It's tiny, it's boxy, it has no infotainment screen, it's full of brittle plastics, it's noisy, and on the motorway it often feels like it's going to be dragged into the slipstream of a passing articulated lorry (it's not, by the way!). Why, then, did I love my week in the Suzuki Jimny so much?

Because it's a Tonka toy, a grown-up Tonka toy for anyone who ever dreamed of getting behind the wheel of an unapologetically ruftytufty utilitarian vehicle, the little car that could.

The Jimny always was popular here, a compact starter car for many. It made a lot of sense. At just 3.6-odd metres long including the tailgate-mounted spare tyre, you easily could shoehorn it into the tightest of city parking spaces. Yes, it was maybe a bit too narrow for comfort when you had four adults on board, but you and the three passengers could go places other cars could not.

You never got stuck in a muddy field at the music festival. You could hitch the surfboards to the roof and drive onto the beach where it was permitted. It had summer written all over it, in the carefree days when you could decide on a Saturday morning to drive from Dublin to Kilmore Quay just for a bag of fish and chips, with the Eagles on the radio and the smell of calamine lotion all the way home.

Sadly, the Jimny no longer is available here as a four-seater, the model I drove is the two-seater commercial variant. When I say two-seater, though, I'm talking about humans, because this also is the perfect car for anyone with a couple of big dogs that have to be driven to the best place for their walk.

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There's a mesh screen separating the passengers from the cargo area, which means a sopping wet Fido can't leap over and soak you. If you need it solely to use that space, well, despite the compact size of the Jimny, you're still going to fit 863 litres of your stuff in there.

The driver and passenger area is not uncomfortable, but it is basic, and just a little bit squeezed. The plastics are all black, and feel like somewere, thing from the 1990s, and the lack of a screen is a shocker at first, though there is Bluetooth connectivity for voice calls. As the week wore on, I grew to like this absence - you forget how distracting a screen can be, even if it's only to use the RDS to find out what track is playing on the radio.

There are old-school large dials for the heating, and flip switches for the windows and the drive modes, as well as buttons on the steering wheel for volume control and changing stations. The instrument panel is retro analogue, and it all reminded me of what driving used to be like when you actually had to drive, rather than the car taking control of everything for you.

I'm not suggesting for a second that safety aids should be dispensed with, because they save lives. And, indeed, the Jimny scored only three out of five stars on the EURONCAP test, with just 50% for safety assistance tools, and an unfortunately low 52% for impacts with vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists. It honestly is hard for me to recommend any car on that basis when so many out there now get the full five-star rating, and my usual personal cut-off is four stars at a bare minimum.

On that basis, this Jimny seems to me to be best suited to people who really do need the off-road capability, maybe those who are used to frequent snow and ice at altitude, or who just have to drive across a few muddy fields with feed for animals.

Certainly, if you were using it on the public highway, you also might find yourself going ouch every now and then paying for petrol, because it averages 7.7 litres per 100km. High emissions of 170g/km also leave it liable for €413 a year motor tax, which is hefty enough in anyone's money. The compensation comes in the fact this commercial version is dirt cheap at just under 21 grand.

I'm not saying this as gospel, but it must be the cheapest 4x4 around, which holds an attraction for many.

So, with all the above reservations taken into account, I have to say I still loved the Jimny. It brings with it the faint whiff of a misspent youth, and the promise of even more fun. Euro for euro, it's one of my favourite cars of the last few years.

SUZUKI JIMNY 1.5 ALLGRIP PRICE: €20,995 OTR ENGINE: 1.5-litre petrol 1462cc POWER: 100hp TRANSMISSION: x Five-speed manual, all-wheel drive TOP SPEED: 145kph CO2: 170g/km €413 tax FUEL CONSUMPTION 7.7 (combined) DIMENSIONS: 3645mm (L); 1645mm (W, excl mirrors); 14720mm (H)

Images: Provided