Why don't people like Delicas in Alberta ?

[William]

Always kind of wondered what it is. I personally love them and am drawn to them, but every time I bring one in to sell it just sits for way too long and nobody is interested until I basically give it away. I have the exact opposite with the other vehicles we import (right now over 20-30 per month)...

This one for example http://jdmconnection.ca/?page_id=10&id=1420 I had here for over 4 months for sale in Edmonton. Inspected, locally maintained, and in above average condition. Gave up with it and sent to my sister company in Cranbrook to sell.

Anyone have a idea why Alberta folks ain't digging the Delicas ?

[FalcoColumbarius]

I've thought about this. I've come to the conclusion that it's because of Country & Western music. People on the prairies are more acclimatized to pick-up trucks. You know... You just don't hear "mah girl done gone run off wid mah Starwagon ~ ". Ironically, you'd think that with all the Japanese samurai movies they've made in Alberta that the noodle westerns, like "Tampopo", would have found and in-road but somehow they didn't make it like the Spanish did with the spaghetti westerns, which is in fact an Italian thing ~ so what's with that? Maybe you should make big decals of galloping pintos and stick them over top of the existing Exceed & Chamonix decals as an embellishment ~ or maybe a lariat!

Another reason they're not "digging the Delica" could be that they are digging a trench with their credit card, which is conjecture as everyone knows how good the economy is right now!

You know they got this thing called "conjecture math"?

• Example: "If we look at data over the precipitation in a city for 29 out of 30 days and see that it has been raining every single day it would be a good guess that it will be raining the 30th day as well. A conjecture is an educated guess that is bases on known information".*

Isn't that a bit like being "sort of pregnant"? What if the skies cleared on the thirtieth day and they recorded the hottest day on record? It's been raining a week and a half so far, ergo it's going to rain for the rest of the year. Hmm. Not sure about that one.

I thought there were quite a few Delicas in Alberta? Maybe it's because they always use the same thread in Events-Alberta for all their meets. Reminds me of the Tusken Raiders in Star Wars that ride in single file to hide their numbers.

Falco.
*www.mathplanet.com

[almac]

I think the big issue is the 'parts and service' problems associated with them.
even here in the Okanagan parts aren't a common thing, and finding a garage that will actually work on them is something else.
this is probably the only thing that make people think twice about buying a delica.

[Beausoleil74]

Most red necks already have two quads, a snowmobile, a trailer to pull them, plus a camper, oh and it's pulled by a $70 000 pick up. They don't have time to try anything new and strange. Oh and plus they heard all the granolas in B.C are driving those cars with the steering wheel on the wrong side so the hell with that. If they are doing it in B.C. it must be crap.
Actually, I have no idea why. For myself, you get a unique vehicle, with low KM for a great price.

I went through William to get my minica, and that delica looks very nice!

[FalcoColumbarius]

... Oh and plus they heard all the granolas in B.C are driving those cars with the steering wheel on the wrong side so the hell with that. ...

Ironically ~ it's on the right side.

Falco.

[konadog]

Small, narrow minds have trouble with things that are a little different. Familiarity is a security blanket for the weak-minded.

[FalcoColumbarius]

Ha! We got these hurtin' Albertans pegged, eh?

[konadog]

no disrespect to anyone who happens to be from or in Alberta - just those that take isse with someone else's car choice because the wheel is on the other side...

[FalcoColumbarius]

no disrespect to anyone who happens to be from or in Alberta - just those that take isse with someone else's car choice because the wheel is on the other side...

Well, we got plenty of those right here in the Lower Mainland. There has got to be a name for that, an "ism" I suspect. I might suggest racism, except we don't go very fast. Perhaps "drivism"?

Falco.

[BCDelica]

Most red necks already have two quads, a snowmobile, a trailer to pull them, plus a camper, oh and it's pulled by a $70 000 pick up. They don't have time to try anything new and strange. Oh and plus they heard all the granolas in B.C are driving those cars with the steering wheel on the wrong side so the hell with that. If they are doing it in B.C. it must be crap.
Actually, I have no idea why. For myself, you get a unique vehicle, with low KM for a great price.

I went through William to get my minica, and that delica looks very nice!

Found this just out today, 2 L300's parked outside McDonald's beside a funding raising lunch with many oil patch guys, and they was a lot of hate to these 2 nice Delicas rigged for someone's fun road trip.

This from an area where it's common for the guy to brag about how his new truck gets 23 mpg when his previous one got 19. And a $40,000 price increase that will never be recovered before he buys a new truck.

[Big-Bird]

Hmmm, my own Alberta Delica ownership experience has been quite different from the haters/nay-sayers described here.

My father has been the worst I have ever experienced and thats been nothing more than minor teasing. I get more interested folks poking around my Deli and asking where I got it from.

And yeah I work in the oil patch and even these hardened rough necks only tease....nothing more than I have ever done to them!

But lets put this into perspective. There are likers and haters of all kinds of vehicles....I for one have little use for monster 4x4's on 38" tall tires for basic city driving...and they get single digit fuel econ to boot!

[punkrawker]

I agree with a lot of what is said about delis in hellberta, seems guys who are into camping and 4x4 seem to dig these vans and women/men (yuppies) who love shopping and drive a prius/electric cars or the SMRT cars seem to hate these vans. about the only people who seem to hate these vans more than the mentioned yuppies is 1) "knowledgeable" parts people.... F.U. napa 2) "diesel specialist" shops who claim if its a diesel we can fix it/work/repair it and 3) me......ONLY when it comes to trying to find parts and a shop to help me out to get work done on it for things I don't trust myself enough to tackle on my own.

For you in BC and elsewhere on here, hellberta is an oil province. big houses, big trucks/suvs and for the most part dumber people (don't believe me, come drive in Calgary during rush hour and see for yourself) coming from a born and raised hellberta boy, seems a lot of people don't like things that are different or out of the norm.

and just thinking out loud here....if you can go in debt 70k for a new plastic truck.....can you imagine the delica a guy could have for a similar price? brought over from Japan 10-25k depending on year etc and dump the rest into engine, drive train etc, etc....hell might as well buy 2 or 3.

and hellbertains hear all sorts of things about them granola eatin hippies in BC, just them granola eatin hippies hear things about hellbertains from hellberta (meant nothing more than a friendly joke, like an oilers fan wearing an oilers jersey to a shames game)

[ealanm]

I think almac is probably the closest. A Delica is a bit iconoclastic, and there are a lot more people willing to do something iconoclastic if there's infrastructure to support it -- service and parts, in this case. Plus some sense that others are going that route, too. It's rare for me to drive anywhere in the Vancouver area without seeing another Delica somewhere along the way, so I don't feel like I'm all that far out in the "long tail." But in Alberta maybe I would. So there's a critical-mass phenomenon.

[Beausoleil74]

I haven't had any haters. When people approach it's always positive, old guys who used to have VW buses checking it out, people just looking at it trying to figure out what it is.

[Beausoleil74]

I agree with punkrawker. Anyone can just go out and get a $50 000 truck and be like all the other guys out there. Delicas are something different, come with low km and are a great value.