Toyota Stalking, er...um, SPOTTING with Charlie™ (Cars, vans, SUVs, Lexus, Scion, and brochures)!

I've seen cars from Minnesota too, and a lot of 'em ain't pretty!

 

@Plain Jane Taco

I saw this 2007 Yaris in the parking lot at Raceway Park and immediately thought of you; It's even a 5-speed!


April 30th, 2022:

Englishtown, New Jersey

 

2020 Supra


April 30th, 2022:

Easton, Pennsylvania

 

There's apparently an importer in Taos. During my last camp trip I saw a ton of little JDM vans motoring around town. Quite the sight.

 

That's a Delica L300; There's a guy in Philly (DelicaUSA) who imports and sells them.

 

Same car with the roof removed...


May 1st, 2022:

New Hope, Pennsylvania

 

Saw plenty of HiAce vans overseas. They use them as a carpool-taxi. Kind of a weird system, a typical fare was 2-5 bucks, but other people are going to get picked up and dropped off along the way.

Got the pleasure of riding in one once. My driver called in sick on the morning I had to fly home. I found a hi-ace, woke the driver, and paid him 40 euros to run me straight to the airport, and please don't stop for other passengers. It was cool talking to him along the way, but that was a scary ride. I'm guessing he was under the impression that I was about to miss my flight (I wasn't, but expats don't ride the blue vans unless they're both stupid and desperate) and he was intent on breaking a land speed record.

Fun times.

 

Is that somewhere in the Middle East? Also, you did ride in the van, correct?

 

Angola, African west coast. Also saw them around Congo, though at least that country had a few more corollas that you could hire private.

 

I also see a 2-door RAV4, a Jeep Wrangler, and a Ford Expedition in the second picture; Is it LHD in Angola? Also, did the A/C work in the HiAce?

 

@shakerhood

How about a 1991 Toyota MR2 with over 170K miles for "Toyota longevitiy"?


May 1st, 2022:

New Hope, Pennsylvania

 

Factory OEM stereo with CD and cassette!

 

Over 172K miles on this MR2!

 

I used to work with a guy that had a 1st Gen MR2 and his Wife had one like you pictured.

 

Never seen one with this many miles!

 

Correct. Weird system. I watched a few of my lab techs go car shopping. The cheapest way to get a car was to buy in the US by email (good luck accepting a wire transfer from West Africa) and have it shipped from Houston. The guy bought a 4Runner off autotrader and it cost him 1500 to ship and import.

To go through a proper dealer in country was stupid expensive. Take a typical sticker price and triple it. Other things were a good side business for frequent travelers. At the time playstation 2s and games were a hot commodity: street price for a PS2 was 500 US, each game over 150. GTA San Andreas and Soccer games went for over 200. A pair of plain black converse went for 100. Food was huge too. We often flew in with half a suitcase of frozen steaks (impossible to get). A 1/4 pound block of cheddar cheese sold for 50 bucks.

Laptops and baby toys were oddly illegal to import (or prohibitively taxed).

Nope, no AC in the van. AC is a luxury item, few people have it.

 

My aunt works for the CDC and lived in Kenya for a few years; It's RHD only over there, and you can't bring any vehicle over ten years old into the country. My aunt bought a late model RAV4 from Japan when she moved there in 2016 and had it shipped to Kenya, and she just sold it locally when she came back to the states.