For the past decade or so, the gas station/car wash down the the street from me has sometimes had a selection of unusual vehicles parked out front, apparently being held for various consignment sellers. Along with some light and medium tanks, the vehicles I’ve seen there have included this very rare LHD example of the second-generation Subaru 360 Van (a.k.a. Subaru Sambar), a two-cylinder Japanese microvan only a little bigger than your living room couch.
I’m not 100 percent positive that this particular Subaru Sambar is the same one I previously saw parked outside the gas station (which I never managed to photograph myself), but how many California-registered yellow-orange LHD 1966–1973 Subaru vans could there possibly be? Not many, surely.
If you’re not already a fan of microtrucks, you may be wondering what on earth this little thing is. In the U.S., it was called the Subaru 360 Van, which Subaru boasted was “the only 5 door Van, (domestic or import) available on the American Market.” It was the export version of the late ’60s Subaru Sambar, a sub-subcompact minitruck fitting into the Japanese keijidosha (minicar) class. In Japan, these minitrucks are generically called keitora.
In its non-original white-and-orange paint job, the Sambar looks kind of like a Volkswagen Type 2 that shrank in the wash, or, if you’re feeling cosmopolitan, the 1956–1969 Fiat 600 Multipla. The Sambar, which debuted in 1961, may have been inspired by the Multipla, but the little Fiat was actually over 21 inches longer than the Subaru, with a 633 cc four to the Subaru’s 356 cc two-cylinder engine.
When Subaru designed these minitrucks, Japan limited kei-class vehicles to an overall length of 3 meters (118.1 inches), an overall width of 1.3 meters (51.2 inches), an engine displacement of 360 cc (about 22 cid), a capacity of no more than four passengers, and a payload of no more than 300 kg (660 lb). The Subaru, like most of its class, was within 5 mm and 4 cc of those limits.
Since the ’70s, the class limits have been increased several times, but the Sambar was designed for the original rules. Thus, this little van is a mere 9 feet 9.9 inches long (on a 68.9-inch wheelbase), 4 feet 3 inches wide, and not quite a half-inch over 5 feet high. In length and width, at least, that’s roughly the size of a sofa and end table. The Subaru is bigger than my couch, but it would still easily fit in the middle of my not terribly large living room. To put it another way, the wheelbase of a 1969 Cadillac was longer than this entire van.
A second-generation Sambar van has a curb weight of less than 1,200 lb, but it’s rated to carry more than half its own weight. Factory gross weight rating was 2,060 lb, representing a nominal maximum load of two people and 660 lb of cargo.
This Sambar was, if you can believe it, a Deluxe model, with luxuries like a glove box lid and map pockets on the front doors. Subaru boasted that “comfort compares favorably with that of passenger cars” — I imagine the owner of a Henry J or early Ford Maverick would feel right at home in these extremely spartan surroundings. (The aftermarket gauges under the dash are a tachometer and dual cylinder heat temperature gauges.)
Obviously, the long of leg would not have a good time trying to drive one of these microvans, or even riding in the front seat, which is essentially perched on the front wheelhouses and does not adjust. (The spare tire is, or was, stowed under the front seat.)
The rear-hinged doors do help in trying to wedge yourself into the front seat, but they could be hazardous: If you opened the door at all while in motion, even at speeds of 20 to 25 mph, moving air would pull the door all the way open until it slapped the body side behind you. Subaru would shortly replace these with front-hinged doors, beginning in 1971.
Comfort notwithstanding, for maximum utility in the smallest possible dimensions, you can’t beat an upright box.
Something Subaru stressed about these little trucks was their low loading height — the cargo floor was only 14 inches above the ground.
Like the Volkswagen Microbus, the Fiat 600 Multipla, or the Corvair Greenbrier (a compact van that looks preposterously large compared to the Subaru), the Sambar had an air-cooled rear engine, essentially the same EK32 two-stroke twin found in the 360 sedan. In Japan, this was rated at 20 PS (metric horsepower), but in export markets, Subaru claimed 25 gross horsepower. Official top speed was 50 mph for the van, a bit faster for the lighter pickup. It was plenty.
This one has a 3-speed transmission with overdrive (“Over-Top”), which I think was optional in this generation. (The standard transmission, at least initially, was a non-overdrive 3-speed manual.) Low gear is not synchronized, which is less than ideal in a vehicle that really needs all available gears to make much forward progress.
Subaru followed the example of the Multipla by giving the Sambar fully independent suspension, although the Sambar used torsion bars rather than the Fiat’s coil springs. Until 1971, the rear suspension used swing axles, which can make for some exciting handling dynamics when lightly loaded.
Suspension was trailing arms up front, with rack-and-pinion steering. Tires were originally 4.5-10 bias-plies, replaced on this van by modern 165/70R10 Yokohama radials on Hayashi Racing wheels.
I couldn’t find any indication of how many of these 360 Vans Subaru officially imported when new, but they were originally advertised at a base price of $1,397, $100 more than a Subaru 360 sedan. Subaru’s U.S. distribution at this stage was rudimentary — Subaru of America had 280 U.S. dealers at the beginning of 1969 — but their bigger problem was that the kei cars were completely unsuited for the American market.
With their 356 cc engine, freeway speeds were out of the question, and even 35 to 40 mph city speeds could feel awfully adventuresome. Much of the scathing 1969 Consumer Reports criticism of the Subaru 360 sedan (which they deemed “unacceptably hazardous” as well as uncomfortable) would apply about equally to the Subaru trucks.
Why would anyone want one of these trucklets? Well, on this side of the Pacific, it’s mostly for novelty value, but these microtrucks make a lot more sense in a Japanese context. Being in the keijidosha class means huge breaks on road tax and insurance, and buyers are not required to provide a certificate of garage availability (demonstrating that they have access to a reserved parking space) like they are with small or standard-size cars. At the end of 2024, over 40 percent of cars and trucks registered on Japanese roads were minicars or minitrucks.
In the ’60s and ’70s, kei trucks like the Subaru Sambar were primarily commercial vehicles. They were bigger and more capable than the three-wheel microtrucks that had been popular for Japanese commercial users in the late ’50s and early ’60s, but they were cheap to buy — in Japan, a Sambar Deluxe van like this one cost around ¥430,000, equivalent to about $1,200 back then — and quite cheap to run. If high-speed driving was irrelevant and you needed to haul goods or supplies in a compact, maneuverable package, the keitora was hard to beat.
This class of truck is not as popular in Japan as it once was — total minitruck sales in the early 2020s have been averaging around 400,000 a year, around 8 to 9 percent of the Japanese domestic market — but there is still some demand. However, Subaru ended production of all its own microvehicles in 2012 so its Gunma assembly plant could be repurposed to build the Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86/Scion FR-S sports coupes. The Sambar name (which refers to a type of South Asian deer) still survives, but the modern Subaru Sambar van is a variation of the Daihatsu Hijet/Atrai.
I have no earthly need for such a van, and I sort of resent this one’s abundance of smug decals (making clown car jokes about a kei-class microtruck is just lazy, if you ask me). However, the Subaru Sambar is awfully easy to like, if not necessarily to live with: It’s cute, it’s clever, and it’s surprisingly capable within its admittedly narrow limits. If not for the exhaust fumes and oil drips, you could just park it in your house and drive it back and forth between the living room and the kitchen.
Related Reading
Junkyard CC Capsule: Subaru 360 Sambar Van: The First Kei Truck (by Paul N)
CC Outtake: 1968 Subaru Sambar – Late Night Snack (by Mr. Tactful)
Curbside Classic: 1971 Subaru Sambar (K64) – The Porsche Of Kei Vans (by Tatra87)
In 1992 I almost bought a 1980 Subaru 600, which I believe was the last evolution of the 360 as a rear engined car. There had been many left in storage (too slow, as well as some red tape in importing them got in the way). It had a couple thousand km, and looked new. That is, until my FIL told us, I’ll lend you whatever you need, but don´t get a tin can. Good thing, as all of them were shortly followed by blue smoke even looking great.
80s/90s vans and pickups are popular around mine with the skatepark crew. I love the look of the genre but not interested in driving one at all.
What a cute van! And that is a mighty modern looking alternator.
I saw a left hand drive Kei van here in Santa Cruz just a few days ago, the first time I’ve noticed one here with LHD. I think it was a Honda Acty, not a Sambar – definitely not this yellow one.
Neither: I mean trucks in the sense that JAMA defines it in their Motor Industry of Japan reports, which is kei-class “bonnet” minivans, cab-over-engine minivans, and mini-trucks registered as commercial vehicles. Since the first- and second-generation Sambar were predominantly commercial vehicles, that seemed the most directly comparable category. Of course, today, there’s not much of a difference in configuration or design between a minicar and a minitruck except how they’re trimmed and how they’re registered, but I assume that very few people in 1969–1970 Japan would have registered a Sambar van as a personal car even if they could have. If you put the minicars and minitrucks together, it adds up to about 1.6 million a year, or about 35 percent of JDM sales.
I did mess up the percentage — I apparently flipped to the preceding page of the report, which has a breakdown by production rather than sales. Since most of the keijidosha are for domestic consumption, the totals are very similar, but the percentages are not. Commercial minitrucks comprise about 8 to 9 percent of JDM sales, but 4 to 5 percent of JDM production. I fixed that in the text.
That’s on the second LHD Kei I’ve ever seen. The first was a much newer Daihatsu HiJet with Army Corps of Engineers markings on the door that must have been a site use vehicle at a Columbia River dam before being sold and road registered.
In the mid 90s I used to see a bright green Sambar pickup at a gas station of Capitol Highway in Portland which could have also been a survivor from the brief period of official imports. Despite Oregon not registering Kei trucks for several years the newer 80s and 90s ones are quite common and make good alternatives to UTVs
Keijidosha are common in Japan and they are a lot cheaper to run than the next class up. These vehicles are mostly used for in town deliveries, meaning their use on highways is rare. The turnpikes in Japan have very high tolls, meaning long distance car trips are often more expensive than taking the Shinkansen trains.
I had a Suzuki keijidosha for a while, gifted to me by a colleague leaving Japan. It had all of 550 cc, but it was more than enough to drive around town or on secondary roads.
I actually drove one of these back in the day; I was working for a Sunoco station that had an attached used car lot, and Subaru reps stopped by with a van ( sans any Sambar emblems) and a 360 sedan on a trailer, trying to recruit dealers.
As for contemporary pricing, see the attached ad.
Ahh! Thank you!
Cute is right. In the eighties we got some of the Daihatsu and Suzuki kei vans and trucks here. You don’t realise how tiny they are until you go and stand next to one.
Canucklehead makes a good point about these not being intended for highway use. I can’t imagine one of these on the highway, though I’ve seen the occasional one in the odd country town – must’ve been trucked in, I guess. Four hours at 100km/h by car is one thing, but trying to cruise there in one of these?
Newer kei vehicles with bigger 550 or 660 cc engines might be able to manage highway travel, but these early ones just didn’t go that fast. For this van, about 80 km/h was all it could do, and it wasn’t any too happy about that.
The Wisconsin Automotive Museum in Hartford (north of Milwaukee) has a pale yellow Sambar like this one. It looks like you could tuck it under your arm and carry it out like a lunchbox.
I want it!
The 360 may have been unsuited for the American market, but apparently it was well-suited to a trip around the world.
The Japanese adventurer drove a Subaru van on a round-the-world trip between 1967 and 1969. He said at one point that he drove the Subaru for its simplicity, ability to sleep in it, and its fuel efficiency. Other than a tire blowout in New Mexico towards the end of his trip, he suffered no serious mechanical trouble. He was in his early 20s at the time – probably the maximum age for driving a kei van like this!
I figure it’s much like staying up all night or sleeping on the floor, in that respect…
The gentleman’s stature puts it all into perspective; back then, there was a capital delta between the typical Japanese and a typical gangly Yankee.
I’ve sat in a Honda TN7 Acty and I was wearing it, really.
In the early eighties my company had a short contract with a company in Nassau, Bahamas and I had the chance to drive the office van, which was a Subaru Sambar. It was the third generation, so it was one generation later. I did comment on it on Tatra’s entry noted above.
It had 3 rows of seating, so it held 6 comfortably. It was a 4 speed, so as I was the only one of the group who normally drove a standard, I became the default driver. As a lover of small weird cars, I had a lot of fun. Nassau is on a small island, so no great distances or high speed was needed, so the Sambar was quite well suited.
At the time I was surprised that the Sambar was left hand drive, as Bahamas follows the British “drive on the left” rule, but I did not realize that these had been sold in USA.
I think the Fiat 600 Multipla had a water-cooled engine.
Also, 2stroketurbo@youtube occasionally publishes videos about his van and saloon.
Yes, the Multipla was water-cooled.
These are super cute and I’d thin still good in town light delivery vehicles .
Twice I nearly bought one, $700 in less rusty than this survivor is condition .
Squeezing the average American into one of these is painful to say the least .
Kei trucks were regularly used as turf trucks on golf courses, parks and so on for many years back when they were cheap .
-Nate