of gravity and soft suspension contribute to making highway driving in a Jimny somewhat adventurous. Nothing changes. Like the three-door, it is a bit wobbly on the when driven carefully, a lot more when pushed. They reckon the engine is quieter in this installation, but perhaps it’s more accurate to call it ‘less noisy’.

Accept that this is just the Jimny vibe and the much improved practicality, the stronger equipment level and that it seems every bit as much a mountain goat off the seal, regardless that the data suggests it is less capable (same 210mm ground clearance, similar approach and departure angles, but decreased ramp-over), are factors that will hold this car in good stead with the faithful.

Who don’t always wear pocket-festooned sun-washed khaki, by the way. As much as pukka adventurers love Suzuki’s smallest sludge slugger, it actually sells well to an audience that doesn’t necessarily care about its core 101.

Suzuki NZ says it is surprised how many are bought by - their description - young women in Auckland who have no intent of hitting the dirt. And grey nomads who want a vehicle they can tow behind their campers - which the manual is sorted for (but not the auto) - are expected to enjoy the five-door freedoms.

One black cloud might be the crash testing status. The three-door scored a reasonable three stars out of five in 2018 ANCAP safety testing. It achieved decent occupant protection scores, but lost ground for going light on safety assist systems, some of which (stability control, front AEB) are now in the five-door, which also has six airbags.

However, the new car has not been assessed by ANCAP and the factory seems loath to facilitate that happening.Also, while Suzuki NZ holds some hope the five-door might be allowed to pick up the donor’s score, but accepts that would be a short term thing. ANCAP ratings are retired after six years.

In worst case scenario, the five door enters the scene with an ‘unrated’ status the three-door will also regress to at year-end.

The writer attended this event as a guest of the distributor, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.