2019 Jimny Vs 2002

Not sure you'd save £20k

You'd need a decent gen 3 and they are £6k+ and then not sure how you'd turn it into a Gen 4

Both are great vehicles. l
lf your budget is £10k go for a nice Gen 3 and lose no money on it, as values are stable.
lf your budget is £20,000 buy a Gen 4 and benefit from the better refinement (probably lose no money on it either)

Thanks everyone. Some really good insights here. More I hear the more I like. Gen 3 definitely isnt for me. Been there done that, interesting option though it would be.

I'm guessing in terms of rear passenger space there isn't much in it between a gen 3 and a gen4?

Think busta may have missed a comma after £20k?

Last time I looked used gen 4s are selling at around £25k. You can do a lot with a gen 3 for £5k. But obviously not if you start by buying a £6k one.
My 2003 has a 1.6, rear lsd, locked front diff, BFG ATs, new springs and shocks, roof rack, front and rear winch and has cost about £3.5k all in.
But if you don't want an older car or to get your hands dirty that's fair enough, unfortuanately the £20k difference won't apply to you.

Legroom in the gen 4s is the same as gen 3s.

Locked front diff! Bet that's interesting on the road!

I paid £20,000 odd for my brand new Gen.4 The £3.5k would cover the cost of the extras but not the base vehicle, that's another £6k.

You still want save £20k.

...the looks you get driving down the street in a Gen 4 - priceless!

The locked front diff makes no difference at all on the road.

£6k for a 2002 Jimny sounds a bit excessive. My 2003 was £800, which I've included in the £3,500 figure. But £2k should be plenty, especially if you consider a non-runner with an eye to swapping the engine out.

Either way there is still a significant difference in price, even more so if you want to modify the newer car too. But this is a bit of a pointless conversation because clearly people that have rationalised spending £20k+ for a Jimny will have a very different outlook to me and wouldn't consider the route I'd take as in any way comparable.

I guess to answer the OPs question directly: The gen4 is largely the same car with different body styling. Fundamentally it offers very little in terms of improvement over the previous model. It's still essentially a kei class car so it isn't more spacious. It still has a ladder chassis, live axles and uses virtually the same springs and shocks so the ride is still crashy and the handling is wayward. The interior is still basic. It's still fundamentally a cheap car, albeit one where demand has pushed prices up far above retail.

There was a string about various types of diff.lockers and the pros and cons of fitting them and in the main a variable type that allowed a degree of slip so that it could be used as much in the front as the back was the preferred way to go. Yes, a spool can be isolated and then the Jimny will be just another 2 wheel drive car and in the snow and ice it will remain in 2 wheel drive because of the danger of trying to drive it with a locked front diff. Try explaining that to the police or your insurance company when you plow straight on into a ditch. With a front diff. locked your motor has a problem, the front wheels want to go where they are pointed but at the same time they want to go straight on because that is what the spool is dictating. End result is a chaotic situation of thrashing wheels and you going somewhere between straight on and where you wanted to turn.
Oh and I would much rather that hot popular girl fancied me rather than my motor.

Roger