Rant

[Rattlenbang]

Not my rant, but one of the guys at JB auto parts. I have an account there and get fantastic prices, as long as I can cross-reference stuff for them, but when I innocently asked him if they have any Delica parts listed, the guy had a meltdown. He really got agitated and I almost had to wipe his spittle off my glasses. They shouldn't be allowed, they are junk, it's all BS, they replace the instrument clusters in Japan to hide the true mileage, they are shipped over burnt out and rusty and not worth anything, and they are too dangerous on our roads, 25% more accidents according to ICBC, and on and on. I've never run into such sheer animosity when talking about a vehicle before. You'd think one had driven over his kid or something. Have people found that kind of aggressive prejudice common?

[del400]

Not everyone is meant to be mentally fit.
Maybe he got shafted with a Deli? DeliShafted?

Sad to hear you had a crapy experience.

a

[glenn]

No, this is not common. These guys are out there, to be sure - but, I personally have not come across any in the 5 years I've owned Delicas. It's hard to say why some people get so hostile over something so harmless. One has to wonder where he gets his "facts" from.

If someone changed the instrument cluster on my van, they also changed the pedals, carpets, wheels, tires, seats, etc, etc, to make it look as fantastic as the odometer says. This is especially funny considering I only payed $908 for it at auction for a beautiful 97.

Sour grapes!

[Jordan]

I had an interesting conversation with a mechanic when I inquired why the alignment I was quoted doubled in price when he found out it was a Delica. Long story short it ended with him yelling at me "They are just different!". Very entertaining watching people lose their shit over the origin of your vehicle, also a good indication to not trust them working on your vehicle.

[philmeup1]

$908.00?? That's a steal!!!!!!

Here in Peterborough Ont. the parts place gets excited when I come in. And it's usually what are you driving now?? Then they come to see for themselves. Helpful and friendly:)

I've had problems trying to get an alignment. The best place in town is reluctant, but pleaseant. Rising Sun kindly emailed me a manual with the specs for an alignment. The shop here in Peterborough said bring the vehicle by and we'll see if we can do it.

I can't imagine someone getting that upset over a vehicle he/she dosen't even own. Imagine if you started agreeing with him/her getting them even more worked up? You could have had a heart attack on your hands, lol

[glenn]

$908.00?? That's a steal!!!!!!

Yes - it was an awesome deal - but, that was the Japan auction price though. By the time it's shipped, on the road here, insured, seviced etc, the cost is considerably higher. The point I am making is that there is very little incentive for the Japanese sellers to meddle with the Odometer. I'm sure it has happened, but it is definitely not a common practice.

[yojimbo]

Reminds me of my dads story of when he wanted to get a mechanic to top the oil in the diff of his '68 Volvo, back in those days only the deranged bought Volvo's and SAAB owners were worse. This was in Nebraska by the way, not here in the UK, he takes one look at it and it says,"Volvo eh? Aint got the tools for one of those..." Years later that was the first car I owned, the diff plug was 1/2" drive plug you could use a naked socket driver on...

[thedjjack]

Lordco people have given me a hard time....but really the issue is there computer system and parts people with almost enough skill to look up the part (one time at Canadian Tire I needed a tie-rod for F350 and computer shows a part so small must have been for a SMART car...person says oh guess the computer is wrong nothing we can do about that?? nope would not want to fix it?)

Most interesting was the Richmond alternator shop...."man these alternators just use standard parts other then the seal at the back....two minutes later those Delicas are horrible all I do is fix there alternators"

Me "you know you are the only shop that fixes them in the lower mainland so every alternator is being fixed by you and if they use standard parts wouldn't all those alternators be bad? Plus the Alternators are 15 years old OEM ones?"

Him, "oh, never thought of that?"

[Tojo]

The only parts place that I've been to that didn't give me a hard time was Magnem in Burnaby: https://plus.google.com/103384490261932 ... l=ca&hl=en

Infact they supply parts to some of the local JDM mechanics so they were very familiar with the Delicas. I'm bringing them some obscure Isuzu ELF parts which they have offered to try to find for me. Good guys.

[FalcoColumbarius]

Whoa, and we think the Japanese are xenophobic. I guess we should be more patriotic and buy American, eh?

I find the guys at the Lordco in North Van and Richmond are pretty good. There is a guy at a Lordco on the Island that started compiling a list of cross references for the Delica and it's been disseminated to other Lordcos, including North Van and Richmond. L300 list is expanding, but the L400 list has little on it as of yet. Perhaps we should help out a little and supply part OEM number to them.

Regarding the ICBC report that Rattlenbang's buddy mentions, it's true ~ their statistics showed a major increase in accidents between RHD to LHD vehicles. However, if you read the source guide it turns out that they were comparing LHD, ages 16 to 75 against RHD, ages 16 to 23. I found this intriguing. Apparently the CADA had something to do with this report, although this is just hearsay as far as I know.

Really ~ what side the steering wheel is located on has nothing to do with mechanical issues and as far as driving on the road goes ~ RHD was here first. In fact, the first ever recorded traffic accident in BC occurred on the day they changed over from the left side of the road to the right side. That's gotta stand for something!

Falco.

[psilosin]

Regarding the ICBC report that Rattlenbang's buddy mentions, it's true ~ their statistics showed a major increase in accidents between RHD to LHD vehicles. However, if you read the source guide it turns out that they were comparing LHD, ages 16 to 75 against RHD, ages 16 to 23. I found this intriguing. Apparently the CADA had something to do with this report, although this is just hearsay as far as I know.

There were more issues than that. There were serious problems with the data including duplicates of vehicles. Also claims were used interchangabley as actual accidents for the RHD dataset (ie a guy that made a claim for someone that keyed his paint would be considered the same as an actual motor vehicle accident for the purpose of calculating crash statistics) Etc etc etc. Been too long ago to remember all the details but there should be the full counter analysis archive over on Import Vehicle Owners of Canada website [www.ivoac.ca]. Original authors of teh study will not stand behind it, they knew it was garbage.

Doesn't matter though...damage was done, as indicated, since people still spout it off as fact since it was 'on the news'!!!

[Rattlenbang]

I doubt there would be enough RH vehicles in BC to analyze and give meaningful data anyway. i"m no statistician, but I know you need a big enough N or else your ability to find significant results falls way off - to discover what is random and what is a real effect. Having said that, as a new Rh driver it does take some getting use to. Both myself and every other driver that has used it tended to creep to the left. It just seems so damn close to parked cars :)

[nxski]

I doubt there would be enough RH vehicles in BC to analyze and give meaningful data anyway. i"m no statistician, but I know you need a big enough N or else your ability to find significant results falls way off - to discover what is random and what is a real effect. Having said that, as a new Rh driver it does take some getting use to. Both myself and every other driver that has used it tended to creep to the left. It just seems so damn close to parked cars :)

You'll get used to it, I creep right now and see how close I can get to busses (especially if I can see they're trying to cut me off).

[FalcoColumbarius]

....Doesn't matter though...damage was done, as indicated, since people still spout it off as fact since it was 'on the news'!!!

You know... I'm one of those guys that on the way home after the event thinks of all the witty comebacks he should have used had he only thought of them at the time. However, I gotta say ~ one time this guy came up to my window as I was sitting in the saddle and knocked on the window. I rolled the window down (can I still say that?) and he said to me: "Your steering wheel is on the wrong side" ~ and it came to me, I responded: "Ironically ~ it's on the right side".

I get so much mileage out of that one!

Falco.

[mararmeisto]

I doubt there would be enough RH vehicles in BC to analyze and give meaningful data anyway.

It didn't matter there weren't enough RHD to make a meaningful comparison of data: ICBC assumed a vehicle was RHD if it was an import: all VW's and Mercedes (I think it was Mercedes, definitely VW's) tabulated in the "report" were considered RHD because they are not assembled in Canada - therefore imports, and thus RHD.

There were many things 'wrong' with the report, and ICBC 'retracted' it after they were threatened with court proceedings. However, even as I was having my Pajero assessed for repairs for a fender bender, the assessor thought it was hardly unrealistic the accident my wife was in, given the increased likelihood for an accident while driving a RHD. I won't repeat the ridiculous percentage, but it was disappointing that nearly five years after being told their report was BS, their own employees are still repeating its falsehoods.