Modifications/vehicle mods

One of the most asked Jimny questions is “where do I buy mods” or “I want this, where do I buy it?”. There’s a lot of options and it’s important people understand critical thinking when they’re sourcing parts.

This can never be an exhaustive list and it’s really more targeted at the where to buy and considerations about that instead of a what to buy. I have tried to

When and why should I modify?

Getting to know the vehicle vs. buying mods in bulk/one hit

There’s two schools of thought on modifying a car, and I think both are very valid for the Jimny. On one hand they are extremely capable stock and perform very well, on the other hand there’s always a way to improve the car for how you are going to use it and nothing is perfect.

The arguments for waiting to modify are as follows:

  • The less you screw with a car the easier it is for warranty/insurance/general servicing;
  • You don’t always understand what you can improve, versus what is actually perfect for your needs, unless you use the car;
  • You are not locked into something but can change your path on how you use the vehicle but also what things you want to do to it;
  • As it’s an entry-level 4wd, many people are getting a Jimny as their first 4wd; and,
  • The ones that seem to sell with a lot of modifications are often ‘no longer suits my needs’ or ‘decided to go in a different direction’ which is code for ‘I modified it and I’ve made it different to how I expected’.

Nevertheless, if you are sure you know what you want and won’t be convinced otherwise, modifying in one hit:

  • Some mods are best done pre-purchase e.g. pre-rego GVM upgrades have some advantages if you’re going down that route;
  • Often can be cheaper through saving labour on the work being done;
  • Discounts can be given for one-stop shop purchasing, too;
  • If you want to roll the modification costs into vehicle financing then this is significantly easier at time of purchase; and,
  • The car is what you want at the time it rocks up to you with no waiting around once you’ve got it.

Personally, I have had a bunch of 4wds and I’ve mostly chosen wisely on my modifications but there are things I’d do differently. An example of this is me buying an awning. I’ve never really had one on a car, felt like it would be useful, but I found myself just not using it too much. A vehicle-mounted awning just hasn’t worked for me on the Jimny but it has for plenty of other people. No problem with their choice, but also it just hasn’t been for me. While that’s a very non permanent mod, it is illustrative that what you think you want versus what you end up needing or using can be different.

An opposite effect can be seen with my choice of suspension lift. I bought my car in 2019 and there were far fewer options on the market (and many, many fewer JB74s around!). I picked a suspension option fewer people were going with just to gain some experience with it. I didn’t necessarily expect it to be the best nor to keep it forever. I figured I’d sell it after a couple of years and try another lift. As it turns out, not only am I happy with my choice I’ve experienced plenty of others to see it’s one of the better choices for my use of the vehicle. If I’d got everything at the time of vehicle purchase then I wouldn’t have been getting this lift (since it’s bought out of the UK from a parts supplier, most dealers wouldn’t fit it but instead would have punted me to an ARB or a Tough Dog store and got a lift fitted there). Not doing everything in one hit through a dealer has given me a better suspension setup than if I had for the same price as getting one fitted at purchase time.

Finally If I had less experience I might well have picked more mods that didn’t suit me, so the fact I’ve been mostly right is partly luck and partly experience. I’ve also used the car differently to how I expected to when I got the car, and some of my choices have been about not locking myself in. People’s tastes and uses evolve over time; there’s no point getting an overly stiff GVM upgrade suspension and lift kit all in one when you can keep the car light enough to be under the factory GVM and have something that suits the terrain you’re using the car on better.

Effects on warranty and insurance

This is the other side to modifications, and commonly people ask about warranty and how it might effect it. There’s no one definite ruling on it but in principle in Australia:

  • Vehicle modifications only affect warranty as far as the parts that are fitted and things they might effect.
    Changing tyres cannot mean they can deny you a claim on the stereo. You might have a stronger argument if you put very heavy tyres on and break something in the driveline, though, and for that you’ll want assistance from professionals to back up your claim and have a bit of a battle through Suzuki warranty.
  • If modifications are fitted DIY then you run more risks of warranty being denied if they can claim something about the workmanship.
  • A lot of people claim the Suzuki warranty is something they weasel their way out of due to modifications.
    I entirely disagree: my vehicle is extensively but not excessively modified, everything pretty much DIY fitted, and every single one of my warranty claims (including some stuff that involved gearbox removal!) has been sorted out with no argument.
  • Servicing can cost more.
    Vehicle mods can change service procedures and potentially this can cost more. In fact, Suzuki are quite good about this especially under the capped price servicing where the terms and conditions explicitly state they can charge more or not apply capped price servicing at all to modified vehicles. It’s a very small theoretical risk but it is there. Ultimately I haven’t heard of anyone being stung under this at all in Australia but the more you modify a vehicle the more different the servicing is likely to be.
  • Recalls might incur an additional charge if the mods change the procedure for doing the recall. An example of this is the 2019 cars and a recall for a fuel pump. Fitting a long range tank involves more work and some dealers will pass on that extra labour cost to the customer. This is fair enough, though plenty of dealers have been good about it and just done it as a part of goodwill on customer retention.

Insurance is the other angle. In general insurance companies are ok with declared modifications so long as they’re legal/keep the car roadworthy. Some companies require that modifications have been fitted by qualified personnel so it’s worth checking with your insurer if you’re a heavy DIY person like me. The risks to not declaring mods to an insurer are twofold:

  1. If you are in an accident and the vehicle is written off then you won’t get paid out for the costs of the mods if they aren’t declared.
  2. If you’re in an accident with undeclared modifications and/or the modifications caused the accident then the insurer might reduce your claim or even reject it outright.

It’s worth, if you’re going to have a heavily modified car, to work with your insurer to make sure you’ll still be covered and appropriately compensated for loss if you write your vehicle off.

Mods and resale

A final aspect for mods that people don’t often consider is their effect on resale.

In general you do not realise the purchase and fitting price of modifications in the resale of the car. There are some exceptions e.g. a pre-rego GVM upgrade might be attractive to people as it’s valid even if buying an out-of-state vehicle and it might come close to realising its total value if someone wants a pre-rego GVM car but is buying a 2nd hand vehicle. Most mods do not come close to even 50% of their cost price in terms of a price increase on a car.

One useful way to think of mods and the price on a car is they potentially just change how attractive a car is to a buyer. That attractiveness can make a sale happen faster (to the right purchaser) and that may or may not have a financial benefit to the seller by not needing to reduce the price so much to keep it moving.

On the other hand modified cars can be viewed as cars more likely to have been used in tougher terrain or more harshly. This can actually make a heavily modified car much less attractive to purchasers. In general, fairly standard mods won’t do this but once you throw in front and rear lockers, Cr-Mo axles, a 4-link rear, fit suspension that’s taller than legal and tyres that poke outside the guards then you’re probably in the realm of ‘ok, that’s been used pretty heavily’.

If you care about extracting maximum value out of a sale of a car 2nd hand then getting it as close to stock and clean is usually the best way, and then sell the mods separately on the 2nd hand market. You’ll realise more value and probably realise more customer interest if the car is stock and you extract the value through getting the mods to people who want those mods.

As a bonus tip for people selling a car: if you specify pricing tiers with mods then you’re unlikely to see that. Most people buying a car if they don’t want the mods will just be “ok, go sell it yourself” and those who do want the mod have the bargaining chip of “ok, go take the mods off and I’ll buy it then buy the mods from you at a cheaper price anyway”. I’ve never really seen it work positively as a sales tactic by people.

Factory accessories

I list all the factory accessories for the gen4 Jimnys here, at least in terms of info I have. These can be sourced from your local dealer, but also search on the part number on ebay and through Google and you might find various options.

I have personally sourced factory accessories (and also some non-genuine things) from:

Note there’s some subtleties on factory accessories especially around warranties:

Suzuki genuine vehicle accessories installed at time of vehicle purchase are covered for 3 years/100,000 km only.

Suzuki Warranty Terms and Conditions (applicable from October 2019 onwards)

If they’re installed after purchase, however, then they have differerent warranties (usually a year):

Suzuki genuine accessories subsequently installed, after vehicle purchase, carry their own warranty conditions. Please refer to your authorised Suzuki Dealer for further details.

Suzuki Warranty Terms and Conditions (applicable from October 2019 onwards)

These Parts and Accessories terms and conditions are harder to track down in writing (presumably you can get this from your local dealer). Basically, however, based on what I can find:

Genuine Parts and Accessories sold and fitted by an Authorised Suzuki Dealer after the initial sale of the vehicle carry a 12 month or 20,000 km (whichever occurs first) warranty.

Genuine Parts and Accessories sold over the counter by an Authorised Suzuki Dealer carry a 6 month or 10,000 km (whichever occurs first) warranty.

Suzuki Parts and Accessories Warranty (via Suzuki Rockingham)

In short: if you care about warranty on accessories that are factory items then get them fitted at the time of purchasing. If you’re ok with shorter periods of time then you can get them through a dealer and either pay to have them fitted (and get a 12 month warranty) or get them fitted elsewhere/do it yourself (and get a 6 month warranty). Note that any accessories sold through ‘grey’ channels i.e. imported by you independently wouldn’t have any warranty at all through Suzuki and you’d be left chasing the seller.

I’ve not worried about that last point and not had a problem at all, but it’s worth knowing about if you’re risk-averse around these kinds of things.

Non-genuine accessories

This is the much larger class of options out there so this is a larger section.

Note that there are some duplicates of factory accessories (or near dupes), but also a bunch of other options. My main landing page has a lot of links to thinks I’ve installed and info about them, so rather than repeat myself I thought I’d outline the main things that are available and then where to buy them.

What’s out there

Almost everything! There’s really too many things to list. The most common mods people ask about:

Each of these and many others could be their own buyers guide, but I’m not sure I’m totally qualified to give an even-handed version of that as I have my preference as to how I’ve done things

Where to buy

What you want to buy will dictate where you buy it. Despite there being plenty of Jimny specific stores, absolutely noone carries absolutely every possible option so don’t get too caught up in having to buy things from multiple places.

Major 4wd chains

While not always Jimny specific, the major 4wd suppliers (like ARB, Ironman and TJM) have their own things specific for the Jimny you can buy as well as additional useful things like storage systems or even driving lights and other generic mods. For some people this might represent the easiest route to getting things fitted pre-delivery; they also generally have excellent experience with a range of 4wds and offer both supply and fitting.

Many of these stores are run in a franchise arrangement and so they can vary in quality, so it can be worth looking into reviews of specific stores, especially if you have a choice of a few of a particular brand around you. There are also some company run flagship stores, as well as sales agents in smaller towns around the place.

I touch on this further down but if these are the people who are going to fit your items, potentially they won’t fit items of their brand (or potentially their competitors, either) unless they also sell it to you. Generally for that (and for the other options) you’ll need to look at other independent accessory fitters or mechanics.

Other 4wd suppliers

There are a whole host of other 4wd suppliers out there, and for some generic things this can be an excellent option. Once you’re looking at winches, air compressors, recovery gear or a bunch of other things then you open your options up. If you’re fitting things yourselves you might find bargains, even of the ‘name brand’ large 4wd shops, at these places. It’s well worth letting your fingers do the walking. Some examples of places I have bought things from (and what I’ve got) are:

  • Recovery gear from George4x4
  • ARB air compressor through Patrol Part
    (though I bought one used for another project off marketplace)
  • Roof shelf and compressor bracket direct from TLR
  • Some random bits from Kaon
    (and plenty of non Jimny things from them too, including stuff for my bbq…)

Jimny specific shops (potentially ‘one-stop’)

These operate both overseas and within Australia, and mostly seem attractive for the ablility to buy things in one place. The popularity of the gen4 Jimny has meant that there’s a whole ecosystem out there aiming to be the one-stop shop for thee model. Prominent examples within Australia spanning the range of offerings include:

A special shoutout here to one of the original Suzuki specialist suppliers Seriously Suzi in Victoria. They make some great products although they don’t have the best web presence. Highly recommended for very specific items.

Note I’ve never bought anything from any of these suppliers, generally preferring to direct source and not finding anything they have that I want which is exclusive to them.

Internationally, two I have dealt with are Jimny Bits and also JimnyStyle, both run out of the UK. I can recommend both; things I have bought from both are exclusive to each of them (e.g. the suspension lift designed by Jimny Bits and made in the UK, the wheels from JimnyStyle made in Italy exclusive to their requirements).

That final point is worth stressing: many of these stores operate as middlemen suppliers, with few exclusive brands. This means it can be worthwhile shopping around as you might actually end up better off buying things direct from the suppliers.

Direct sourcing versus buying from a ‘shop’

Personally I think too many people go for the SEO optimised option of buying from a one-stop shop. I get the convenience factor but often a 5 minute search is worth it to find original suppliers. There are a few aspects to this:

  • A lot of the cheaper interior parts are originally sourced out of China.
    Things like tunnel storage systems, covers for rear demister wires or
  • You do have to be careful of dupes of products or poorer-quality ripoffs.
    Some of the really good items get duplicated and made less well, so you do need to do some due diligence to work out who designed and made a product. An ecosystem where the people who put in the R&D get rewarded through sales will ensure continued innovation; there’s little innovation in just copying things. If the innovators go out of business then the copiers don’t have anything to copy and everything just stagnates.
  • Many of the more prominent brands (such as TLR) will supply the item for the same cost as the one-stop shop, and sometimes cheaper.
    I’d prefer the profit to go to the people who design and build quality products instead of a bit being skimmed off by a middle provider adding limited value along the way.
  • Sometimes you can go totally generic, e.g. you can custom order a boot strut cheaper than most supposedly Jimny specific (but actually still generic) options, and not much more expensive than one from Bunnings.

Considerations about where you source versus getting it fitted

An area few people consider is exactly what might happen if you buy parts from a different place than you plan to get it fitted. In general, independent stores will fit things you supply HOWEVER the rise of terrible counterfeit parts means not everywhere will do this, especially not for new customers. There can be a significant amount of disappointment when people get a mod, take it somewhere to get fitted, and have to pay labour both to fit it and then to remove it when it doesn’t work.

More importantly, buying name parts elsewhere and then expecting a distributor of those parts can be fraught with danger. An example might be a suspension lift: a shop that is a franchise of the brand you bought probably can’t fit parts they didn’t supply under their franchise agreement. A bargain lift or other mod is not a bargain if you have to travel a long way to fit it or buy tools you weren’t expecting to as your local dealer of brand X can’t fit bits you supply.

The other consideration here is around what’s required legally. For instance, a GVM upgrade has to be fitted by an approved supplier or at least a qualified mechanic to get it counted by most engineers and also state/territory inspections. Some engineers might relax this requirement and be prepared to sign off on DIY installations but it’s a conversation to have with your engineer before you embark on the process rather than discovering the additional bill you’re up for halfway through the process.

The hidden sales pitch

Content creators/influencers are incredibly widespread in the 4wd industry. You have to appreciate the cost for that content is you are the product, and the sales are advertising. There is nothing inherently wrong with that; nevertheless, what feels like personal recommendations based on experience are often driven by what products someone is given for free or discounted rather than what’s best.

I know personally of examples of people having a choice between two products and they pick one and recommend it. The problem is that both of the products they could choose from would not be ones I would recommend because of poor QA/QC on the products, poor product design that causes issues, and, somewhat scummy practises by the companies that make either option. That person’s reach will ensure, however, that the practise probably will be successful for the company whose products are promoted. Good for them I guess, but bad for all the people who take that ‘personal’ recommendation

While promotions are meant to be flagged as an ad through Australian advertising guidelines, often they are not. As influencers are quite a long tail population with a lot of minnows vying for your eyeballs, there’s also an awful lot of sneaky promotion in your social media feeds that you will not be aware of at all. Try to understand that bias when you’re shopping around for your mods.

This isn’t necessarily ‘old man yells at clouds’ by me either. It’s a part of the modern marketing ecosystem and that’s fine. I think people need to apply a lot of critical thinking to evaluating product recommendations and cast a very wide net on options out there. You are all unique flowers and you don’t need to just do a shopping list based on someone’s Insta post.

Finally: you can also fall into the trap of wanting all the mods people have on much larger 4wds. It is worth understanding that any Jimny is going to be limited by it being both an entry-level 4wd and a small, lightweight, low power 4wd. Expecting it to be the same as a $250k gamechanging overlanding rig is not realistic: you either have to reset your expectations or find creative alternatives. Don’t buy into the hype that you need everything: you can go camping and sleep in the car and do everything with an entirely stock vehicle and just drag a blanket from home to keep yourself warm overnight! Don’t let a lack of mods or accessories limit your use of the car – they really do not.

Second-hand versus new mods

Now that gen4 Jimnys have been on the market in Australia for a reasonable while there are an increasing number of second-hand mods available on the market. Quite often these end up being the cheap interior products but there can be a whole range of goods you can get your hands on through a bit of searching. Some pointers:

  • Generic 4wd type bits (winches, air compressors, recovery gear) are very easily bought 2nd hand as there’s a wide market
  • Jimny specific things are obviously a much smaller market, but they are out there. Some targeted ebay, gumtree and Facebook marketplace searches can do wonders.
  • Some stuff you need to be a bit more careful about: suspension can be tricky in terms of if it is leaking or no longer operating well, but, suspension springs as people change up their rides can be easily bought if you want to mix and match lift components

A lot of how I’ve built my car up with the generic parts have been second-hand. Specifically:

  • Roof rack mounted awning was 2nd hand but unused (from a shop closing down, but via gumtree)
  • The first winch I used was bought unused but 2nd hand from someone with a totally different car
  • Underbonnet compressor was bought from someone who had a much larger 4wd and needed a twin-tank compressor
  • My first set of recovery boards (full length maxtrax) was bought 2nd hand
  • Plenty of the pouches I use for interior storage were collected over months 2nd hand rather than new (and a huge saving!)
  • My fridge was unused but 2nd hand

I’ve also sold some of my mods, such as wheels and tyres, boot struts, awning and some of my roof-rack gear. There truly are a heap of things out there and you really should go look quite deeply into this. Especially if you’re on a budget and prepared to wait you can realise huge savings. As a bonus if you decide to go in a different direction you can potentially sell the item for what you paid for it 2nd hand or thereabouts.