I watched a fair amount of animated Disney films when I was growing up. The ones I liked best usually had some dark overtones or truly frightening characters. I can’t think of any Disney cartoon flicks I actively disliked, but “The Rescuers” from ’77, featuring a greedy, sinister Madame Medusa and the chain-smoking, dog-hating Cruella Deville from “One Hundred And One Dalmatians” from ’61 were two of my favorites.
My grandparents owned one of the first VCRs of probably any people I knew, and every once in a while when my family was visiting, they’d pop in some Disney movie they had taped off their local TV station for us grandkids. Their choice of movie, Disney or not, was never simply about us being entertained, though. It had to feature some kinds of morals or values or something they wanted to low-key teach us kids. Enter “Pinocchio” and his lesson about truth-telling.
It never really occurred to me back then that “Jiminy Cricket”, the name of Pinocchio’s little, green sidekick who acted as his conscience, was a minced oath and less impolite way of (not) taking the Lord’s name in vain. How was this gotten away with? To be clear, my intent here is not to drag Disney. (And there were worse offenses, for which corporate apologies appear to have been made.) It’s just that I wonder if Suzuki, realizing the similarity between “Jiminy” and “Jimny” the latter being the name of their tiny SUV in its home market of Japan and in many others, globally, decided to rename it the “Samurai” for U.S. consumption to avoid offending potential customers. It’s not as big a stretch as one might think.
This little all-wheel-drive machine was sold in the United States starting with the 1986 model year, disappearing from this market after ’95. What’s funny is that before I had confirmed the model year of this example as ’88 by a license plate search, this year was going to be my guess based on the wheels and pictures of other Samurais I had found on the internet. This example would be powered by a 74-horsepower, 1.3L engine, mated to a five-speed manual gearbox. Over 200,000 Samurais were sold in the United States during its decade-long run. Its super-low price of entry ($8,195 in 1988, or about $18,000 in 2020) had me saving the money I earned as a paperboy back then in the hope of being able to afford one in a few years. This plan did not come to fruition.
Even if Jiminy Cricket was a different shade of green than this Jimny Samurai, the association between the color of this Suzuki and that of a certain cartoon insect immediately came to mind when I spotted it. Jiminy Cricket may have been a little feeble for my tastes as my favorite Disney characters go, but he was a dapper dude, and also clearly invested in helping those close to him make good or better decisions from within. That’s good enough for me for him to earn a free pass for the rest.
Rogers Park, Chicago, Illinois.
Friday, July 9, 2015.
It’s not a passenger car. But American Consumers, and the magazine that creates Reports for them, thought that everything that has four wheels and seats should ride and drive like a passenger car. The end.
It has been way, way too long since I have watched Pinocchio. To the point that I just had to look up the spelling.
I have always found these mini-proto-SUVs really appealing. Like maybe what you would drive if Pleasure Island had cars? 🙂
I owned one for a little more than a year back in the early 90’s. Even in my mid 20’s I found it to be a miserable thing to use for daily transport. It did serve a “moral” purpose in its “Jiminy-ness” for me though, as it followed my ownership of a 1985 Conquest. Said Conquest was a vehicle that I liked very much, but it caused a young me and my heavy left foot a great deal of angst and expense. The Samurai was a whole different ballgame. It did help me to keep my driving record on track during our time together though.
Actually if you’re interested to know more about the inner workings of Disney, read Bill Peet’s autobiography. He worked on story boards for Pinnocchio.
I always liked these little Suzukis, seems like there were lots then all of a sudden they were all very rusty, and then gone.
Now the few left are heavily modded off roaders.
There was a silver lining to all the negative press generated by Consumer Reports on the Samurai, and that was after it became widespread knowledge, Suzuki dealers were discounting them at fire-sale prices. Even with their tiny dimensions and poor driving dynamics, they weren’t a bad buy, especially for someone of meager means in the Snow Belt. I might even go so far as to suggest they’d have been a terrific alternative to an ATV for large farm use.
If you like dark overtones in these types of stories, you may enjoy reading the original Pinocchio. I picked up a copy (that’s about 100 years old or so) a few years ago and read it… very dark, and full of death. Virtually every character dies, including the cricket, who Pinocchio squashes near the beginning (the cricket’s spirit returns later in the book). Anyway, it’s an interesting contrast to the Disney version.
Regarding the Samurai, in looking at this green example, I wish someone at Suzuki had thought along these lines and called it the Jimny Cricket… how absolutely perfect. And until this time, I’d never known that jiminy was considered a curse word… I’d always heard it used by folks who typically avoided any type of swear words. Learn something new every day! And I had assumed that Suzuki ditched the Jimny name for the US because it sounded to similar to “Jimmy.”
In any event, Jimny Cricket suits this Samurai perfectly.
The original story is like some combination of a Brother’s Grimm tale and Lewis Carroll, with the darkness of the first and the sheer weirdness of the second, though quite without the humour (perhaps lost in translation?) It sure got my attention, but I wouldn’t really rush to read it to kids at bedtime!
I remember when a bunch of the lower tier japanese and korean manufacturers offered these little jeeplets. I know kia had one, daihatsu had one, isuzu had one, and Suzuki had the sidekick and x 90. They seemed very popular for a while as cheap and cheerful transport which were all priced under 15k and in early versions under 10k and seemed like good stylish alternatives to a poverty looking econobox .Then they all vanished. This would seem to be a lucrative segment today for anyone who has priced a wrangler and wants the wrangler look without the wrangler price.
Back in ’84 in my first official job we had one of these as the office run about, and I used to drive it a lot, with the top down of course. I really loved it. In case you were wondering I was working in fashion, not forestry. Back then the SJ410 had the same aura as the Mini, classless and cool. I fitted into it easily.
The new Jimny is on sale here in South Africa. It still has that classless aura. I made a point at the first opportunity to slide behind behind the wheel. To my horror I no longer comfortably fit in, all down to my own personal ‘segment creep’…
Thanks for a great story as always Joseph!
Maybe, though I think they probably renamed it other-than-Jimny to avoid Americans perceiving it as a cheap, inferior knockoff of the GMC Jimmy, and to avoid a GM lawsuit.
(…Magnetbox, Sorny, Panaphonic…)
I cannot look at one of these and not think of the film “Some Kind Of Wonderful”. The image of Eric Stoltz (Keith in the film) jumping into the back of one driven by Molly Hagan (Shayne in the film) to get a lift home is forever frozen in my mind.
When I was about 10 years old, my neighbor bought a brand new one of these in light blue. She drove it until the New England weather rusted it out beyond repair; but it was fun to ride around with the top off in summer! She also had a brown 1979 Mazda RX7; I thought she was a cool lady because both her cars had manual transmissions and were lots of fun.
»beep beep« “Hi!” …the new Suzuki Samurai!
Don’t you hate it when they make such an obvious spelling error in the title? ‘Suziki’ almost sounds Russian rather than Japanese!
I guess it’s the modern-day version of classified ads in the newspaper for Plymouth Valients and Valaris, Chevrolet Cameros, and other suchlike.
These were popular vehicles in the Caribbean. The roads there are more like driveways than roads. They are very narrow and steep, so these little toys were the best way to get around paradise.
When I worked the Islands, I didn’t want to look like a tourist, so I would take public transportation since the weather there is always perfect and rental cars stood out among the old vehicles natives drove.
But there was one vehicle I found in Tortola, where I worked and where I vacationed, btw, that I found on my first visit and always got on subsequent visits there. It was an old rebuilt Samurai. My company wouldn’t rent it, but since I was a regular there, they would let me have it for my weeks-long visits. (I would commute by ferry to another island, and then return to Tortola that night).
So this old Samurai lost its convertible top years before. The seats were replaced, as well as the original transmission. The company kept it around for a lark, and it was a secret that I loved driving. The vehicle was dark green and definitely rusty. The white steel wheels kept the tires on the vehicle, but little else. Best of all, that Samurai fit into Tortola traffic like a local, and I loved it like little else. This may sound strange, but driving for years in brand-spanking new cars made buzzing around beaches in this little Samurai a total blast. The transmission was smooth, the clutch was smooth, and unlike the new Samurai rental fleets, this worn out Samurai was a perfect road warrior.
One day, I got caught in a tropical cloud burst. At first I was a bit freaked out about getting wet, but realized that there was no need to worry about the interior of the Samurai, or what I was wearing. I was driving straight up one of those tiny roads that looked more like a paved goat path, than a road. As I charged up over one of the mountains, I passed a road station islanders use to wait for passing traffic for a ride. It is customary there to give folks rides when you pass a road station. So, there was an old man looking for a ride at this road station. He walked up to me in the Samurai, saw that there was no roof – saw that we were taking a free rain shower while in the vehicle, and then froze.
“No Mon! No! You go! I not ride!” – for the first time ever – I got refused by a native for a ride! Me, the big white guy, sitting in this Samurai, drenched, rain falling, was being rejected by the nice old man looking for a ride. That was when I realized I looked like a native Islander, and a complete bum to boot. It made me love that old Samurai even more.
After a couple more years, the Samurai was sitting out in a field of weeds, and chickens were walking around it, scratching for bugs. My friends wanted to see my face when they showed me that it was out of commission and needing repairs. Instead of the old Samurai, I was offered a new Wrangler, which I had to accept with a heavy heart. Wranglers were the vehicles I often drove in Hawaii and on other islands, so having a new one wasn’t special to me. I photographed it sitting there in the weeds slowly becoming one of those colorful junks visitors photographed rotting in paradise. After a few more visits, it was gone and that made me kind of sad.
What a beautiful story! 🙂 thanks for sharing! I have a Samurai now and live in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn NY, which has a large population from the caribbean. And everytime I go out, people give me a wave or thumbs up and a wide smile.
I owned a Samurai, bought new in January of ‘86, for 5 years. My commuter (RT 106 miles) for all that time, Even drove it from the Bay Area to L.A. and back, not too terrible, but I was younger then, lol. My young sons loved it, especially with the top down. But I once had my wife and our three kids in it driving over the Richmond Bridge with some fairly strong winds and it got so twitchy it scared the hell out of me.
Never drove it on a freeway with them in it again.
Well! All these years on earth, and I never knew that “Jiminy Cricket” was a replacement for “Jesus…er..the Anointed One”. So to speak.
To offend would be just not cricket, though this does mean that cricket is not just cricket, which is perhaps itself just not cricket. By Jiminy.
Anyway, in my experience of these robust utensils, the cricket is more homophonic, referring more accurately to their effect upon the neck. One could properly be called spineless after extended use.
Since I have learned a new thing today, here is one for you. They were never called the Samurai in Australia but instead, the Suzuki Sierra, and what’s more, in a short burst of comedy badge-swapping in the mid-’80’s, were also sold as the Holden Drover.
Btw, I always thought Disney’s Jiminy Cricket to be a righteous little PITA. That’s Person In The category of Annoying, ofcourse.
I have always loved these. When my brother went on vacation to Greece in the mid ’80s, he noted they sold turbo versions there. They are almost impossible to find in unmolested here in the land of Mud Runs (Pac NW). Now if they would make the Mahindra Roxor street legal without ruining it……I can only dream…sigh.
Thank you for the lovely story. These little cars have a special place in my heart and my family. My friends and me have owned them since the early 90s. We formed a midwest chapter of gadzukes and took them to the moab jeep jamboree. We had a group of good friends and have many great memories. At our wedding we lined the front of the church with our samurais and my groom’s cake had matchbox samis paint like each of theirs four wheeling in the cake.
I still have 2. My daughter has 2 and a few friends still have them. Sadly with Suzuki motor corp leaving there days may be numbered. They just couldn’t recover from the bogus consumer reports article. Even are it was settled that they fabricated it. The damage was done. The new Jiminy looks awesome. Wish we could get it here.
I think the name is intended to synonymous with “Sidekick”, but smaller.
These were sold in Hawaii before being offered in the mainland US. A friend living on Maui bought one of the first. It was perfect for a tropical island without freeways and still had dirt roads at the time. When he moved to California and brought it with him, sold at a slight profit.