Delica
“Mitsubishi put a Pajero's low range under a minibus and called it a Delica. The result is the most improbable off-roader Japan ever exported by the shipload: slow, tall, right-hand drive and adored from British Columbia to the Dakar start line.”
Mitsubishi has built the Delica since 1968. Its name blends 'delivery' and 'car', and for its first decade and a half it was just that: a small cab-over van and pickup. Four-wheel drive arrived in Japan in October 1982 on the second generation, and from then on the Delica became something odder: a people-mover with a transfer case, sold mainly at home and in a handful of export markets as the L300.
BoxyTrucks covers the two 4WD vans that made the name famous. The Delica Star Wagon (L300 4WD), built from 1986 to 1999, is the boxy cab-over with its 4D56 turbo-diesel under the front seats and a part-time system with low range. The Delica Space Gear (1994–2007) moved the engine forward under a short hood and borrowed the second-generation Pajero's Super Select 4WD, 2.8-litre 4M40 diesel and 3.0-litre V6.
Neither was sold new in North America in 4WD form. The US got only a two-wheel-drive, petrol L300 called the Mitsubishi Van and Wagon from 1987 to 1990. Canada's 15-year rule and the US 25-year rule turned right-hand-drive Delicas into a common sight from Vancouver to Vermont. Most US states register them. Maine and Michigan have challenged that, so check your state's rules before you buy.
Every generation
Best Mitsubishi Delica years to buy, and which to avoid →