Most of us know that the Subaru BRAT stands for Bi-Drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter. I guess BDRATT didn’t quite roll off the tongue as well in those marketing meetings. This example is a 1978 Subaru BRAT and it can be found listed here on Craigslist in the beautiful capital city of Montana – Helena. The seller has an $8,000 asking price listed which is between Hagerty’s good and excellent value. Thanks to Roger for sending in the tip on this BRAT!
Most folks talk about three things when a BRAT comes up for sale: 1) The Chicken Tax. 2) The jump seats. 3) The third eye passing headlight.
1) The Chicken Tax was an import tax on small trucks imposed by President LBJ’s administration after West Germany and France lobbed a tax bomb on US chicken imports to their countries. It added 25% on small imported pickups, no small amount for sure. Subaru got around this by adding – 2) – jump seats in the bed of the BRAT so they could be classified as passenger cars instead of trucks. The jump seats went away in the US after 1985 and a lot of insurance companies make BRAT owners sign a form promising to never let anyone ride in those jump seats. For the record, this example does come with the jump seats. 3) The third eye headlight, or passing lamp, was a cool feature of the Subaru Leone of which the BRAT was a variant. I think that it may have been more of a catchy gimmick, like say, wearing white makeup, black spandex body suits, and 6″ heels on your thigh length silver leather boots when you perform on stage (did Paul, Gene, Ace, or Peter ever drive a BRAT?). The third eye was only available for the 1980-1982 model years.
Ok, there should be a #4 here: the legendary spare tire mounted above the engine. There are several theories for that spare tire placement: 1) The boxer flat-four engine allowed the room so it freed up extra trunk space. 2) In case of an accident, the tire would deflect the engine downward instead of into the cabin. 3) It helped add a little more weight to the drive wheels when all Subarus weren’t 4WD/AWD. I would like to add a #4: it looks cool and unique, a trademark of almost any Subaru. Here’s my former 1988 Subaru RX turbo sedan’s engine with the spare tire mounted under the hood. This is Subaru’s 1.6L EA-71 boxer-four with just under 70 hp. The seller says that this BRAT “is a bunch of fun and I’ve been using it for a daily driver for a year so all the kinks are worked out.” It was towed behind an RV for most of its 85,000 miles and they’re selling it to fund a campground that they’re building in Montana. Cool. Are there any BRAT fans out there?
Junk car since day one.
Luki has been a genious since day two. Thanks for the intelligent comment !
As a never ending theme ( with me), price is way out of whack. There’s a guy in Colorado here, that has 4 of these, as a package deal, for $2,500 bucks, and nobody wants them. These are great little trucks, and the rear topper is a big plus, and I’d love to have it. Wait a minute, since this is the alleged value of my ’77 GMC( according to Texas lore) maybe they will trade even up.
As a former Subaru Brat owner that truly loved that vehicle, they are WAY to high on the price. Plenty of work to do on it to bring it back to where it belongs. Especially the amount of rust on the front end. Good luck with the sale though. Nice part of history.
My brother, a farmer, owned one in England where they were simply known as a Subaru pick up. He was once cautioned by a police officer for carrying an estimated three quarters of a ton of cattle feed in the back. I guess his cows were hungry that day ! His Subaru never let him down,,but he later traded it for a long wheel base Landrover.
more pic 4 eight grand, plez.
@ least a place 2 start but no f/u w/o more info 1st (just a pass by).
Serious sales should have a lill more to have a potential linger, think
and possibly contact 4 more info.
I had it’s twin back in the day. Fun car that wouldnt die.. and i tried !
Way overpriced for the visible rust. Being a Brat, if you see visible rust, there’s a hell of a lot of rust that you don’t see that will kill it dead.