mrvent

The truck did have some rust on the bed sides, but overall, it was a rather nice looking truck.

Concerning power, I’d say this pickup is quite puny.

Trying to maintain this monster really picked my pocket dry.

it has been very disheartening for us, as he saved his money from odd jobs to buy it and has never gotten to drive it yet. First we maintenance it and I put over $500.00 in it in mitsubishi truck parts alone just to get it where it was drivable, only to find out that the motor was leaking oil really badly. Then the head cracked and that was the end of the motor. Worst part is I have so far been unable to find a used motor that I can actually afford to purchase to drop in the truck. So he has had it for a year now and still has nothing to drive. I can’t get my money back out of it obviously and haven’t had any luck getting it drivable either.

The original owner, from whom we purchased the truck, converted it to a 4×4 with $3,900 worth of truck parts alone!!!The truck’s code name is Lazarus because it keeps on going and going and going.

I had 15+ years worth of absolutely trouble-free driving on it - though it’s hard to find a mechanic to work on it as it’s extremely quirky, and parts are hard to come by. The catalog manuals always list the wrong parts, even for dinky fuel filters.

The engine is extremely zippy to this day (it has oil leaks) ; I can still beat most cars out at the stop sign, but I’m now kinder, gentler to my elderly truck. After all, it’s still on the road 300,000 later. It must be some kind of record.

Great comfy bucket seats.

Am I the only person in North America still driving a 1980 Plymouth Arrow? The later predecessor, the Mighty Max, is a poor, poor copy of my truck.

Alas, I won’t make it to 400,000 miles as someone just sideswiped it, and so its days are numbered because I can’t replace the entire side of a truck… but it still runs fine.

I replaced the starter at 280,000 miles; recently clogged gas lines have caused the truck to repeatedly stall and fail.

Clogged gas lines caused massive problems with fuel delivery to the electronic carburetor at 280,000 miles. At first I thought it was the engine, when the usual fuel line fix tricks didn’t work, but engine compression was strong.

After much sleuthing, it was discovered that there were fuel filters at the base of the gas tank (packed with 22 years’ worth of metal shavings and mud), and a fuel screen inside the gas tank, as well as the regular fuel filter near the carburetor.

After limping around on a bad carburetor for months (it threatened to go out for years, but we were able to partially rebuild it at home), I finally had the carburetor professionally rebuilt at 210,000 miles; it was hard to find a mechanic who could do the work. A Mercedes mechanic was able to do the work.

I had some electrical wiring problems at 210,000 miles. It was very exciting: first, a blinker light went out, then the dash light, and of course, one dark and stormy night on a back road, the entire rear lights went out.

Truck is on its fourth clutch (there was an oil leak that ruined the asbestos on two clutch plates). So that makes it really two clutches in 20 years and I’m a hard country road driver.

At 260,000 miles, the gear shift came up in my hand; I’d literally worn it through. I temporarily lost first gear. We merely popped in a new shifter and all is fine.

We owned a Ssangyong and Daewoo Musso and both were equally unreliable from new. In case you were wondering we bought another due to company car restrictions.

There are literally too many faults to list, but i’ll give it a go.

Paint peeling off a week after delivery, 4wd transfer case kept breaking on both, heater broke, central locking failed, diesel injectors replaced, lacquer peeled off alloys in carwash, radio died, constantly leaks oil & diesel, driveshaft came loose wrecking the clutch, bull bars fell off (admittedly a dealer fit option, rev-counter broken, glove box handle broke, signs of premature rust, windscreen washer broke, failed to start many times although this was never diagnosed.

In addition there was the usual litany of rattles and squeaks we never bothered complaining about.

Our cars did not have an unreasonably hard life in a third world country as they spent most of the time on the road in Ireland.

The Musso is a badly built, unreliable, cheaply finished banger and I am not the only owner who thinks so. In Ireland they have such a bad reputation that the dealers stopped importing them due to the warranty claims they had to address.

Overall such quality issues are totally unacceptable and the people building these cars should be ashamed of the product that they send around the world destroying the hard won reputation of the Korean car industry.

I have had my 2004 Dakota Club Cab 4X4 SLT for a year this month.

We had record snowfall last winter (30 inches) and I had no problems getting anywhere I wanted to go. I have the optional anti-spin differential and tire and handling group (all-terrain tires / 16″ x 8″ wheels.)

I still get comments on what a great looking truck it is even though the new Dakota model is out.

The gas mileage has averaged around 14 -15 mpg. I wanted a V-8. I got a V-8. I will not complain about the mileage. It’s gas prices (currently $2.20) that cause the fill-up expense. I would not trade the power and torque of my V-8 just to save at the pump!

The cabin is roomy for the front passengers. The club cab rear seats face forward, but will only be comfortable for small children. The cabin is hard to cool on humid days over 80 degrees. I have a black exterior with dark slate gray interior. I’m not sure it would be an issue with a lighter color exterior. Heat is more than adequate even on the coldest day and the V-8 warms up quickly.

I suggest buying a bug shield to any potential buyers. This is the worst vehicle I’ve ever owned in terms of direct bug hits on the windshield.

I have no regrets about my purchase. I love this truck!

This truck has been a real treat to own. I have had no major mechanical problems. This is extraodinary considering I almost drove this vehicle for 10,000 miles without the changing the oil (one a regular bases. I really abused this truck. I never did routine maintenance and constantly went on long road trips. The body was in excellent condition, however I really neglected the mechanical maintenance. Through it all I only experienced normal wear and tear to the interior.

It was not the most comfortable vehicle to drive, but what do you expect from a 4×4.

Due to tops on these trucks (soft top) it is easy to break into. I had my “Best Top” stolen in my own yard, even with the alarm on. The canvas top was about $450.00 to replace.

My truck did not have an air condition motor in it when I purchased it, which made the summers almost unbearable even with the top off.

The one thing I really liked about my Amigo is it is easy to make it stand out. With the right accessories this can be a mean looking little SUV. I had a brush guards , Nerf bars, custom rims and some aggressive tread tires. It was sharp looking.

I purchased my Sidekick in 1998 with 20,000 miles on it. Since then, I have a total of 180,000 miles on it and everything is still operating just fine. I replaced the clutch for the first time and a rear wheel bearing at 170,000 miles.

This is my first time owning a Suzuki product and I have been extremely pleased with this tough and reliable Sidekick. The 1.8 liter engine has enough power for me to travel on the interstate and I still get 28 miles per gallon. Given all the miles and abuse I have put it through, I cannot say anything negative about it. It has the ability to tow a small trailer and the 4 x 4 system is great for traveling on narrow trails in the mountains. I put a roof rack system on it with a cargo basket for hauling extra gear and a bike rack on the spare tire for my mountain bike.

My truck is 17 years old now, and the western Canadian winters have taken their toll on the body, but the engine runs as good as it did 11 years ago, and like then, the gas mileage is still between 28 and 32 miles per imperial gallon.

Even when the transmission failed spectacularly, it still brought me home (about 140 miles) in the only gear it had left — fourth. The truck has never left me on foot, and is as reliable as the day I bought it back in 1990.

Used parts are very easy to come by, and are generally quite inexpensive.

The only real negative I’ve noted is that the front seats are not especially comfortable, and seat spring breakage appears to be a common issue.hen I got it had the cream paint and body was rotted to the ground, but it ran great even with a blown head gasket, I totally restored the body and fixed the head gasket. Finding body parts for the bed rails   of that truck was extremely hard, I pretty much made the panels for the bed, when I was done with it, it looked awesome though, it had a 3in lift on it, chrome roll-bar and brush guard, I put a header on it, it did good for being as old as it was on all of the original drive-train, when I sold it, it had 210,000 miles on it, and I still see it running around to this day, those trucks really were built to last.

Prior to my owning the truck, the rear parking brake cables had seized due to cracks in the cable sheaths. The replacement cables from Nissan had rubber reinforcements to protect the affected area.

Alternator failed at around 240,000 km due to a shorted internal rectifier diode.

At 285,000 km the standard transmission failed when the front bearing on the countershaft seized, and the countershaft broke. The outer part of the bearing had spun in it’s seat, damaging the transmission case. Clutch was replaced at this time, out of convenience.

At 290,000 km, the electric choke failed due to intermittent internal connection.

The worst thing is the clutch seal keeps leaking and replacing it costs 200-400 bucks. So right now I am just keeping a watch on the clutch fluid and topping it off when necessary. My mechanic, known since before I got this truck, says he has seen several with the same problem. Other than that, it’s been very good. I intend to keep it.

Acceleration is still very good. Best to keep some weights as a truck bed protection , though, as you could fishtail in ice and rainy weather.

I purchased a 92 Typhoon new in Nov. 92. I found the performance truck parts quite exceptional for a 92 era truck. All was good owning and driving the truck when it was not in the dealer for poor driveability problems and worn front half shafts. Nothing could be done at the time for the driveability. The front half shafts were replaced 3 times in 10 months. The transmission grennaded itself at 11 months. The dealer replace it with a softer shifting 93 trans, which really hurt performance and driving pleasure. I sold it 1 week later since it ran like a $25000. Jimmy. I still remember the GREAT times in it, but would not want to go thru all the misery again. It was a great idea at the time, but very under engineered for reliability. I referred to it as my all wheel drive Grand National!

Seats are comfortable. Moderate gas guzzler. The open back bed is utterly useless for anything larger than a few bags of topsoil. Looks like they took a wagon and chopped off the back to make this WEIRD car. Only from Japan would have come a bizarre car as the Subaru Baja. An after-market hard fiberglass, carbon fibre or metal hinged and LOCKABLE WATERPROOF cover or lid for the cargo area would be a WELCOME ACCESSORY.

My Reviewer said:

I don’t think this person actually owns a Baja. They object to its philosophy so much they acted like they own it just to complain about it. The fact is that Baja is not a “truck” and the macho truck guys need to calm down–if you want a big truck bed then buy a big truck bed. I’ve used the little truck bed for plenty of useful things, almost weekly, from bicycles to landscaping stuff to trash and recycling. I love being able to throw wet tents and camping gear into the bed rather than inside the interior of an Outback. The bed swallows 8-ft-long 2×4s even without the bed extender if you open the switchback and put the front of the boards up between the front seats. Its the only vehicle at Home Depot that doesn’t have 2×4’s sticking up at an angle out of the bed. I can put my canoe on a Yakima roof rack and have two bikes in the bed along with camping gear, while my wife, me and the dog can ride in the cab with none of that bothering us. Great useful car. Drives better than any truck. The real comparison should be to small SUVs, like the Honda CRV, which is comparable in some ways, but…has…no…bed.