The final portion of my new commute to CarGurus involves about a ¾ mile walk over Boston’s historic Longfellow Bridge and then along Cambridge Parkway, which runs directly adjacent to the Charles River. A good mix of cars are typically parallel parked along Cambridge Parkway, making for something interesting to glance at if I’m not looking across at the beautiful skyline, but I’ve yet to see one old enough or interesting enough to photograph and share, until now.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Daihatsu in-person before, as they were only sold in the U.S. in small numbers from 1987-1992. This Hijet S110P is clearly a grey market import, and looks comically out of place next to larger American cars, especially the Cadillac DTS behind it. I don’t really have much else to say this Hijet, but it definitely made for an interesting find right outside my office on a beautiful November morning.
Photographed in Cambridge, Massachusetts – November 2019
Nice catch, and that really is a nice walk. Hard to beat a stroll by or over the Charles. I’ve seen a few of these (or similar) little trucks on college campuses; perfect size for the locale.
The bottom right corner of the tailgate will have the load rating (as do most JDM trucks/cargo vans/cargo cycles etc.) In this case it’s 350kg, or 771 pounds. So it’s a 3/8 ton truck. Not bad.
For in town Boston traffic this could be a great way to get around. Short, skinny, quick enough, superb visibility, you just need to deal with people complaining that you’re driving around with the bed empty.
I occasionally check the inventory of JDM dealers here in Virginia, and their inventory is often full of Hijets or similar mini-trucks. Typically, it seems like examples such as this one would sell for $5,000-$6,000. I’d love to know who buys these… I can see them making sense in certain places (everything from farm use to small town use, etc.), but I rarely see them.
Incidentally, I noticed recently that one of the dealers near here is selling new (2019 model) Hijets… I never looked into whether Daihatsu themselves are importing them or the dealers found a way around the 25-year import restriction rule.
But it’s mighty interesting to see one parked in downtown Boston; I’d love to know the story behind this one.
Probably sold for off-highway use only.
I know that a local mfg used to have some of them, and the van version that they used around their plant.
I know some use the 4wd versions as hunting vehicles instead of an ATV or side by side.
Congratulations on your new job. I sold cars for a time out of college while I was trying to find myself. That job was a total soul-sucking experience, although I do have a few funny stories about customers and eclectic co-workers.
I’m looking to pick one of these Kei class trucks up for personal use. I need a small truck for house maintenance and remodeling tasks. Traditional used small trucks are a terrible value (especially Toyota) given their high prices for vehicles that are well used up. There is a dealer outside of Portland who imports these trucks – Suzukis, Toyotas, Mazdas, Mitsubishis and Daihatsus and sells them in the $4-6K range. If you spend a bit more you can get AWD or an actual dump truck bed. The added benefit is a truck that’s unique enough to take to the local Cars and Coffee.
Thank you! “Soul-sucking” is a good way to describe selling cars, and it’s a term I use frequently to describe it. Don’t get me wrong, in my four years doing it I learned a lot, met many amazing people, and grew immensely as a person. But it’s also a job that sucks everything out of you between the high level of stress, long hours, and crazy schedule if you’d call it that because everyone works extra hours and days they aren’t scheduled for.
These must have been more common in California than in Massachusetts, as they could, in their day, be seen occasionally, enough so they were not rarities.
Yeah I think they only had authorized dealers on the west coast, because I do remember occasionally seeing them on the road in CA.
I’ve never seen one of these in the US, but they are very common in other parts of the world. We used a lot of them in Afghanistan, where they were colloquially referred to as “bongo trucks”. I don’t know the true origin of that nickname although I always thought it related to the very bouncy ride especially when unladen. The drop sides are very convenient for loading and unloading, though.
I expect the nickname comes from the Mazda Bongo.
Makes perfect sense – I never made the connection. Thanks!
Ford sold the Bongo as the Econovan, but not in the US apparently…
Wow, a cool find! The right hand drive would make something like this appealing to a rural mail carrier or a newspaper delivery driver in the suburbs, where all of the mailboxes are best accessed through the passenger side window in normal cars. Of course a van where cargo is inside would be better.
Now you have me checking out the CarGurus site.
An excellent find, Brendan. I used to drive these Daihatsu trucklets when I worked at a golf course / country club around the time this one was new. Just looking its truck bed reminds me of chucking one full of cut palm fronds and dead impatiens.
Thank you for the throwback.
Daihatsus are indeed a very scarce sight on the roads even in California; there are still a few Charade hatchbacks and a Rocky or two running around, but they’re getting fewer and further between. I haven’t seen a Charade sedan in some ten years.
I did see one of these Hijets on the road here about five years ago (picture below), and was very confused by it because it had no license plates and I’d never seen one before. It was also left-hand drive, unlike this one which appears to be RHD. According to an LA Times article from 1992, Daihatsu did sell the Hijet in the United States to the tune of $140 million in sales per year, and at least had plans to continue selling them even after pulling out of the US passenger car market. And according to a blog post on a minitruck website, Daihatsu sold LHD Hijets in the US from 1986-1996, only selling them to private facilities because they couldn’t get them legalized for road use. That would explain this one I found here in California. Since this one is RHD, however, it probably figures to be an import.
These Kei trucks are very common in Oregon as grey imports, although I have seen one that was left hand drive with faded Army Corps of Engineers markings that was originally a site vehicle at one of the Columbia River dams.
One of the local universities here has a couple of these for the maintenance department. They are not street legal here and the trucklets spend their days shuttling around campus hauling mulch and whatever else needs moved. I suspect the big attraction for this use is that they are small enough to drive on the sidewalks and can be taken right up to the work site. Someone told me that Toyota (which has a huge assembly plant in the next county to the north) gave them to the university as a “thank you” for conducting classes to assist in assimilation of people from Japan who were transferred to the assembly plant.
There’s someone around here that’s always selling Japanese kei trucks and other jdm stuff, the other day he had a Suzuki cappuchino for sale, which I initially thought was a Geo metro convertible, itself not very common these days.
I would have no problem parking this next to my Mahindra Roxor in my fantasy toy garage.
I didn’t think these were legal in MA. I looked into importing one a few years ago, but I was told by the RMV that I would not be able to register it to be street legal.
These kei trucks/vans are fairly common up here in Canada since anything 15 years old or older gets a pass. Lots of small businesses (lawn care, computer repair, etc) love them for puttering around town, and I’ve even passed one on the highway doing 120 km/h. A 4 seater van version would make for an interesting daily driver.
More on the roads in the PNW:
https://portland.craigslist.org/search/cta?query=Daihatsu&srchType=T
I own a 1992 Suzuki Carry. It is registered and inspected in NH. I got it from an importer in NJ. It’s awesome. I use it for around town travels and property maintenance. Think of it as a 4wd garden cart that can go 60mph! You would not believe the smiles it collects.
My old college-era neighborhood! (I lived just up the road on Magazine Street.) How lovely to see this and to also combine it with these amazing pics. Delightfully incongruent. I’ve been seeing more weird imports lately but this takes the cake.