PennSilverTaco's non-Toyota Japanese (and Korean) vehicle Rant/Rave MegaThread!

@j-utah

Here's another Amigo that I saw at the 2021 Carlisle Truck Nationals; This one is a 1990 model!


August 6th, 2021:

Carlisle, Pennsylvania

 

@j-utah

August 6th, 2021:

Carlisle, Pennsylvania

 

Or mid 1990s

 

Originally part of a thread called Drove two JDM Mitsubishi Delica vans today; Now I want one!

@ABA180
@ColoradoTJ
@Red Alert
@shakerhood
@Squatting Pigeon
@Taco critter
@TnShooter

I first sat in a van from DelicaUSA at the 2021 New Hope Auto Show last September, and I loved it. Fast-forward a few months, and purely on a whim I messaged DelicaUSA via their Facebook page. I was upfront; I told that I could not afford a Delica unless I sold my beloved Tacoma, but that I was a huge fan of JDM Grey Market vehicles, and asked if I could drop by their location to take pictures of some of their vans for a blog that I do here on TacomaWorld. They responded within a matter of hours, and I was invited to drop by; What I did not not is that I would be getting the keys to both an L300 and an L400! Both of the vans I drove were 1996 models; I drove the L400, which is the more rounded off updated version with a gas V6, first...

 

This is the first van I drove, a 1996 L400 with the 3.0L gas V6 (I believe this is the same engine used in US-market Mitsubishi Monteros of the same period)...


February 25th, 2022:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

 

This is another 1996 L400 that DelicaUSA has in inventory; I did not drive this one...

 

The 1996 L400 that I drove overheated as I arrived at the parking lot in Bensalem where I planned to take the pictures, and these pictures were taken after it happened...

 

How’s the power on those? I’ve been debating picking up this type of van to snow camp.

 

@ABA180
@ColoradoTJ
@Red Alert
@Squatting Pigeon
@Taco critter
@TnShooter

This was not a mechanical issue, but rather what I believe to be damage that occurred during shipping from Japan to the United States, or possibly from hitting a pothole in Philly...

The coolant hose running from the reservoir to the radiator snapped off where it runs into the radiator (a plastic part, and it was a fresh break); It was not miserably cold on Friday afternoon, but it was chilly, and my immediate instinct was to turn on the heat. The heat did not work, and this should have been the first sign that something was wrong; A heater in a vehicle with a liquid-cooled engine suddenly and inexplicably not working is generally a sign that there is little coolant or none at all...



The van ran and drove fine for the 8-mile drive to Bensalem for the photo shoot, and I assumed that I was either doing some wrong in operating the heater (the temperature was in Celsius, for example) or that the heater simply did not work; It was literally as I pulled into the parking lot in Bensalem that the steam appeared and I initially didn't realize it was coming from the vehicle I was driving. I was livestreaming on Facebook as the van overheated, and you can see me ask rhetorically "Am I overheating?" and then let loose a string of profanities once I take quick glance at the temperature gauge...

The needle was all the way at the top! I was convinced that I had fried the engine and FREAKED OUT! The van was running just fine, and I got it back to Philly, so I'm guess that I caught it before it actually damaged the engine. I called the owner of the dealership and he could not have been nicer; He said it was totally his fault, and that this van was a fresh arrival from Japan that hadn't been thoroughly inspected yet. He told me that if I could not find an auto parts store, that water would suffice; I have had my Tacoma for over 12 years and it has never overheated. I have driven countless other vehicles in that same period of time, and they have never overheated, so this was a new concept to me; It was his van, and he was accepting responsibility, so I did what he said. The nearest AutoZone was two miles away, so I went into an Acme supermarket that was right and bought three 1-gallon jugs of water (which I paid for and did not request reimbursement for since it was only five bucks and I felt really bad even though I was reassured that it wasn't my fault)...

This is what caused the van to overheat!

 

The diesel L300 was definitely torquier than the gas-powered L400 pictured above; I did not really get to put the L400 through its paces as much as I would have liked because of the technical issue mentioned above, but my overall opinion is that the diesel-powered L300 is a bit more power. The speedometers were in kilometers, but after using a conversion calculator I can tell you that I got the L400 up to about 75 while the L300 seemed to top out shortly before 65 MPH. Even though the diesel L300 was slower than the gasoline L400 outright, I would definitely say that the L300 had better acceleration...

 

Under the hood of the L400; It is a Mitsubishi 6G7 3.0L V6, specifically a 6G72 that was used in these vans from 1994 to 2007. From what I have read, it is not an unreliable engine, which further points towards the overheating being a freak occurrence rather than a serious mechanical issue...

 

Interior of the L400...

 

After driving both, I prefer the L300 to the L400; I like the exterior styling of the L300 a lot better, but the L400 does have several advantages over the L300. As you can see in several of the interior shots, the L400 has quad seating (1st and 2nd row buckets, also known as captain's chairs); The L300, of which you will see pictures momentarily, has a simple 2-person bench in the second row. I am not sure if the L300 has ABS, but the L400 definitely does; The L400 as a whole is much more refined than the L300, especially in the interior. One thing I definitely like about the L300 over the L400 is that it has a gearshift in the center console; L400s with an automatic transmission, which mine was, have a column-mounted gearshift. It is very well-designed ergonomics-wise as far as column shifters go, but I just prefer floor shifters unless it's a full size pickup with a bench seat...

For example, the HVAC controls in the L400 are a bit more refined than those in the L300, and the L400 has automatic climate control while the L300 does not; I only got the heater working for a relatively short period of time after pouring water into the coolant reservoir, but my opinion was it worked pretty good. It was not warm on Friday by any stretch of the imagination, and I also wasn't about to risk having the radiator boil over again just to try out the A/C; Given the overall condition of the van, I would say that the A/C likely worked...

Also note that temperature readout is in Celsius! 32° is the highest setting for the L400's heater, and translates to 91.4°F; If you look at the thermometer, you'll see that it was 8°C, which translates to just over 46°F. Even if the there wasn't a risk of the van overheating, it was way too cold to test the A/C!

 

The L400 had this nifty aftermarket Alpine AM/FM stereo with both CD and cassette; I had a Billy Joel 2-disc set in the truck, and I tried to play it, but it kept ejecting the CD; I don't if this was because it was a Japanese-market CD player and it wouldn't accept a US-market CD, or if it was simply not functioning properly. I know that DVDs from some countries won't play in our DVD players, but I don't think CDs differ from country to country. Since this is a Japanese-market radio, it would not pick up ANY radio stations here; I got nothing but static. I was amazed to find a tape in the cassette player, and it was definitely a foreign language tape, so I can't help but wonder if the previous owner forgot it before selling the van. Either way, the cassette player, so I listened to the cassette I found...



If this radio actually worked in America, I would be inclined to keep it; The cassette player and the AM/FM CD player seem to be two separate units, but obviously turning on the cassette cancelled out the radio and CD player (the tape deck is on the bottom). Pretty cool head unit in my opinion!

 

Translates to less than 70K miles! My truck has more than double that and has NEVER overheated, so I'm really thinking once again that this was a freak occurrence; Also, notice how the PRNDL is reversed from what you would see in a car sold here...

 

The interior of the L400 had much better ergonomics than the L300, and the fact that the engine and front axle are mounted ahead of the steering wheel definitely helps...