Final Parking Space: 1980 Subaru BRAT
After watching its Japan-based rivals rake in ever-thicker stacks of yen by selling small pickups in the United States, Subaru of America was able to convince the bosses at Fuji Heavy Industries to put a truck bed on the four-wheel-drive Leone. This was the Subaru BRAT, and I’ve found an early example in a Colorado Springs car graveyard.
Cars with truck beds weren’t anywhere near a new idea by the time the first BRATs showed up in the United States as 1978 models, of course. GM and Ford had been reasonably successful with sales of the car-based El Camino and Ranchero for a couple of decades by the late 1970s.
BRAT stands for Bi-drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter, in the tradition of the tortured acronyms much beloved by the Japanese automotive industry. At the time of its introduction and continuing through the debut of the Subaru XT as a 1985 model, the BRAT was the only Subaru model sold in the United States not called, simply, “The Subaru” (trim levels were used as de facto model names during that period of the all-Leone American Subaru lineup).
All BRATs were equipped with four-wheel-drive (which was optional on other U.S.-market Subarus at the time), but they weren’t well-suited for serious off-roading. They were sold to buyers— including Ronald Reagan— who wanted fun vehicles with cargo space plus decent grip in icy or muddy conditions.
In order to skirt Lyndon Johnson’s dreaded 25 percent Chicken Tax, Subaru decided that the BRAT sold in North America would be, legally speaking, a car. To accomplish this, the bed was carpeted and a pair of jump seats were bolted to brackets by the rear window (other Japanese makers of light trucks were able to skirt the tax by importing cab-and-chassis versions with beds to be added after arrival on our shores, but this is nearly impossible if your truck uses a unibody chassis).
The jumpseats are long gone from this BRAT, though I have found some still mounted in the many other examples I’ve found in Colorado junkyards over the years. Safety concerns and cargo-space hassles eventually resulted in the jumpseats being absent from BRATs sold for the final two (1986 and 1987) model years.
The MSRP for the base 1980 BRAT DL was $5408, or about $21,839 in 2024 dollars. That was a steal compared to the cheapest possible new Toyota 4×4 pickup that year, which came with a price tag of $6498 ($26,250 after inflation), but the two vehicles were aimed at very different customers.
Under the hood, we see the 1.6-liter pushrod boxer-four engine, rated at 67 horsepower and 81 pound-feet.
Volkswagen of America introduced a Rabbit-based pickup for the 1979 model year, while Chrysler got into the cartruck game with the Dodge Rampage and Plymouth Scamp a few years later.
The transmission is the base four-speed manual. Automatic BRATs are rare but do exist.
Like so many Japanese cars of this era, this one has rust in the usual spots. Colorado is overflowing with Subaru project cars of the 1970s and 1980s, and the Centennial State lacks sufficient local enthusiasts to rescue most of them.
I enjoy shooting discarded vehicles with old film cameras, and I photographed this one with an AGFA Speedex of late 1930s vintage.
I have wanted one of these for a long time. There just aren’t many at all in MS. I assume they never caught on in the rural south.
Probably not, more robust hauling needs down south and less need for a 4×4 in inclement weather.
So what does Brumby spell out?
My buddy is in the process of resurrecting an 85 that is in not much better shape than this one. They’re neat, but they just aren’t neat enough for me to invest the kind of blood, sweat, and tears needed to get these things going. They all rot, and usually in bad places for unibody cars, and some parts are between costalotium and unobtainium… for used parts. New parts, forget it.
A Brumby is an Australian wild horse. We call them Mustangs here.
We had a Subie 4WD wagon for a while, but it proved too small. The 4WD cars had four-speeds because the fifth position was needed for the other (rear) axle drive in the gearbox. Wonder what happened to all of them in CA; pretty popular!
Junk then, junk now.
In 1980 I visited He’ll wagons National Park.
Like many others, I stayed in the town of West Yellowstone just outside the park.
What was odd was in a vacant lot near the center of town was a BRAT, minus its chassis. No damage to the body, it was a 2-3 year old vehicle seemingly abandoned.
I wonder how it got there and if anyone took the body.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, you don’t see many BRATs anymore, despite this being big Subaru country.
Then again, you no longer see any of the other Japanese pickups of that era.
My husband and I purchased the very first Subaru Brat in Billings, Montana. We inquired at the dealer right away, after we saw our first ad for them. When we picked it up, it was so fun pulling away from the light on the icy street…next to a giant 4WD pickup which couldn’t keep up! We loved that thing. It took us on a road trip to southern California and beyond the border into Mexico, and then back up the west coast to Seattle and then home. Lots of other fun times!
They are fun vehicles but also pretty slow. The 80’s is not the strong point of Subaru’s presence here in america but it is memorable.
Funny, I have one, much prettier engine than the one shown here. It was driven here, battery & gas it should run. Farmingdale, NJ 07727
Had one. Rust bucket. Much of the cowl rusted though as well as rocker panels. Fun to drive. Most fun I remember was putting the kids and their friends in the back and hauling them to Busch Garden in Virginia. Slow trip but we had a ball!
Well done! Great history and photography. Grew up near Subaru HQs.
This one even had A/C! Must have been something in it’s time, for sure.
We lived in Homer, Alaska and my wife was in need of a new car. In the late 70’s Subaru had become to Alaska what the Jeep was to the Army. We visited the Anchorage dealer and she rode out in a shiny new 1981 BRAT for less than $5K. Hers had a removable camper top and those jump seats ended up in the garage rafters. It would haul its weight in firewood and never got stuck. Truth be told, it pulled my F-250 out of more than one ditch or snowbank. Drove it all over the state. Put 150K miles on it with only a split CV Joint boot to show for wear. The body was a different story – replaced both front fenders because of the rust worm. The final insult to the car was me using a rattle can to repaint it. Sold it in ’92 for about half what we paid for it. Last saw it in Anchorage in 2004, recognized the paint job, it was still going strong.