The title “Last CC Of Its Kind Still On The Streets” is a new CC series I’m starting to document the sole survivors of their genre here in Eugene. I’m starting to notice that more and more cars that were once ubiquitous on the streets here are quickly disappearing. So I’m going to document them while I still can.
The first one up is this Mitsubishi Van, which inspired the series. It was officially imported to the US for a few years (MY ’88-’91, if I’m right), as well These were very modest sellers, and rarities on the street even in their time. And although there were a couple still out and about here a few years back, it’s been a couple of of years since I’ve seen one. Meanwhile, there are more and more Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) Delica vans of this generation showing up here, but they’re quite different in almost every way, so they don’t quite qualify in the same way as the originals.
This is the kind of Delica that’s coming in to replace the lowly Mitsubishi Van (sorry about the fuzzy focus). We’ll take a closer look at it soon. But let’s just say that with its turbo diesel engine, 4×4 drive, and a lot of other accoutrements from the Japanese off-road (but never off-roaded) van fad days, exept for the basic boxy body, these are in a different league altogether.
I’m pretty sure that these US-bound Vans all came with the automatic, which was hooked up to the classic 2.4 L Mitsubishi 4G64 four. The engine sat between the seats, of course, and it churned out some 107 hp. More than enough for the job.
There used to be this home-brewed “Van-Up” version in town, but it’s long gone, along with the others. Kind of practical, actually.
Mitsubishi, Toyota and Nissan all jumped into the minivan market in the late 80s after the explosive success of the Chrysler minivans. Obviously, they had to adapt their old-school vans for the job, which in the case of the Nissan (above), didn’t work out too well. Severe issues with engine compartment overheating led to fires, and Nissan had to buy back all of them. A few apparently escaped the buy-back and resulting crusher; this one was one of my best early finds. Never seen another again.
Unlike the Nissan, the Mitsubishi Van and the Toyota Vans quickly developed reps for being essentially indestructible, which explains why there’s still so many of the Toyota versions around. The Toyotas sold quite well too, especially so on the West Coast. My tribute to the Toyotas, the offical vans of Eugene, is here.
This Mitsubishi looks like it’s had a pretty full life. I suspect it’s not long for this one anymore. But who knows; I might see it again five years from now.
“The Last CC Its Kind Still On The Road” series has officially started. That’s the cue for another Mitsubishi Van to pop up.
William Stopford’s Full History on the Misubishi Delica/Express/van is here
I can’t stand JDM’s. When I see the older nismo’s I couldn’t stand to drive on the :passenger’ side. Would just bug me to no end- unless I were a mailman.
Interesting … these were always fairly rare even in the Bay Area, but here also they seem to have pretty much disappeared, and the 4wd Delicas with Oregon or BC plates are actually more frequent sights as well. We have a casual acquaintance who got one for his business and family around 1990 and loved it, for many years. I do feel that I’ve been seeing more Toyota vans recently; perhaps they are migrating here, or maybe they just stand out more as their size and shape becomes more distinctive on the roads. A non-trivial percentage of the Toyotas are 4wd.
There is still one running around near where I live in the North San Francisco Bay Area. I mostly spot it at Lowe’s, so it is probably working for a living, and at very low cost.
We have tons of these in BC, they are likely the most popular JDM import car as far as I can tell, they are almost as common as any of the domestic minivans. The 4WD is hugely popular with the granola crowd possibly thanks to bulletproof diesel engine that can be converted to bio-diesel. A lot of Asian immigrant owned businesses use these too, perhaps since they are legal here and not super expensive to import people have decided to bring some of the other great things from their home country over with them! I want one, I have a Vanagon sitting down in the states but I know that no matter how much money I dump into that engine it will never be as solid as that old Mitsubishi powertrain and I can’t afford a Syncro.
Unless I’m wrong (since all the Japanese vans of that era look identical) there’s at least one of these Delicas featured in the tv commercials for 1 of those chains of used car dealerships….I think it’s “Drive Time” or something.
Yup.
Challenge accepted. I found a Delica in Portland a year or two ago and I think it lives in the North Tabor neighborhood so I will have to see if I can find the van. What kills Delicas anyway? There are a few JDM Mitshibishi Delicas popping up in Portland and I get a kick out of seeing them.
According to Carfax that Nissan Van’s license plate still looks to be in use.
Back in the late 80’s I had a short stint working in the public waterworks, and these were assume, in the 4wd versions, of getting to wherever the next mainline leak was.
Great traction, they seemed in general very beefy , with limited taxation on its driveline given the modest HP output.
No one wanted to be assigned the old 2WD versions of these after trying the 4WD versions. Slightly more power too.
I’m 99.9% certain the Mitsubishi never came with 4WD in the US. The Toyota Van did; maybe that’s what you had?
I can’t get an actual photo of it right now, but there’s a foreign auto repair shop in Chantilly, Va., that uses a Mitsubishi van. Here’s the image from Google StreetView:
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.8974337,-77.4474771,3a,17.4y,245.99h,83.51t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sOHP0IKu3lSxKIpwJ950uTw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
The Toyota vans of that era, are the only vehicles I have ever seen where the brake fluid reservoir is located in the driver’s door jamb.
There’s a RHD Delica van running around near my house, sounds like a diesel engine too. It’s the only one I’ve ever seen, and it took me a minute to figure out what the heck I was looking at the first time I saw it. Cincinnati is NOT a hotspot for oddball JDM vehicles like that, as you might imagine, and the rust monster eats older Asian cars quickly.
Looks like that van has plenty of life left in it. Minimal rust, relatively ok interior, just cosmetically a bit tired. I’ve run a vehicle with the 4G64, and so long as you don’t mind a bit of lifter tick, they’ll go forever. Looks to me like a light-duty work vehicle with years of life left in it. Unless parts are a problem?
There was a guy selling a Mitsubishi conversion van around here not long ago, saw it several times. I also recall seeing one in a commercial for something recently.
Here’s a JDM Delica, registered in British Columbia, that I caught a while back in Seattle:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/12119356@N00/albums/72157666203255230
Never noticed one myself. And unfortunately I rarely see 80’s Toyota Vans much these days, but when I do I smile.
Titles talking about how CC are disappearing always make me sad. Maybe is not necessary to say the obvious?
What I believe was just a facelifted update of this very Mitsubishi van generation was still being made and sold some years ago. It was pulled out of Australia in 2013 (http://www.drive.com.au/drive/motor-news/mitsubishi-axes-express-van-over-safety-20130501-2ispn.html), and maybe lasted longer in Chile (but I don’t see them on the local website anymore).
Meanwhile, the Philippines is still making and selling an even older version of the van.
http://mmpc.ph/model/l300/
This generation is actually its predecessor, and remained available only in the Philippines. Other export markets were usually supplied either from Japan or, more recently, Taiwan.
The facelift version of the L300 (as it was called here) lasted here until the end of 2015, and was still selling well due to substantially undercutting the rival Toyota Hiace’s price.
IIRC it had been the last carburettor-fed “car” available in Australia, though when it was phased out there it had been available only as a panel van. But anyway, by then it was already made in Taiwan.
In my home country (Brazil) only the passenger versions were officially available, always 2WD with manual transmission and Diesel engine. Some were turbocharged. They used to be quite popular in the ’90s, especially for school transport as they were the only vans with dual-sliding doors in the local market by then.