A one minute video from @mollcoco opens on a dark Suzuki Jimny parked on gravel, with the title “The 3 Most Annoying Things In A Jimny” across the screen. She does not warm up. “Here are three most annoying things in a Jimny,” she says, and the camera cuts to the driver’s seat.
The rest is filmed from behind the wheel of a right hand drive Jimny with an automatic gearbox, red lit dials and carbon fiber look trim around the steering wheel and the shifter. She is speaking as an owner in the UK, and her first complaint comes with a caveat: “maybe it’s just with the imports.”
Number one is the stalks. “The indicator and the windscreen wipers are on opposite sides to what you expect in the UK,” she says, tapping each in turn. “On the right is the indicators and then on the left is the windscreen wipers.” The result was predictable. “When I first bought the car, every time I was trying to indicate, I was setting off the windscreen wipers.” It got worse in car parks. “If I was trying to let someone out, I was cleaning my windscreen, which was fairly embarrassing when you were trying to let somebody out of a parking space.”
Number two is a sound. The camera drops to the gear selector as she pulls it into reverse, and the touchscreen above switches to the rear camera view. “It makes that beeping noise,” she says, “and the beeping noise is so loud it cuts out the music.” With the screen back on its grid of phone apps, she asks her viewers for help: “If anybody knows how to get rid of that, that would be ideal.”
Number three she downgrades as she says it. “Maybe not annoying but just a little bit inconvenient, cause I always forget,” she says, reaching down beside the driver’s seat toward the door sill, “is that to open the fuel cap is down here.” Then comes the verdict, over a final shot of the Jimny parked on a rooftop car park under a clear blue sky: “But other than that I absolutely love it.”
None of the three is a fault. They are all habits, the kind of thing a ten minute test drive never shows and the first month of ownership shows every day. That makes her list useful well beyond the Jimny, because each item has a fix or at least a way to prepare for it.
Start with the stalks. Cars built for the Japanese home market generally carry the turn signal on the right side of the steering column and the wipers on the left. Most cars sold new in Europe and North America are the other way around. Anyone climbing into a Japanese market import should expect the same accidental wipe she describes, and that includes the right hand drive imports American enthusiasts bring in once a model is old enough. The embarrassment is the small part. The real cost is a lane change or a turn that goes unsignaled because the driver’s hand went to the wrong side. Before the first drive, sit parked for five minutes and work the signals, wipers, washers and headlights until the hand goes to the right place without a look. If you swap between two cars with opposite layouts, do a quick run through every time you switch.
The reverse beep takes more care. An interior reverse chime is a factory feature on many Japanese market automatics, and whether it can be switched off depends on the model and generation. The owner’s manual is the first stop, followed by a dealer or a specialist who knows that exact vehicle. Before blaming the chime for the silence, check the stereo. Many aftermarket touchscreen units with a camera input are set to mute or lower the audio whenever reverse is selected, and that is normally a setting in the unit’s menu. What to avoid is cutting or unplugging a buzzer without knowing what else it does. The same sounder can also carry the warnings for lights left on, an unbuckled belt or a key left in the car, and losing those costs more than a few seconds of music.
The fuel release is the easy one. A lever on the floor beside the driver’s seat is common on Japanese cars, and the time to find it is at home, not at the pump with a line behind you. Look at the fuel gauge as well. On most modern clusters a small arrow beside the pump symbol points to the side of the car the filler is on. If the lever ever feels stiff or the flap does not pop, do not force it. Have the cable and latch checked before one of them fails at a station.
Her passing remark about imports is worth a thought too. Before buying any imported vehicle, ask the seller for the paperwork that shows where it came from and when it was first registered, confirm with your insurer that it will cover an import and at what price, and ask a specialist about parts supply and rust protection for the roads you drive on. American readers should know the current Jimny is not sold in the United States, and a vehicle that was never built to US standards generally cannot be imported for road use until it is 25 years old.
Her last line is the fair summary. Three small irritations, one of them barely an irritation at all, and an owner who says she loves the car anyway.