JCD BLOG

Now let’s look at the
Mini / Kei Campers
This kei class, the mini campers, is the fourth main category of camper cars in Japan, and creativity runs wild here. Look at this Suzuki Every van conversion:

or this Suzuki Carry truck conversion:

And I’ve seen kei camper conversions even wilder than these.
Now, on a technical point, these kei-based […]

Motor Homes, Van Conversions, and Mini Campers Compact but Packed (With Features)
If you live in the USA or Canada or Australia, with their big, wide, endless roads and you want to buy a used camper van, why import one from Japan? And if you are in the U.K. or Europe, with their narrower roads, you […]

Now let’s climb into that little Sambar truck that came to us as a courtesy car and have a feel of what it’s like to drive on and off road.

Sitting in the cab of the Sambar, you’ll note the big front picture window that seems like a mini version of what you get on a […]

The Honda ACTY that we used on my father-in-law’s farm went in for its Shaken inspection and the courtesy car that came from the garage was an old Subaru Sambar mini truck, a 1994 KS4 with 4WD and the N/A EN07 engine.

As a fan of old, used Japanese mini trucks and mini vehicles, I never […]

My friend had been boasting to me for a while about his 2000 model 4WD Suzuki Carry

He knows that when it comes to light 4WD and off-road vehicles, I’m into Suzuki Jimnys (I’ve had three) and Mitsubishi Pajero Minis (I’m on my first one now and am so pleased with it that I never want […]

For some car aficionados, a Mercedes-Benz isn’t enough because they know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there’s something even better. Mercedes-AMG.
The passion to own a Mercedes-AMG only intensifies when headlines proclaim the launch of a new model like the Mercedes-AMG GLE 53 4MATIC+. But the price tag keeps many dreaming of winning the […]

My first experience with a kei truck in Japan came about because my father-in-law here retired.

Now, you’ll ask me: “What’s the relationship between mini trucks and retiring in Japan?”

Well it goes like this: In our part of Japan, in the countryside of Shizuoka Prefecture (and, I’m willing to bet, in the rest of the Japanese […]

The first Japanese Kei Sports car that I drove came to me as a courtesy car.
You might think that it’s crazy, giving a garage customer a turbo-charged, intercooled mini rocket as a courtesy car; and, after I drove that 1993 Suzuki Alto Works i.e., I thought it was a crazy thing, too.
I guess that the […]

Used Porsche 911s are always in demand! In Japan, almost any model dating back to the 1960s can be found at lower prices than just about anywhere else in the world. They are also in better condition because Japanese treasure their JDM foreign cars like babies.
In Japan, almost any model dating back to the 1960s […]