1980 Brat (No, Not A Spoiled Man-child)

[ARCHINSTL]

http://albany.craigslist.org/cto/2522916598.html
Anyone ever own one of these? I looked at this model before getting the T4WD back in '82. Glad I didn't - too impractical for someone with 3 daughters, I finally realized. Although, there was room enough for all four of us - I think the ex-wife would have hauled me into court.
I also looked at the super-cool Isuzu Impulse Gen I - but stuck with the Tercel.
Tom M.

[solarlord]

tom-its long time since i have come across one these rust buckets-i thought they had all rusted away and gone the the big scrap yard in the sky-when you went to the market in one those ,you had to leave a flag where you parked it just in case it fell to rust dust before you got back- tough little creatures if you lived in the desert
but anywhere it rained, byebye scubie
you were wise not buy the izusu they were and still are the classic jap crap -turbo probs ,motors clapping out after 100k etc-dec

[Petros]

I always loved the Brats, or at least the idea of them, not very practical and always overpriced, but they looked like lots of fun. I did not care for subarus much, the early ones were not very durable, too many problems. A friend of mine bought one to fix up, raised suspension, oversized tires, etc.. He turboed that little flat four engine, and after blowing up several engines, along with many other problems, gave up on it, bought a Toyota 4x truck.

The Isuzu trucks and early Trooper were not bad at all, I owned one for many years, sold it when my daughter was born (we could not get a car seat in it and two adults). The Isuzu cars, including the Impulse, were not such good vehicles. Too bad, I always liked the Impulse, but everyone that I talked to that owned one had nothing good to say about it.

[ARCHINSTL]

Mentioning the Trooper - when I had to get a replacement for the Tercel back in '85 (Thanks, Sister!), I looked at a new Trooper that was a diesel. I was pretty impressed with it and it didn't seem that slow (of course, coming from the T4WD...). I eventually settled on the 626 5-door, as only one girl was still racing by that time so there was plenty of room inside the 626 to only haul a single without sticking on a roof rack. I'd given up racing by then, too, after two broken collarbones, so no need to haul my bike at the same time.
While OT - I did not realize that Isuzu is renowned for its diesel engines of various sizes.
Tom M.

[solarlord]

ok- with a lot of the jap imports to europe they came in with diesels ,which in the days where a diesel taken out of a light truck maybe 2.5 or 3 ltr and to make it go faster(more than 50mph) they stuck on turbos - this resulted with many cases of blown turbos with the public and the makers not having much savvy about these things-this still goes on today ,the lastest being the nissan navaro ,a possers 4x4, they were all recalled for new turbos, anybody who did not get the call
like a friend in spain doing 90 on the freeway ended up picking up bits of engine out of the tarmac- after my visit to the states i found most people drive gas cars unlike europe where you can find deisel engines in cars as small as VW polos- i have two peugeot diesels a partner van with 1.9 non turbo(60 mpg) and 406 hdi estate 110mph and 55mpg-i still like the terc although i have to careful when fill up -twice i have nearly filled with diesel ,i put in about 1ltr of diesel before
i twiged the pumps was talking spanish- es tu coche gasoil?-madre mia no es gasoline-mierda- it didnt affect the terc at all