Hello from Fife

To be honest, unless your going extreme, a standard Jimny with a quality set of all terrain tyres will get you pretty much anywhere unless yoru going serious offroad.
If you have water to cross, then even in standard form, you can drive though water up to the bottom of the headlights with ease.... any deeper and I would considder a snorkel.
oh, and axel breaters.
That is pretty much all you need to do to make a Jimny a very capable vehicle indeed.

Personal preference on the soft versus hardtop models, but a hard top is more practical. If you want to make it a little muscular, get some 30mm spacers on the standard steel wheels or get wider alloys.

Hardtop is what I'm after. Softies are definitely more widely available, and cheaper, at the moment but I'm after the security and convenience of an enclosed roof and rear space again.

Not sure I'll do much modification on the body but I've already got my eye on on wheels, tyres and bits of light chassis tinkering and servicing to fit around them. The usual, I suppose.

And yes, pics are a certainty.

Hi, Im from fife too - Kirkcaldy. I bought my Jimny first week of december to replace my sick BMW that needed £1000+ of maintenance to it. Its absolutely brilliant in the snow i have to say, especially with the Malatesta Kaimen tyres i bought!

Have you looked at any of the garages in KIrkcaldy? I got mines from Brenwood motors (Suzuki garage near Asda) but there was a lot of them floating around when i was on the hunt. I'll keep my eyes peeled and let you know if i see any in the passing - I work just outside Carnoustie and cross the bridge everyday and such - pass about 8 garages between home and work!

Cool, cheers! I was thinking of nipping down to Brenwoods at the weekend and having a nose about. I'm still not settled on budget. I'm tempted to aim cheaper so I've got the money for basic mods, but equally I need to be driving it every day so it can't spend too long in the garage with me taking it apart.

I'm based in Newport on Tay and work in Dundee so we're probably crossing paths most of the time.

Well I'm a bit stuck. Been speaking to a few people in the used trade and Suzuki dealerships in the vacinity today and they're basically laughing. Very few Jimnys have been surfacing and those that have are fetching an extra grand premium because of demand. To buy new there are 6-8 week delivery times.

I have to remain patient but it complicates matters as I've got to do something about the MX5. Bloomin snow!.

theres one for sale in Selkirk at clarckson motors (autotrader) - is an 08 at £8.5k 21k miles

may more than you wanted to pay?