I love these super basic little vehicles. I find it somewhat strange that cars have turned into boxes of attempted luxury. Technology out the wazzu and zero to 60 time obsession. Seats that hold you in as if the race track was the daily commute… I wish more vehicles like this were available here in the US. An American kei van would be amazing.
1:13 Thank you for mentioning the Trabi Tramp, it sucks that the car culture of the second world always gets dismissed as "eh shitty boring econoboxes for the opressed masses". We loved cars just as much as anyone and did our best to have fun with them.
Genuine question though, who was the Tramp for when most Trabant owners had to wait a decade before picking up their car? Was it mostly distributed to those well enough connected to skip the queue?
@@Munkenba Yea as far as I know. It was originally made as a runaround vechile for the DDR military but was later released for civilians. Since It was basically just a roofless 601 it wasnt a big status symbol but it was probably mostly for the well connected
@@Munkenba We also have to remember that the Eastern Bloc countries had a large degree of variation between their political systems so while the DDR was a hardline “those not with us must against us” dictatoriship all throughout its existence, Hungary for example was a much more moderate place with a “If you are not against us you are with us” approach and a grey market the authorities graciously ignored so Hungarians had easier acces to stuff like cars and refrigirators
When I lived in Panama, Suzuki offered a version of the samurai that was topless with half doors and not so much as a heater core. Sadly, here in the US we give up fun for safety. I don’t need 6 airbags and 5mph bumpers in a stripped down vehicle. I’m not against safety, but there are trade offs. The mileage on some of the kie class vehicles was amazing.
@@datadavis thankfully yes. I got put off at an early age due to a few deaths in our small village, and so I was talking from a non-motorcyclist's point of view. Have had a few narrow squeaks on a push-bike though, busses can be pretty scary!
Oh yes, the Renault Rodeo of the early 70's. I've owned A Mini-Moke, Citroen 2CV's, Meharis- the Rodeo was an ABSOLUTE BLAST to drive! The windshield folded down, like old Jeeps or the Moke (IIRC), and it was like driving a four-wheel motorcycle. If you were young and stupid, like me and my friends, you could stand up in the back and hang onto the roll bar at 72 mph- top speed. The perfect summer beach car. Maybe a Meyer Manx was more fun, I never drove one. I was in St. Tropez in 2005 on a sailing trip, there was a Ferrari show in the Harbor, which didn't interest me at all. But I spotted a Rodeo for sale! I think it was around $1200 or 1300!! I spoke with the owner. I couldn't convince the guys I was with to give me a couple days to buy it and arrange shipping. I'm still bugged over that! Very rare car in the U.S., although I did see one on BAT not too long ago, but the later model, not the early one. It has twice the power of the Mehari, and is more civilised -water cooled four, front-wheel drive. I will own one before I get too old!!
Saw a guy in the modern equivalent of these in Seattle last week, the little cab over pickup by Honda. Huge guy in such a tiny vehicle was awesome to see. I want one!!
I would assume these types of things were made to be pretty cheap and to serve both rural and urban transportation in Asia and third world in the 70s? I.e. you could use this as a little city taxi or maybe between villages and towns in the countryside if the roads were good enough. (And if not two or three guys could probably just pull this out of the mud by hand.)
This is beautiful!! I didn't know that and it was love at first sight. Why don't they take the liberty of being so creative on wheels anymore? Cars are boring these days... Take EVs, for instance: don't you see the story of going from the horse-drawn wagon to the combustion engine without reactive formal solutions? The most iconic EV is the most boring thing in the world, keeping the same formal solutions that were adopted over time to accommodate the CE, when, with the new mechanics and without the old restrictions, they could reinvent the concept of “car”. All they did was remove the combustion engine's front cooling grill, everything else was kept the same. How can anyone dare to think this guy from Tesla is an innovator? For the love of God... That's one of the reasons I don't take EV serious. It ends up being a battery operated toy... BTW: "Vamos" is a portuguese word that means "let's go". Honda did it!
The Vamos certainly suited the market it was designed for. Essentially a multi use vehicle for the Japanese, Asian and similar markets across the world. I can only presume it was made affordable for anyone.
Love your "non-rationale" car reviews! I must have caught the "bug" with the first car I bought, a 69 Volkwagen Beetle... Agree so many vehicles just have too much extra crap.. a problem if you've always done your own maintenance as I do...
This concept does live today though, in UTV's, which in many places they reside in the US are either legal to drive on the road or are "legal" to drive on the road.
You'd be removing 150lbs of motor, transaxle, gas tank to put in 1000lbs of battery and 200 lbs of motive. That would change the momentum physics of the jeep. Brakes, suspension, weight distribution, space would likely be killed. This basically has a small bike, motorcycle engine and pressed gas tank. Maybe with two hub motor wheels and a 70km battery, but it'd be easier to buy a slingshot and convert it that way.... Like Aptera did, slapped some novelty solar panels on a Jetsons fiberglass shell and claimed they created it. Investors Anyone?
Very cool and practical today; just look at everyone buying the absurdly expensive UTV's and golf carts. An electric conversion would be interesting. I wonder if the 360cc engine is the same as that used on Honda's CB360 motorcycle from the mid-70's.
Mr Torchinsky: Interesting car! Nice video! By the way: VAMOS in Portuguese means Let's go! It can be an order or invitation. Depending on the proper intonation. And sometimes: Hurry up! Striped off to the car's essentials, the name makes all sense in Portuguese language! My best regards. Fro a brazilianik 🇧🇷
Honda doesn't make mistakes, they just occasionally make vehicles customers don't understand or appreciate. Example: the GL500 Silverwing. It was an interstate cruiser that was smaller, cheaper, hyper reliable, and easier to handle and daily than the huge Goldwing. But all people noticed it wasn't luxurious enough for fancy cruiser types, and was too slow. You only appreciate it now that there are no cheap cruisers, at all.
Its nifty, but I'd rather go with a Steyr-Puch Haflinger instead (then you get serious off road capability ... 4 wheel drive, portal axles and locking diffs).
I didn’t get what year it was made. I tried to buy a Honda S800 in 1967, but Honda Inc, (to their credit) advised me not to buy it as it would be a stand alone with no parts or service.
Very cool, a stripped out K car. Was is this thing actually imported new to the states? He didn’t really talk about that and I’ve never seen them before
Never heard of those, which surprised me as I've used to goto many car shows and swap meets. That would be a very useful vehicle on a farm or even a big factory. How much for a decent one?
My 2010 Honda is a rust bucket due to garbage paint process that doesn't get better until you pay Acura prices. So I just replaced it with a mostly plastic car!
I remember the 360's. Why a displacement of 360CC? 360 CC and under in Japan was a lower road TAX than 361 CC and above. Why don't they make them anymore, Two Cycle engines make smog just like if it was needed.
Personally, I love it. It looks like a fantastic roast about vehicle for people with large properties or with properties that may extend onto the beach. No it's not an everyday driver or anything like that. But I don't think that's what it was designed for. I give it two thumbs up myself
The weirdest car Honda ever made hands down is the first gen Insight, but the Vamos comes pretty close tbh. I'd still rather have the later Vamos Toaster that was based off the Acty Van from 2001 though.
Basically itvan American who think anything that not a huge v8 monster of a vehicle is odd. But the reason American car do not sell outside of the USA is because American cars are odd they are to big for normal roads and cities. American do not know how to make cars. It America that the odd nation veryone else understands these Honda vw etc as they are normal
You opinions of Americans and cars is coming from a person who probably has never been here. We make cars at all levels of quality for many reasons. We have more miles of highways than any other countries in the world and 100's of millions of people and they range from poor to wealthy. Now think about your comment and tell us our car quality sucks. Yeah it's a dumb statement when you must make millions of cars must be able to afford. We invented car production and make them in many levels of quality. The new corvette is able to play right beside the worlds super cars for 80,000 dollars and gets great gas mileage as well. America makes low quality cars but you can also say America makes good quality cars. I read your comment above telling everyone that jason doesn't know the entire history of this car. Your not as smart as you think you are. I know more about some subjects than you but that doesn't make me more intelligent. Stop being such a Dick.
They do, but they're quite rare. I owned two, but they burned up when my warehouse got torched. Bought 'em out of Florida on Ebay. Surprisingly, all the parts or repro parts (body panels) are available, so restoration is a snap. I think I paid $4000 for both, $3000 for the nice one and $1000 for the parts one. Paid for them to be towed to me, around 500 miles or so. That was 10 years ago. If you look hard enough you can find a Bond Bug!!
It does and The Moke may soon make a comeback as an ev or with a slightly larger engine than the original it's on offer in the UK in 14 different colours
@@bernardtaylor7768 The Moke would be ideal as an EV, it is light weight to begin with and the box sections either side would be ideal for the batteries and it would not need a Tesla style centre console as it would look out of place just something reminiscent of the one Mini centre cluster would be nice.
