Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club | Odometer Rollback

Just a word of free advice for everyone. Don't try this! At best you'll enjoy a tasty meal but it's almost impossible to do without scratching up the roof and at worst, once you've turned over your van and exposed it's tender belly you may find that you're no longer even hungry...

I'm shocked and appalled at the ignorant comment above suggesting that people import vans all the way from Japan just to use them as dinner plates. If you absolutely have to eat off of a truck/van, is there something wrong with domestic vehicles? Err, have I misunderstood the comment?

[Disclaimer: With the tone of some of these odometer topics lately I thought a bit of levity may be due. Sorry for any distraction.]

sorry, although a diet high in Iron is considered a good thing, I find the excessive amounts of iron oxide on domestic vehicles to add an unwanted flavour to most meals, imported vehicles are a much better choice as a dinner plate.

Ha, nice!

Now for a good solid dead-horse beating....

Based on an average of 12,000 kilometers per year, all the Delicas that I have seen for sale so far have had less than average expected mileage.

Don't the importers get their vehicles at auctions where mileages are not assured? If that is true, then surely they must occassionaly get even one with average mileage, or even more than average mileage, no?

A vehicle with higher mileage will also likely be in wose shape, do you bid on the 4B, or the 2D car? (keep in mind that the cost of the vehicle itself is very low compared to the total cost of everything by the time it gets to Canada, maintained, and complied, why would you try to save a buck by getting anything but the best you can?)

In addition, your "average" mileage, still doesn't account for the country of Japan, where that is highly unlikely to be the actual average.

To top off what everybody else is saying. There are quite a few visual indicators: flattened seats, dirty headliner, worn carpet/upholstery, service decals displaying mileage, engine bay, underbody, resprays, etc etc.

The 12,000km average is easy to meet, there are tons of high mileage vehicles of all classes at the auctions. Mostly commuters, a couple of my cars have toll booth card readers, which is nice since you know it's more than likely highway mileage. The main reason for the lower mileage vehicles being here is that they are easier to sell and that they have less general wear. In my opinion however, there is a bit too much weight put on the mileage, and getting a well cared for mid-high mileage deli can be beneficial over simply hunting for uber low KM.

My L300's have come with 120-160,000 km's on the clock. documented.

I was specifically looking at one's above 120k with current shaken so that I know at least it's been driven. I prefer to have a diesel that's been broken in as opposed to one that's sat for 5-10 years without moving.

Mine came with 64,000 km on the clock and I'm certain it's real too - never gave it a second thought. The ONE owner in Japan used it to go skiing from Kyoto to the ski hills. I've no doubt she spent the rest of her time rotting in some parking lot somewhere... Oh well, I'm doing my bit as a typical Canadian and clocking about 20,000 km a year...
I figure - find a bus you like, have ccautos or CVI check it out for you and or do all the refitting that needs doing and not worry about the numbers on the odo or the last shaken stamp....

G'day.Have a look at this Japanese auction website at cars that are at auction this week. Most of the 94 Spacegears are over 100,000ks some up to 250,000ks and they are cheap as chips. Some even still rated at 3.5. Also while you are there have a look at some of the 2008 model D5s. You will see many of those with quite a few ks for their age.Choose Mitsubishi then Delica and have a look starting from 2009 D5s right through to 94 models.
http://www.japaneseusedcars.com/auction/auctions.htm
I have seen 2000 models with 400,000+ks.These are the cars that are of concern to us here in Australia because they are the ones the dealers buy for next to nothing . They turn up here a few weeks later with the magical 66,000ks on the clock. A good detailer can make them look like a new car.There are lots of Japanese car auctions you can visit easily on the net by doing a simple google. Have a look for yourselves and then try and convince people that in Japanese culture they don't drive much.....
I know some Japanese hardly use their cars at all but some use their cars a lot and they are the cars that are the problem because they are cheap and when you consider just how many cars they have over there, ones with high ks are not rare and are very popular with the Oz dealers. Maybe your used car salesman are different to ours....... This is why I am in favor of self importing. Cheers..

The web site in the previous post changes all the time as cars get sold. When I first went there today there were several 2008 D5s with 30,000-40,000ks. They have now all gone off the site so I had to edit the previous post re these cars BUT if you visit that site every day for a week you will get a good snapshot of the auctions and the Ks on cars. There are 16,000 cars going through this site alone tomorrow (Friday).. Cheers

nice find stiful

LOL... 400km to 66km.... wow.

so we went from accusing all the japanese of odometer tampering, to saying that it's really the Australlian importers who do it... and then somehow translating that to the idea that we should assume the odometer readings on the vehicles in Japan are wrong... I'm not sure I get this.

If the Australlians have a big problem with their importers messing with odometer readings that's one thing, but it's a completely different issue than the Japanese rolling back odometers, or Canadians buying ones that have been rolled back.

looks like it is both. those vehicles that havent had haircuts by the japanese get haircuts by who ever is sending the vehicle to australia. would that person be australian or japanese?

Seems to me that it's a long stretch from "some Australian importers roll back odometers" to "never believe the mileage on a Japanese vehicle heading to Canada"....