Maruti Jimny 5-door rival already under testing!

Lifestyle SUVs have gained a lot of prominence in the last couple of years. The major contributor to this growth has been the Mahindra Thar, but Force Gurkha is also gaining popularity. However, both these cars will soon face a significant competitor in the form of the Maruti Jimny. What’s so special about the Jimny? Globally, the Jimny is a well-known off-roader, thanks to its lightweight body which really helps in making difficult off-roading courses easy. Maruti is planning to take the Jimny one step further in India with a 5-door model. This 5-door Jimny will be more practical for our country. To counter the Jimny, Mahindra and Gurkha are working on 5-door variants of their cars. Mahindra Thar 5-door has only been under speculation without any real-world proof of its development, whereas the Force Gurkha 5-door has already been spotted testing on quite a few occasions. With the current development, it seems that Force is looking to outfox both Mahindra and Maruti by launching the 5-door Gurkha before them. In today’s article, we will talk about this Maruti Jimny 5-door rival!

Finally! Maruti Jimny 5-door spotted testing!

What is the development so far?

The 5-door Gurkha has been spotted with and without camouflage. The Force 5-door (from previous spy shots) looks identical to the 3-door version. Since the grille and rear door were partially camouflaged, we expect minor changes done to them. The 5-door Gurkha will come with squared headlamps rather than the circular ones seen on the 3-door Gurkha. The 5-door variant looks more proportional due to the added length. Although the test mules have been spotted with bigger blacked-out wheels, we will have to wait to confirm whether Force extends these blacked-out wheels on the final production car.

Jimny 5-door rival – Specifications

The 5-door Gurkha will continue on the brand’s C-platform that underpins the 3-door Gurkha. This 5-door Gurkha is expected to come with six and seven-seater options. Engine-wise, it is expected to continue with the Mercedes-sourced 2.6-litre diesel engine capable of producing 91bhp & 250Nm of torque. Will this be sufficient for the 5-door Gurkha? Let us know what you think. We expect Force to re-tune this engine to produce more power for the 5-door Gurkha. Gearbox will mostly continue to be the 5-speed manual unit. 

Maruti Jimny to be better than Mahindra Thar?

Expected launch timeline

There is no official confirmation from Force regarding the launch of 5-door Gurkha, but the brand will mostly be looking to launch it before the competition arrives. This will help Force steal market share from Mahindra and Maruti. We can expect Force to launch the Gurkha 5-door by the end of 2022 or early 2023.

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