In other words, 4WD transmission mode should be used only on rather slippery surfaces, like snow, ice, mud, loose gravel, wet grass, and sand. Wet asphalt, wet concrete, and hard-packed gravel are not considered slippery enough.

All four Jimny generations have manually user-selectable dual-ratio (dual-range) gearing mechanism. The two ratios or ranges are called "high range" (for regular on-road driving and light to moderate all-terrain driving) and "low range" (for moderate to hard all-terrain driving