A few moths back (March 2022) Ryoko traded in her long-running trusty Suzuki kei-truck (kei-trucks/van/cars are a class of vehicles with 660 cc or less motors and a carefully determined physical footprint).
She ordered it from a catalogue some months before – the first time strangely enough either of us have bought a “brand new vehicle” –assisted again by the kindly Claudia Car office who have helped her with previous purchases.
He came to our house with the catalogue and paperwork and we even exchanged a stack of cash at the kitchen table like some clandestine transaction.
In my selfish way, I had hoped for an extended (both vertical and horizontal) cab and a pleasing green/moss colour but the critical feature was the “dump truck” back which didn’t have those details available. Oh well, so her choice was between “high dump” which the hydraulics are driven off the motor and has a higher deck and heavier payload, or “low dump” which has an electric hydraulic system, lower payload but lower height.
Ryoko went with the second option as she’s mostly hauling tree trimmings and branches but occasionally some rocks so the 350 kg payload is sufficient.
Of course extensive other documentation of kei trucks in work mode etc throughout this archive.
Anyhow, the day came where we took the old truck, after a quick stop for a couple litres of gas and clean out, headed to Claudia and swapped it out for the new Daihatsu Hi Jet with a demo of the dump features.
Great news is, with a gift certificate from the manufacturer, she right away put some accessories (bed liner, bed edge trim, seat covers, steering wheel and shifter covers) on and the new one, named “ume-chan”.
She is also four-wheel-drive but unlike previous 5-speed, has an automatic transmission and an ignition which automatically turns off and on when stop for more than a second or two (for fuel efficiency, works a lot better than it sounds) plus has some crash protection features, air conditioning and a decent CD player.
Just needs to put on some stickers, both decorative and hopefully her business name “Kinome” on the side of the truck, eventually.
PS As it goes, while there we spotted what would later become our family van on the lot.
