Amidst this sea of vintage Subarus sits a little gem or stinker, depending on your point of view and how close you were to its smoky exhaust as it nattered down the road. I saw plenty of Subaru 360 sedans still on the streets in California back in the day, but I have no memory of ever seeing the 360 Sambar van before. Good thing I moved to Oregon.
image source: wikipedia
It may be a lightweight, but it turns out the Sambar has some serious weight of history on its tiny wheels. It was the very first Keitora, or kei class trucklet. It arrived in 1961, and was of course based on the 360 sedan. The kei class version of the VW Transporter-bus, which it somewhat resembles.
More recent generations of the Sambar have become very popular to convert to VW Bus mini-me’s. Pretty convincing, as far as that sort of thing goes. Since we’ve jumped ahead in the Sambar story, unfortunately in 2009 it was finally taken out of production, a consequence of Subaru’s cozying up with Toyota. The Daihatsu kei trucks are also built by a Toyota affiliate, and it didn’t make sense to have two under the big T umbrella. Until the end, the Sambar kept its rear engine, although the nattering two stroke had of course long been replaced by a watercooled twin, of larger capacity (in 1976). Later version had triples as also used in the Justy.
But back when Malcom Bricklin was peddling these vanlets to Americans, it was still powered by the original 356cc EK two-stroke air-cooled twin, rated at some 20 hp. The only vehicle at the time that could make a contemporary VW bus feel like a rocket.
Is that a padded horn button? If so, it’s the only concession to safety in this rolling biscuit tin. I have no idea how many Sambars Bricklin was able to pawn off on Americans, but given how badly the 360 sedan fared, I suspect the numbers are quite low indeed.
One handy touch: the rear doors open on both sides. And those integrated finned brake drums/wheel centers are tasty, just like the famous optional Pontiac wheels of the late sixties. That would be about the only similarity to a Grand Prix that I can come up with. You?
As a bonus, in case the Sambar is not your thing, here’s a few Subaru XTs.
Future readers who find this article: Please don’t contact me about wanting to buy the Sambar or other vehicles. Call Gary’s Independent Subaru at 541-344-3224. But from the looks of this recent Google earth shot, it appears that both the 360s are gone, unless they’re even smaller than I remember. I’m sure they went to loving homes; they would have fallen right through the crusher’s teeth anyway.
There are at least two on the road in the US. Found a video of a white one taken for a drive on YouTube just last week. He even takes it on the freeway 2stroketurbo on YouTube has a blue van and a white 360 sedan.
Nice Catch. It looks like it’s surrounded by a bunch of GL/Loyale and 1st Gen Legacy brethren.
I didn’t know that a handful of the Kei Van made it into the US. I’ve seen the regular 360s at Shows and on Craigs. I wonder if they came in officially or via the Canadian grey market back door.
Official. You can see it in the second video of the 360 ads in the other post.
Wow good pile of Subaru, I bet there very few auto trannys left in there thats the only thing you cant get here for them and they break with crippling regularity.
Never seen a live Subaru Sambar of the ancient variety I dont even know if they sold here, newer models have arrived ex JDM but they seem more of a novelty than a serious vehicle.
I bought a new 1992 Loyale and the auto transmission completely toasted itself a year later. The dealer was as courteous as could be, let my ex and I have an Altima as a loaner. The dealer called and said that the transmission was unfixable and they had to get a new one shipped (by boat) from Japan. We had the Altima for six weeks before they called and said the car was ready.
I have to wonder, what could break in a new tranny that renders it stone cold dead?
“I have to wonder, what could break in a new tranny that renders it stone cold dead?”
My Aunt had an 87 Loyale. From day one the tranny didn’t seem to work quite right, always hesitant to shift when cold. Dealer declared it “normal”.
Somewhere around 70-80K, the thing stopped shifting entirely. Dealer replaced the valve assemby. Son of a gun, then it shifted great, better than it had when new.
It could be that the dealer just did not have anyone who could repair the thing. Ford Freestyles of 05-07 used a CVT that many dealers never had anyone trained to repair. The bearings go in them soon after 100K miles, an easy fix for someone with the training and tools. But since the dealers didn’t make the investment, the customer is told “you need a new trans. factory rebuilt ones cost $5,000”.
I suspect that the combination of a fragile tranny, noone able to repair them, and exhorbitant replacement cost means we’ll not see a Freestyle CC in 10 years, because they will all be junked when the tranny fails.
I saw one of these out on the road this spring. There was a car club run out near Forest Grove Oregon on a Saturday that included 1 or 2 Sambar vans, a Sambar pickup a 360 sedan and and some German micros.They also had a Citroen 2CV an original Mini and soem Honda 600s. Sadly I was on a bicycle club ride with neither camera nor time so I couldn’t get a photo but the sight of a convoy of cars normally seen only on the micro car museum web site was amazing.
The local electronics store had one of those 360 vans in the late ’60s down in So. MN, so they actually penetrated to the midwest! Oh and a friend of mine who lives in a Tokyo suburb had one of the VW clone vans up until about 6 months ago…