After taking so many rides in the Bemo taxi busses in Irian Jaya I started looking around for one but I still have no intention of selling the Carina. ;)
I did come across this Subaru Sambar commercial on Youtube:

I like the motto: Let's try the Sambar!

Back in the 80s the keitora were flooding the Netherlands, including the mother of all keitoras: the Subaru E-Wagon. Also known as the Subaru Sambar (Japan), Libero, Sumo and Domingo. Most of the Keitora were used as delivery vans by the Dutch Joe the Plumber, but the E-Wagon was mainly used as family transportation.

Subaru E-Wagon SDX (Sambar)
This immaculate example really looks like a great way of transportation and if it would have aircon it would make a great car for daily transportation! It even has a 3 cylinder 1.2 liter engine in it that outpowers the homemarket supercharged 658cc EN07Y! Now if it only looked good as well it would have been a good option, but to be honest: I would never ever want to be seen driving such a thing... :o

After shopping at the local DIY shop I spotted this Leone parked right next to the parking lot:

Subaru Leone DL sedan
The car is a 1.6 DL. DL should stand for DeLuxe, but in Dutch terminology it means bottom of the lineup. :P

Perhaps the owner is following the latest automotive trends, but I rather suspect the roofrack was intentional to haul some stuff back home:

Subaru Leone DL sedan

BTW: the people from the Netherlands probably already noticed it by the sign, but I shot this picture already a few months ago... ;)

Since I'm off today to the Japan Classic Sunday I'm not going to post an extensively long DOTS today... Instead another posting from the old (digital) archives! :)

How about a Subaru SVX used as a delivery van?

Down on the Street: Subaru SVX Worstkoerier
You read that right: SVX used as a delivery van! :D

Back in the mid 00s a Dutch broadcasting company (BNN) opened up a TV show where you could "win" a big thick (smoked) sausage by sending an SMS to their service. Your sausage would be delivered to your door in this Subaru SVX. Since that broadcasting company is located next to the office it was not unusual to see that car now and then.

Worstkoerier translates into sausagecourier, but it is meant as a pun because they would do a very bad job (being the worst courier).

Down on the Street: Subaru SVX Worstkoerier
They claimed the SVX actually had 340hp and could deliver your sausage with a highspeed 260km/h. Personally I think that was just bollocks to attract attention. You can still visit their website and see/read it yourself. ;)

Anyway, it was funny to spot a SVX being used in such extraordinary way!

As a child I still remember going to a Subaru dealer with my dad in the mid 80s. My dad wanted to buy a car and me and my brother tried to persuade him to buy a XT6. When that failed we tried the sporty looking 3 door GL coupe, like this one but then in red:

Down on the Street: Subaru GL (Leone)
Next time I saw the GL coupe again was when I lived in Amsterdam. Someone in the neighborhood owned a white 1.6 GL coupe and parked it regularly across the street.

Two more chocolate brown pictures after the jump!!