/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>1608706
It's like a 2004 or something? Last generation of the Subaru Sambar before it became a badge engineered Daihatsu Hijet.

Anything over 25 years old is fair game to import, and right now that's about the bottom of depreciation curve for these sorts of vehicles. Additionally, you may live in a cool state like >>1608708, just make sure to doublecheck.


Incidentally the Sambar is probably the worst off-road of all the kei trucks, but it's the best on-road. They call it the farmer's Porsche, because it is rear-engined with McPherson/trailing arm independent suspension. It has 4 cylinders instead of 3, and has a genuinely nice engine note. I've even taken it autocrossing! In all honesty it drives like a slightly faster original beetle. Very car like. Gets stuck in the dirt very easily, even in 4wd low.

Other kei trucks generally have leaf springs and solid axles. They feel very much like overpowered golf carts. Having a 50hp golf cart is tons of fun of course, but they are...interesting...at speed. They'll all run rings around the Sambar offroad, especially the ones with diff-lock.


It's without a doubt the easiest car I've ever worked on. I once did a timing belt/water-pump job with no prior knowledge in about 2 hours. I could probably do the same job in an hour, now that I've done it before. I'm not a mechanic.

Specific data on Japanese cars can be found on this website, just use googletranslate:
https://spectank.jp/index.html


If you are serious about getting one, I know the right people to make it happen anon. Have a couple friends who export cars all the time. Never done it myself, but an educated guess on cost would be something like this:

1000-4000 The actual truck
2000 Shipping
1000 Fees
1000-2000 Myself and my friend's time, gas, etc.

Send me an email if you want to talk in depth, and don't feel like you need to buy one of course.