Yes! Suzuki has made a Jimny pickup

By topgear, 04 January 2019

Oh, dammit! Just when Santa’s gone and plopped all the presents on our Christmas list down the chimney, Suzuki comes along and teases us with this: the Jimny Sierra Pickup Style. 

It’s one of two rugged, adventure-based concepts that the Japanese firm will be taking to the Tokyo Auto Salon next week and, as we’ve missed Christmas, has rocketed straight to the top of our birthday present list. 

Based on Suzuki’s adorable 4x4 (a Top Gear Magazine Award winner, no less) the Sierra Pickup maintains the same boxy silhouette but has had the back seats ripped out and an angle grinder applied to the roofline to make room for a practical bed. More than that, they’ve swapped out the front grille and stamped an old school Suzuki logo on it, given it chunkier wheels and tyres, flared arches, some hooks to drag it face-first out of a bog and some LED spotlights at the back of the cab. Put simply, it’s awesome. But then this awesomeness is doubled down on thanks to an aesthetic attribute we haven’t seen since the PT Cruiser: faux wood panelling. Oh yes.

Pickups not your thing? No worries. There’s also the Survive SUV Concept, a jacked-up more Bear Grylls-y variant of the cutesy cut-price G-Wagen alternative. Maintaining all of its roof (but now with roller shutter rear windows), it’s been built for the wilderness and has more clearance, all-terrain tyres, skid plates and an exoskeleton roll cage that doubles as a set of roof racks to fill with off-road clobber. 

There’s no word on engines yet, but it’s safe to assume they’ll both more than likely be fitted with the bigger 101bhp 1.5-litre motor. What we do know is that both cars will be unveiled at the annual tuning extravaganza in Japan next week. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to hunt for some cheap tickets to Tokyo.