Jimny Mods That Made the Interior Suck Less

Reading time: 6 min

1. Intro — I Actually Sit Inside the Thing…

Look, I love my Jimny to death. I modded the living hell out of it and made it a great micro-overlander from the outside.
But what about the inside?
That interior?
It feels like Suzuki was halfway through making the interior when the boss yelled “Lunch break!” and they never came back to finish the damn job…
You get 2 badly placed cup holders and a broken dream…
A stereo that plays CDs, nobody will ever want to steal that…
No armrest, because people who drive Jimnies are armless from Suzuki’s perspective…
Then it hit me:

“I don’t sit on the roof rack. I sit inside the damn thing every single day…”

So yeah, I started working on that awful interior.
No more budget mode, no more interior afterthought…
So, I tackled this problem simply: The car misses basic tech, basic storage, and basic comfort. I want all three.
Let’s talk about the interior mods that actually make the Jimny feel like a proper car.

2. The Stereo: A Monumental Jump from 1995 to 2025

Let me be frank — That stereo is a crime against humanity.

• CD Player.
• AM/FM Radio.
• 2 sad little door speakers that whisper into the void the moment the AC is on or I hit 60 km/h.

Seriously, for a moment, I expected Nirvana’s “Nevermind” or Bon Jovi’s “Cross Road” album to start playing, and a damn cassette will just eject and ask me to rewind it by hand with a pencil…

I felt like I just dug up someone’s time capsule or something…
Guess what I did? I ripped that fossil out and straight into the ocean.

In came a proper Android 14 head unit with all its technological glory!
Installing process? EASY. Patch wires here and there, just like that picture with Chinese characters says — no rocket science there.
Now I’ve got:

• Wireless Apple CarPlay
• Wireless Android Auto
• Full Touchscreen Glory
• GPS
• YouTube (for those “Park & chill” moments when my wife does shop in every store of the mall… or prison, if I decide to use it on the highway.
  And finally, Bluetooth, like proper connection, not some legacy channel connected to the KGB, trying to contact Moscow.

I can finally rewind music, without ejecting a CD, spitting on it, rubbing it on my shirt, and then praying to the car gods for it to work again.
Massive upgrade. 10/10. Highly recommended.

3. Armrest — Because I do have an arm, Suzuki!

Imagine driving the Jimny for 2 hours, with one hand on the wheel, and the other doing the following:

• Floating in space.
• Grabbing the 2 awful cup holders.
• Grabbing the handbrake, like I’m about to Tokyo drift at any moment.
• Grabbing the shifter, like my grandfather used to do, when he drove the manual version of the same car.
• Placing my finer in the cigarette lighter hole because I need to just rest my arm somewhere.

All that because the Suzuki overlords just decided:

“Eh, no armrest. They’ll figure that one out”

Well, I figured it out — I BOUGHT ONE!

After I installed that armrest, first, I got rid of the 2 stupid cup holders, but wait!
I get 1 cupholder, 1 smartphone holder, and a padded, stitched armrest that slides open, and another compartment shows up, so more storage!
It just feels like it belongs there.

I can finally keep all my random nonsense in one spot — keys, mints, ketchup packets, screwdrivers, tissues, who knows what else.
Driving experience elevated instantly. My elbow stopped hurting.
Must have. 12/10 experience. Most recommended.

4. Storage Add-ons — Cupholders, Pockets, Trays, you name it!

You know why Jimny owners talk about “minimalism”?
Try to guess…
It’s because they have no damn choice. There’s literally nowhere to put anything.

Your phone? Good luck with that!
Your wallet? Might as well forget it at home.
Your drink? If you don’t have the armrest yet, then there you go! Use that floating hand as a cupholder.

So I added the following:

• Cupholder that is attached to the armbar, that actually holds the cups.
• Door pocket organizers that go under the door handles, now door handles can be used as space to hold your phone. Someone needs to tell Suzuki that doors can do more than just… open and close doors.
• Back seat storage units, that go on top of those plastic bits above the wheels, finally, you can utilize that dead space, and actually organize the damn trunk.
• 2 Trays, one on top of the dash, the other on top of the head unit. More space to hold papers, phones, and the like.

Now I have enough storage, just like any other car. Finally, I can live with more than just my pockets and lap space.
Total game-changer.

5. Interior Lighting — Finally, I can tell when I leave a door open.

Story time:
Once upon a time, when cars started having interior lights, the manufacturers used to install that little tiny yellow light bulb, so you could see things inside your vehicle in poor light conditions.
They never worked, and nobody saw a damn thing until the nice LED lights came and took over.
The End.

So I got myself a nice LED and suddenly, I can see inside my car, finally, I can actually tell what I am doing when I move my hands around the thing. No more fumbling in the dark for something that I dropped in my accident. No more parking near streetlights, whenever I need to find something in my glove compartment.
Huge difference. Highly recommended.

6. Final Thoughts — From Nothing to Something!

So yeah… I finally sit inside the car, and I actually feel like I belong there.

The stereo finally doesn’t belong in a museum anymore.
My arm has a place to rest.
My junk has a place to live.
My car is lit, I can finally leave the flashlight at home.
And most importantly — The Jimny Feels Like My Car.

I could’ve gone nuts and installed LED strips and LED disco lights, and many other things. But I didn’t. I just gave the Jimny what it deserved from day one:
Function, comfort, and personality.

And I achieved that without selling a kidney, which I really appreciate.

More to come soon, because the Jimny is just an endless project, and never truly ends. Got more upgrades planned (probably), and I’m sure that I’ll find something else to complain about and fix with zip ties and AliExpress, and Temu finds.

Until then — if you are modding your own Jimny interior, or thinking about it, just DO IT!
you live inside the thing, you own it. Make It Yours.

Hey, if you didn’t see that yet, check what I did to the exterior of the Jimny right here: Suzuki Jimny Mods – Turning the Box into a Beast
Peace!