The United States is around twenty-six times bigger in land area than the country of Japan is and it almost seems like some of our trucks and SUVs are twenty-six times bigger than this 1969 Subaru 360 Sambar van. This is one small vehicle. The seller has this 9.8-foot-long microvan posted here on craigslist in West Palm Beach, Florida and they’re asking $13,500 for it.
I’m wildly exaggerating about American vehicles being that big, of course, but you have to admit that most of them have gotten bigger over the decades. The Subaru Sambar, which was available in both a van and pickup, hit the market in Japan in 1961 and they were part of the Subaru 360 family of Kei class vehicles. That was a system whereby buyers could choose small vehicles that conformed to a certain size and other regulations which gave owners benefits in regard to tax and insurance savings.
The Sambar van was sold in the US around this time in the late-1960s when Malcolm Bricklin worked out a deal with Fuji Heavy Industries to sell Subaru 360s here. We all know that they were never designed for American freeways or high-speed travel but that usually comes up in the comments for some reason. They also aren’t the safest vehicles ever made so you’ll have to take that into account if you plan on driving them around hoards of texting drivers.
The seller has provided 24 photos with a decent variety of angles which is nice. They show what looks like a really nice van compared to most that we see which aren’t restored. It sure doesn’t look like it would take much to restore this van compared to most of the rusty clunkers out there. The underside looks solid and I only see a couple of areas where rust has poked through that thin metal on the body so this one is very restorable. And, at less than ten feet in length, five feet high, and just over four feet in width, you could probably restore it in a single-car garage or in half of your two-car garage.
Well, as it often does with craigslist ads, it comes down to the end and not having an engine photo to show you. I still don’t know why that is and it’s always super disappointing, especially when a seller provides so many photos otherwise, some duplicates, and they’re so close to showing the engine! It’s right there, right under that cover, just open the cover! The bolts are already off so you know they looked in there, just open it and show a photo AHHH AHHHHHHHH! (in my best Sam Kinison voice) It should be a 356 cc two-stroke air-cooled twin with 25 horsepower. This one doesn’t run but it turns over. Hagerty is at $9,700 for a #4 fair condition van and, believe it or not, $51,000 for a #1 Concours van. Any thoughts on this micro-minivan?
The other drawback to these photos is the lack of perspective which would have better shown just how small this actually is.
Begging for a Hayabusa engine
Nice one, Scotty! Clearly you need this! I’m with you on being mystified why someone would list a car without showing the engine, even if it’s not a muscle car, which this clearly is not. The benefits of a lightweight vehicle pay off today much as they did in 1969. Trying to imagine what this would be like considering it’s got less than half the HP of my rather ordinary motorcycle. Cute little sucker, but yeah, don’t drive it under a dump truck, or in front of one for that matter. Thanks for bringing this nifty ride to our hallowed halls!
Ha, thanks, Todd! This would be a great little motorcycle hauler for me but I’d have to remove the seat and move it back for sure, my long legs don’t fit behind the steering wheel of any Subaru 360 product in factory form. When I had a commercial cleaning service in the 1980s and 90s we used propane-powered buffers with 11-hp Honda engines on them, so 25 hp for an actual road vehicle is not a lot of power!
I’d be concerned about the rusty bleeds from around the windscreen.
As far as power goes, around town it’s unimportant; like a Fiat 500, you can thrash the wossnames off it and you’re still not going to bother the speed limit in the space available to you! And you can get through gaps that no-one else – apart from bikes – can fit through.
I noticed the windshield rust as well. If it’s extensive, and it looks like it is, it will be a pain to fix.
Scotty, that was the greatest opening sentence in the history of BF!
You’re way too kind, Evan, thanks much!
Where are the pedals?
Good eye, Garfon! +10 for noticing that.
I used to own one of these a long time ago, used it for running around to local flea markets. Driving around you will discover there are hills you never knew were hills before. You can drag race Goggomobils – and lose. Speed tops out around 45 mph on level ground with the little 2-cylinder engine screaming for mercy.
A recent customer of mine had one of these and let me check it out. You really don’t get an idea how small these are until you see it in person. It’s almost 2 feet shorter than my Miget, which is basically a go kart with license plates.
Awesome looking *mini* van. It may be a tad rusty, but as long as it’s merely surface rust, and everything else is solid, I can see this being a good resto project. I saw a pickup truck version of this not far from where I live. It was nicer looking than this.
The ultimate Hobbit car. These are probably horrible vehicles. But you will fall in love with them. They look like St Bernard puppies. I can’t imagine wher one would go to find it a front bumper and it would be a labor of love fixing the rust around the windshield. But it wouldn’t matter because you’d step back and get warm and fuzzy feelings just looking at it. The best thing would be, unlike St. Bernard puppies, it would never grow up. I hope it goes to someone who will give it the love it craves.
They still use these as cruise ship and airport taxis on some Caribbean islands, you know.
DO NOT put a more potent engine into this thing! The Subaru 360 chassis can’t safely handle the 17(ish)HP it has already. Anyone who can read a chassis design can see that the front suspension, with just one trailing arm per side, is a disaster waiting for the first “fast” corner. The steering wheel suddenly wants to turn in even more sharply, and body flex probably makes the outside door pop open … you ARE wearing that seat belt, right?
A guy I knew slightly wanted to buy mine and put his Honda bike’s engine in it, the one whose model name I forget but it was the ten-cylinder 120 HP monster. As luck would have it he killed himself on the bike before I had the chance to talk him out of it.
Looks like it’s missing the lower rear tailgate, can see the hinges hanging in the rear pics. The rust around the windshield & lower front doors looks pretty severe.
must B shown from front or 3/4 front w/av size human. Roof only upto my arm pit I believe. Or bring out that vedub bug out’n show. W/my ol bod I can’t bend it up to get in ‘like I could’. Would B worried abt drivin this…
srintimidator, you need to stick to that though. Driving a sorry mess like this is not for us older folks in any way at all. Between the never-solved exhaust leak and those lousy handling problems I mentioned is the fact that we’ve probably used up all of our spare lives by now … and I like this one too much to kiss it off at the wheel of the lousiest excuse for a car I was ever in. Yeah, you could call it a “thrill ride”, but I guess catching fire is kinda thrilling too …