Hello All! I am on the Kona side of the big island of Hawaii. I found a 1999 Sambar for sale on Marketplace last Dec which I bought. It has right at 31K miles. Thought I'd check in and introduce myself. The Sambar came with full time AWD, supercharger, power steering and 3 speed auto trans. Does anyone know what the gear ratios are for the rear end and trans? I have ordered a set of 14x5.5", 4x100 RTX wheels with 38mm offset and a set of 175 65R14 tires. They are due in a week or so. The new tires are 23" tall and I'm pretty sure they will fit . Comments welcome! Nick
Hey JimmyJoe, thanks for the reply. Yes, I was fortunate to find this truck. I had done a lot of research and considered importing one myself. I was somewhat intimidated by the process so when I found this locally by private party I couldn't believe it. It originally came in through JDM-Hawaii in Honolulu sometime in 2024. I probably paid too much but what the hell, right? I really liked that it had the S/C, not crazy about the auto trans but not a deal breaker. I've come to appreciate it due to the many hills here . Speed limits here are 35, 45 and 50 so no problem keeping up with traffic, in fact this thing really scoots (comparatively speaking of course). I've had it to 115 kph and there was more to go but I didn't want to push my luck. Forgot to mention that it also has AC that works very well. I understand that the power steering is pretty rare also (?). I would like to install a tach to see what the motor is doing at speed. The wheels and tires should be here soon which should give it a better look. Mahalo! Nick
Is yours a new style '99 TT2 with the extended nose and air bag. I'm still looking. I'd like a late 2001 or 2002 with manual transmission and 4WD. A/C and power steering is a nice addition too. Importing seems to be at least $3+K cheaper but one that is already landed is so much easier.
Yes, it is the TT2 with extended nose and driver air bag but not passenger. I see you are in Canada so the 25 year rule does not apply? Importing is also somewhat of a risk in that you don't know what you've got until it gets there. I would have probably imported had I not found this one. I shopped JDM-Hawaii but their prices were/are pretty high. The guy I bought mine from paid $14K from them.
$14K YIKES! I'm looking at $5.500 CND, $4K USD landed without fees, taxes etc. I live in Quebec and they have the 25 year rule for right hand drive, 15 for left hand drive.
Yes, yikes, that's what I thought! Who are you dealing with? I used Cars from Japan when I looked. What does 5500 CD get you as far as options, mileage, condition, etc. What do you expect to pay all in?
Be Forward. The truck prices are a little lower and shipping is about $1K cheaper. $5,500 CND gets a 2002 4wd, manual, A/C, power steering with around 50,000 km landed in Halifax. All docking charges, fees, taxes etc. are about $1K. So $6,500 CND ($4,750 USD) all in.
Found this post on gear ratios from Timetripper back in 2008. I believe he was talking about the 5th gen Sambar. So we still need information on 6th gen which would include the 3 spd auto trans. The thread this post came from has gear ratios for other models also. https://minitrucktalk.com/threads/gear-ratio.2091/ Late model Subaru Sambar 4wd S/C 5spd + EL 6.166 // 6 spd ratios: EL,1-5,R 5.888/4.090/2.352/1.518/1.060/0.810/5.866 Late model Subaru Sambar 4wd N/A 5spd + EL 6.500 // 6 spd ratios: EL,1-5,R 5.888/4.090/2.470/1.615/1.125/0.861/5.866 Late model Subaru Sambar 2wd 5spd~~~~~~6.500 // 5 spd ratios: 1-5,R ~~~~~~4.090/2.470/1.615/1.125/0.861/4.166 Note: 2wd Sambar's come with 5 spd manual while 4wd Sambar's [both N/A & S/C] come with 6spd [5spd + E Low] - ratio's as noted
I have a breakdown of the final drive and 5th gear ratio for the 5th gens on the parts spreadsheet in its own tab. I will add the 6th gens as well as the highest possible ratio for the CVT and 3AT transmissions as well.
@rkrenicki, thanks, that would be awesome! I was “conversing “ with AI and asked many questions about my Sambar. One of which was the 3 speed auto and final drive ratios. Should be interesting to see if this is accurate as I think this info might be for non Kei cars, not sure. Full Transmission Specs: 1st Gear: 2.785 2nd Gear: 1.545 3rd Gear: 1.000 Final Drive Ratio: 5.857 (Standard for the 6th gen 3AT).
I finally got some time to look all of these up and fill in the sheet with the gear ratios. The ratios are a little weird because both the CVT and 3AT have at least one intermediate reductions prior to the final drive, so I multiplied them together to get a useful number on the sheet. For example, the highest ratio on the CVT is 0.497, but there is also a 1.414 and 1.615 intermediate reduction, which comes to an effective ratio of 1.135 then a final drive of 5.384 For 6th gen, they all have a 3rd gear of 1.000, but the effective final drive varies depending on year or if it is NA or SC. NA models are either 6.381 or 6.244 depending on year.. and SC models are either 5.713 or 5.666 depending on year I have no idea where AI came up with those numbers but the only one it got right was the 3rd gear ratio of 1.000. The rest are all wrong. For the 1999 models full numbers are: 1st: 2.659 2nd: 1.530 3rd: 1.000 Intermediate reduction: 1.404 (NA) or 1.277 (SC) Final Drive: 4.474
