Show me subaru sambar please! Particularly ones with surf boards!

[SilverMachine]

I remember there being a food or drink franchise available years ago where the van supplied was a subaru sambar with the vw fake-lift and a surfboard on the roof. Do ayof these still exist? I remember there was a few around! Anyone got any pictures of these please? Thanks in advance! 

[High Jetter]

There used to be one round here with the fake front, no surfboard though. Will see if I have any pics of it

[juular]

At my last house my neighbour had one of these with the VW bodykit.  They genuinely thought they'd bought an old VW, and were surprised to find it was too short for them to lie down in the back.  It was so incredibly awful they wouldn't drive it anywhere. It would overheat doing 40 and fire the coolant cap off. It became a driveway ornament / topic of conversation for guests.

[somewhatfoolish]

How fucking witless do you have to be to not spot that it's not got a lawnmower engine in the back?

[Datsuncog]

I'm not familiar with the surfboard-equipped food and drink franchise vans, but there's a fake VW that fits your description parked up near to me on a roundabout:

It's lived here as a mobile* billboard for quite a few years now.

It may or may not be the same one I remember seeing around Belfast being used as a promotional vehicle for a nightclub, often parked up near the students union in the early/mid 2000s.

EDIT: don't think this one is a Sambar after all, as the front wheelarch passes above the swage line, and it doesn't on Subarus - must be some other species of Kei van, possibly a Daihatsu Hijet?

[juular]

3 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

How fucking witless do you have to be to not spot that it's not got a lawnmower engine in the back?

They were the type of people who would buy anything, anything at all, if it had an apple logo on it.

[Datsuncog]

Pretty witless, then.

[Rust Collector]

2 hours ago, High Jetter said:

There used to be one round here with the fake front, no surfboard though. Will see if I have any pics of it

There’s one in Newhaven with the fake VW kit, and there’s one without the kit in Seaford. I see both of them getting used, I reckon if they’re kept maintained well then they’re probably alright to live with.

[goosey]

i saw this one outside my local Aldi Supermarket, 

no idea what the front looked like as the old man who owned it came back,

I ran away 

[somewhatfoolish]

Looks standard.

[Asimo]

Middlesborough trader offering these profit-centres:--- https://www.thecarwarehouse.co.uk/showroom/subaru/sambar

 

[somewhatfoolish]

The raw power of the Kei car.  10 large for a 20 year old JDM shopping car is money for old rope, I wonder how many they shift.

[High Jetter]

9 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

possibly a Daihatsu Hijet?

Yup, that's a Hijet or Porter (same bodyshell).

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, 83C said:

To be fair the Sambar is rear-engined, and I’ve seen bigger engines in lawnmowers.

Um, surely they were cab over engine? The later ones certainly are. First engines were 356cc, a mighty* 17.8bhp.

[goosey]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

Um, surely they were cab over engine? The later ones certainly are. First engines were 356cc, a mighty* 17.8bhp.

Think they had the engine in the rear up to about 2008 ? After that they were just a re-badged Daihatsu

[SilverMachine]

cheers for the replys guys keep them coming! i think there cab over engine, and as far as im aware there all rwd but rumours some are awd, opposed to rascals that were fwd, or am i confusing them with the larger midi where the engine was transverse under the pass seat?

[High Jetter]

27 minutes ago, SilverMachine said:

cheers for the replys guys keep them coming! i think there cab over engine, and as far as im aware there all rwd but rumours some are awd, opposed to rascals that were fwd, or am i confusing them with the larger midi where the engine was transverse under the pass seat?

Rascals & their Suzi cousins were RWD. The later Suzi with a bonnet was FWD, like the Daihatsu Extol

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, 83C said:

From the first one in the ad above:

Engine under seat. I think the engine under rear is a mod, a popular one from internet pics

[High Jetter]

4 minutes ago, 83C said:

 

That’s because that is a Suzuki Carry. Doesn’t help that the adverts all say Subaru Sambar on them. Up to 2012 (I think) all production Subaru Sambars were rear engined, with the option of either rear wheel drive or 4WD, some were even supercharged. 

This is a 1993 KS4 Sambar (the 4WD variant), the engine is behind the black cover under the rear tailgate:

Ah, ok, that makes sense. Most of the ones I've seen have been 4WD.