Subaru really needs to bring back a small car-based pickup again, they really have to. If you haven’t noticed, there have been some recent sales of their former Baja four-door car-based pickup lately that have been pretty dramatic. The seller has this 1981 Subaru BRAT listed here on eBay in Miami, Florida and the current bid price is $3,050. Thanks to T.J. for sending in this tip!
Ahhhh… Miami, what better place to go driving around in the snow in a 4×4 vehicle?! First things first: the headlights, just to get it out of the way. Yea or nay on those aftermarket LEDs? Speaking of headlights, this BRAT, being a 1981 model, should have the famous third headlight, the center passing light better known as the Cyclops light as seen here in a photo from the Japanese Nostalgic Car website. Ben Hsu is the ultimate car guy and is just plain cool. Check out his website when you can if you’re into vintage Japanese vehicles.
The BRAT (Bi-drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter) was made from 1977 for the 1978 model year all the way up until 1994 in various markets around the big blue marble (globe). Subaru struck again in the 2002 model year with the four-door Baja, formerly a very affordable vehicle but on a rapid rise in value as it’s apparently just been rediscovered. There is a lot of chatter about Subaru coming out with another possible pickup and a quick search shows a few different renderings. Make mine smaller, more like a BRAT or Baja.
This particular BRAT looks great in the overall photos but there are some rust issues, as is almost always the case unless we were in some sort of crazy vortex and it was 1981 again and this one was on the showroom floor at Subaru of Miami. The interior has the usual cracked dash issue and some of the plastic bits appear to be a bit aged from the sun and from decades of just being on the planet (no comment on some Miami citizens having the same issues). This one doesn’t have the optional T-top but it does have one thing that everyone asks about in the same way that Seinfeld comments come up on every. single. LeBaron. convertible. post:
The jumpseats! This BRAT has them and they look great, although we don’t get to see them close up. The seller gives basically no information on this BRAT at all other than to say that there’s no rust-through on the floors or bed, which is great to hear. They do provide great photos so kudos to them for being nominated for the Barn Finds 2022 hall of photo fame which we really need to work on.
The super clean engine with an obvious Weber carb conversion should be Subaru’s EA-81, a 1.8L boxer-four with around 75 horsepower, give or take. This one runs and drives well and the seller is honest in talking about this car not being perfect but just a solid survivor. Are there any Subaru BRAT fans out there?
All it needs is a pair of NOS crash-test-dummies…
lub ’em (the baja, not so much) along w/60s chero, omni (early ’80s) based dodge/plymouth, lota sm 1st gen Japanese p/u, the nissan car/pick up/ vert (that convertible, change out thing) and some more (mostly foreign, non imported).
oe T-top conversion could B done w/o leaks. Not sure bout WRX motor swap tho. Would want to daily this for 6 or so, inspect/research for break/ suspension mods to match. For me? 4WD? personal transportation? it all equals ‘the smaller, the better’ for trails here. Zuki sammy is abt right too. My ’70 bronk seems a monster to them’n CJ.
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Again, all about timing. As the author sez, re-introduce this today, be a hit, especially where car/pickups went, but as usual, in the early 80’s, Subaru was on thin ice. Just the name invoked visions of spindly 860’s,,still, and it’s as if Subaru hastily jumped on the bandwagon creating a pickup, and registering it as a car,( with jump seats, more room for people than cargo) which was brilliant,,,too bad, if Rancheros and El Caminos taught us anything, car/pickups just wasn’t what Americans wanted,,yet. To be clear, one thinks, oh, AWD, can go anywhere,,,NOT,,anything over 2 inches, well, I’ve seen plenty in the ditch with surprised driver,,”BUT IT’S AWD,,I thought”,,,and them there little tires a spinnin’ away, all of them. Now,,why someone in Miami would need one, doesn’t make a lick of sense, but ironically, it’s what saved it. These lasted 4-5 years in the salt bath, tops. It’s why you never see one today in those areas. Pretty amazing find, as those jump seats often “go missing” if the owner wanted to haul anything. I’ve seen these with a cap on the back,greatly improves covered space, but then you lose that car status, it becomes a truck. The “Weber” is an instant downer. There was nothing wrong with the original 2 barrel and at half the cost and twice the drivability, I don’t know why people insist on that finicky Italian job. Be the 1st thing to go, oh my, look, it idles again and doesn’t fart and stumble in between shifts anymore,,,
I drove one of these once buddy owned 1 blue. Huge lever for 4wd. I can’t recall if it was a 2 speed transfer case or if this thing was fwd until you engaged 4×4 via the crazy big lever.
If it was a DL trim (if that was even available on the BRAT) it would have been FWD then 4WD HI. If it was a GL then it would have been FWD and then 4WD HI or 4WD LO via the lever.
The world needs a few simple vehicles again. Maybe not Tata Nano-simple but small and simple. Small, with a pickup bed, and all four wheels providing power, even better.
Strange, as I saw my first Baja last week at a County Park. It would be perfect for my retired buddy, as he likes to putz around on small projects. And I don’t think he could drive a real pickup. And Howard nailed it again with the AWD comment. My neighbor just got his less than one year old Subie back from the body shop after going in the ditch dealing with a little snow.
Perhaps the writer of this piece has forgotten the Subaru Baja. It didn’t sell.
The same Baja that I mentioned and added a photo link for? I haven’t forgotten about it, they’re hot right now if you haven’t noticed.
This car is actually 4wd. I had a 86 or 87 GL wagon with the push button 4wd and skinny little tires with deep tread (basically the same drivetrain as seen here). That wagon would tow fat-tired bro-dozers out of the ditches with aplomb. I was always pretty smug about it.. Had about 6 inches of ground clearance too. I treated it like a truck. These are seriously beefy drivetrains for the 70ish horsepower they make.
You’re right, Derrick. I’m trying to see where it wasn’t listed as a 4WD? I don’t see AWD anywhere, did I miss something?
Stick? 5 speed? Towable behind a GMC 26’ motorhome? Gross weight? Mechanically sound? What DOES it need?
Just bought one of these, a 1984 vintage in about the same shape as this one. The BRAT is in Colorado while I’m in Pennsylvania. I actually bought two, a rusty one with a rebuilt motor and gear box and a far less rusty one with a shot motor.
I drove out to Colorado, put the good drive train jn the better car and planned to tow it home.
Then my Ridgeline decided to shred its transmission in Kansas, seemed it behaved worse than the BRAT.
Now the subaru and my dead honda are still in Colorado while I truck shop here at home. It’s been quite an adventure.
Must be a dealer with all those cars and motorcycles, been a long time since i have seen one.
I’ve owned a few of these (all of mine were ‘86’s) but they’re the best car you could ever buy. They don’t break down, the power to weight ratio is astonishing and I’ve gone MANY places where 4wd trucks and jeeps couldn’t go/got stuck and have pulled some out. Which leads me to the only bad point, once they rust they go fast. Bad design by Subaru in the rear shock tower mounts. I know these cars inside out. I’d buy one in a heartbeat if I could find one but the only decent ones seem to be in Washington state (I can’t afford to ship it and I can’t afford to take off work and drive it home either) Every now and then you see one in Co. I don’t care what anyone says, the BAJA was not a “new BRAT”, it was cheap junk. It’s a chopped up outback. I wish they’d bring the BRAT back, maybe with a little more power and update the interior only slightly though.
As a youth I vividly remember the hardass jump seats. I was a passenger in one of those jump seats when the BRAT motivated over a hump at a little too high a speed. Spine-rattling would be an understatement…
That’s amazing. They rusted away quickly here near Philadelphia ans it’s worse now with the brine that eats away at everything. A guy at work had a really nice blue one of those around 1989…
Good thing the seller’s end-of-listing copypasta of cliches doesn’t say “I know what I have” because he doesn’t!
The ’81 BRAT didn’t look like this, it was the last year of the prior generation. It’s a 1982 through ’87 – starting in ’84 all were GLs with T-tops which this doesn’t, and it has the later style taillights that came in for ’83 so that would be my guess – that someone put an ’80-81 car grille on. Could also be an ’82 since the taillights swap just as easy as the grilles.