New Member -my Delica lives in Chile!

[The Patagonia Express]

Hi there!
I am a Delica owner from the US, but my Delica is in Futaleufu, Chile - where we live half the year. It's the BEST car I have ever owned and if I could have it here in the states - I would. In a heartbeat. I bought it Duty Free from Japan a few years ago. We were one of the first in the area, but now _ LOTS of Delicas roam the dirt carreteras of northern Patagonia. Our Delica came with no papers, so I don't know what model she is - other than she is a Super Exceed, Diesel, manual drive. Is there a way to find out - maybe the VIN, perhaps. Anyway - I found this site because I was researching curtains as our Delica did not come with them... it is GREAT to see all the Delica enthusiasm! We feel the same way - it's an AMAZING vehicle! We lucked out with a very powerful, very beautiful Delica. Very pleased with her... Hope this finds you all well! I will be posting my curtains question soon... thanks!
Liz McGregor-Obregon

[deLOOKA]

Is it my eyes or is this Deli a LHD?

Welcome!

[The Patagonia Express]

Hi there - pardon my "newbie-ness", but what does LHD mean? Also, I apologize for the size of that photo - I made it smaller, but it uploaded HUGE. Not sure how to delete it - or shrink it. My husband is in Chile with our Delica right now.. anyway he can find out what kind/model she is? We don't have any of the paperwork...
Thanks for the warm welcome!

[FalcoColumbarius]

Hi Patagonia Express ~ and welcome to Delica Canada.

LHD = Left Hand Drive.
RHD = Right Hand Drive.
A/T = Automatic Transmission.
M/T = Manual Transmission (standard).

Just to get you started... smiles.

Be sure and peruse the forum index, especially "Delica Wiki".

Also there are other Delica clubs available:

• http://delicaclub.com/ (Australia)
• http://www.delicaclub.ru/ (Russia)
• http://www.mdocuk.co.uk (United Kingdom)

to name but a few.

By the way, the first thing I noticed in the picture was the bullet hole until I caught on it was where the windscreen wiper mount went before the steering wheel was changed over ~ you ought to fill that with something... smiles.

Falco.

[deLOOKA]

Good catch Falco.
I beleive all Delicas coming from Japan are Right Hand Drive (steering wheel) only.

-Delooka

[marsgal42]

The serial number plate has all the trim and option codes. It's under the little flap by the right-side passenger's calves. You're looking for codes like "P35W" and "HSRGT2".

...laura

[TardisDeli]

Hi Liz, Welcome to the Cult. Nice to meet another woman who loves Deli's. My name is Christine, I have owned my L300 Delica for over 2 years.

It looks like you have an L300 Starwagon Delica, dated 1991 to 1996 judging by your headlights and the bush bars. Bush bars are often called Bambi Bars on this site, or Roo bars in australia for kangaroo, what is the animal most commonly in danger on the roads in Chile.

Your L300 looks the same type that most of us here in Canada have, so our info will be correct for you. We mostly own the JDM Japanese Domestic Market version, as opposed to the Export Market versions for Europe or USA which had different stuff such as heated seats and dimmer switch for the dashboard lights. The JDM version is popular in Canada as they have low mileage and were very well taken care of. We are only recently getting the L400 Delica, which looks more like a normal minivan, very different from the neato L300. So if you're reading the site, make sure the sub-title of the post is L300 not L400. You should download the L300 manuals that are somewhere on the wiki...ask me if you don't know how to get the wiki, I can always email the same info directly to you. Note the wiring diagrams posted are not exact, as they are the European version not the JDM version. Your engine is probably the 4D56, D is for Diesel versus G for gasoline petrol engine.

Is your husband trying to get part numbers for oil filters etc, or just wanting to get general info in case. There was a Delica imported into the USA from 1988 to 1990, but is is not exactly the same as the L300 as it was 2 wheel drive, gasoline, and slightly different body shape. A better match for engine parts such as oil filters etc was the USA pickup truck called a Montero, also 1988 ish years, by Dodge, there are posts about that on this site.

Your steering wheel looks to be on the wrong side, as DeLooka noticed. Do you know if the steering wheel was specially converted for you to be LHD Left Hand drive, instead of the usual Japanese RHD Right Hand Drive? One clue would be if the parking handbrake is on the same side as the drivers seat, or is it closer to the passenger seat, because when a steering wheel is moved after manufacture, the handbrake is often not moved to the new driver seat. Your mirrors look like the JDM Right hand drive version. If you can post a photo of your dashboard, and the area near your cigarette lighter (do you have another knob beside the cigarette lighter knob, or is it a blank space). Which side is your rolling door. Is yours 4WD Four Wheel Drive.

If you want to PM Private Message me with your VIN number, don't put a whole VIN number online in public, I can give you some info on your van. Your VIN will have been on your import papers, and thus probably on your insurance papers. There are 2 places with the VIN Vehicle Identification Number, one as described by Laura Marsgal42 is just behind your upper calf muscle when sitting in the drivers seat in our JDM models, probably under your passenger seat if your steering wheel was relocated, but easiest to look for it while standing outside the vehicle as the carpet flap is very discreet, the metal plate about 3 inches by 4 inches, is under the carpet flap, attached to the front of the engine hump. This plate has heaps of info including paint type etc. The other VIN plate is just inside the drivers door on our JDM model, which would be the passenger seat if your steering wheel has been relocated, look just inside the door ridge, just before the seat, about where your butt hits the top radius of the wheel arch if you slide drunkenly off the seat as if to slide out the door ... look for a hard plastic flap with a little flat grab handle lump all in the same colour as the plastic trim, about 4 or 5 inches long and 1.5 inches high, this will have just your VIN number ie P25W1234567. Yours is probably P25 which means low roof, versus P35 which means high roof. Another place to check manufacture dates is on the front seat belt, there is a compliance label with date of manufacture of the seatbelt by month and year, which is fairly reliable indicator for the vehicle date give or take a month or two.

Looks like your rear seats are the 2 captains chairs, and the rear bench, but the sunlight is reflecting. Is that your Spousal Unit in the back door, just curious.

I see your plastic window screens, also called Monsoon Guards, look a bit scratched, if it is hard to see out of them you can try to buff the scratches out with a special cleaner for plastic or lexan windows, such as on motorbikes.

If you can reduce the size of your photos that you post, that would be great, it is hard to see them in such huge size, but don't worry if you can't.

Feel free to post heaps of questions, everyone loves to help other Deli owners, and the challenge of long distance tech support is great fun. Feel free to PM me, I may not know the answers but I can easily phone other owners who have dealt with the same issue.

Where in USA are you now.As usual, I extend an invitation for you to stay at our home, as I do for out-of-town deli owners, and we will organize a mini meet in your honour, but I realize the commute from Chile is a wee bit of a trek.

Cheers, Christine.

[The Patagonia Express]

Hi everyone!

Thanks again for the warm responses - much appreciated... and VERY thorough, Christine - thanks! Our Delica was switched over from RHD to LHD when it arrived in Chile - from what I understand they all are required to be converted. It is 4WD and yes, I believe we have the JDM version. We do have the 2 rear captains chairs, and the rear bench. I guess our bush bars would be called Hare bars... the long legged rabbits of southern Chile are the most common to be endangered by vehicles. Luckily, we haven't required any parts yet but that info is VERY helpful. I look forward to exploring the site in more depth! No, that isn't my husband... that is the friend who helped us get the Delica from the northern town of Iquique - where they all arrive.

We live in Maine here in the US, but are on our way to Chile for the "season" down there. We work in adventure tourism. So, we are there half the year.

Very gracious of you to invite us in... once we are back, perhaps we'll make a road trip!

Thank you all again for the warm welcome and yes, Christine - I will write you separately as well!

Liz

[after oil]

welcome!! ive always dreamed of going to patagonia. maybe ill import a van to chile and have it converted to LHD, then drive it home!!!

is there a website for your adventure tourism business?

[mararmeisto]

Christine and et al: as Falco pointed out and then the member confirmed, this ride was a RHD which would have been converted to LHD. Chile specifically states that vehicles must be LHD for their right-hand-side of the road highways. Fortunately here in Canada, the motor vehicle act makes no mention of a requirement for the location of the steering wheel other than to state that a RHD vehicle must have "mechanical or electrical turn indicating equipment". The Patagonia Express is the second Chilean L300 to join the group, but I can't remember the other's name. I do remember that the other one lives much further north: Antafagasto, I think.

Welcome to the group, The Patagonia Express. The koolaid is served every day on this forum - drink freely and drink often. You will find we are a fairly devoted bunch, we love our vans, and we tend to get along very well (much better than other forums on the 'Net). Welcome and well met!

As an aside, I thought Patagonia was on the 'other side' of the Andes, over in Argentina. Is this not so? I know that the most of the South American countries are tense neighbours, so I find it interesting that two countries could agree to the sharing of a name for such a unique and wonderful area.

[MardyDelica]

Hi, i think this one is the converted version LHD from the pHils. as you can see the mirror is the same as our RHD L300.
They just convert this in the phils & exported to Chile:
as chile cannot drive RHD.
this is just my though, you can also notice the hole in the leftside driver side. rhd. for the wiper arm
Cheers;

[The Patagonia Express]

Hi again,

You guys are ON it. Very happy to have found this group. And I am proud - and also surprised- to be only the 2nd one from Chile here. There are at least 10 Delicas in our area now - which is northern chilean Patagonia. My friend/boss got one after he saw ours - but his is different from ours - not as spunky, Manual drive and it came with a refrigerator AND curtains. Ha! Those curtains are niiiiice.

J. Paul..... Patagonia refers to the southern tip of South America which includes Chile and Argentina- with the top part starting roughly in the Lakes Districts of both Chile and Argentina. Due to the fact that Patagonia has been so isolated until recently due to lack of roads and infrastructure - especially the Chilean side - the two sides (in the VERY remote areas) identified themselves more at Patagonians than Chileans OR Argentineans because it wasn't about borders back then - it was about survival. Many of the people we know have family on the Argentinean side... and before tourism, many people would work on estancias in Argentina and come home after months to bring supplies to their families in Chile. We are taking very south and VERY remote. And in some of those areas on the ice fields, the borders are still in question. We work in the 10th region of Palena in the Futaleufu Valley on the Futaleufu River - a class 5 rafting/kayaking and popular fly fishing destination.

After Oil... we work with/for our friends at Bio Bio Expeditions. Their website is www.biobioexpeditions.com - and yes, driving from southern Chile to Canada would be quite a memorable road trip!

I can't wait to get back to our Delica and get to work on the curtains! Her name is "the Gringa" - mainly because she is teal-ish green and because I bought her with my friend Stace. Two girls (at the time) with a sweet van... in Chile, they refer to any light complected person not from there as a Gringo/Gringa... you can be from the US, Canada, Germany, wherever really. Stace and I bought the car from teh Zona Franca (duty free) zone in Iquique in Dec. 2005 and since then, I got married and we now have a baby - so Stace has graciously let us buy her part and she is now a family car...

I'll be sure to post some pics from Chile! Thanks again... Liz

[Green1]

definitely a conversion, and in fact those mirrors I would think would be a problem, I know from the left seat of the L300 it's very hard to see the left mirror out on those arms, mostly blocked by the "A" pillar...

LHD delicas came with 2 identical mirrors, like the right side one, none out on arms like our RHD ones.

[after oil]

liz,
i hope its okay to ask how much you paid for your Gringa?
and maybe a few other questions like:
what kind of repairs have you done, or what do you know has been done to it?
how many km's on it?
who imports Delicas to Chile?
how much is diesel in Chile?
and heres a good one:
in Chile is there lots of deep fried food?

[The Patagonia Express]

Hi again,

Yes, the side mirrors do pose a bit of a problem - luckily there is only ONE road where we live and it is not frequently traveled. We make it work, but it would not be ideal in a busy town with lots of traffic. We usually see the dust whipping up down the road or hear an engine before we see the other car...

"After oil", I'm happy to answer any questions. We paid just about $5,000 USD for our Delica in 2005 and that included transport from the north to where we are in the south \ and the steering wheel conversion. I think we got an AMAZING deal. It was tax free because we bought it in - and we live in - a duty free zone... we were first duty free car purchase in our immediate area. I luckily heard about the "program" through a friend who owns a fishing lodge. Do you think $5,000 is high or low? I have nothing to compare it to.

As far as repairs go - until recently, we never had to do anything except maintenance. There was a volcanic eruption in our area last year and most people with cars had to replace their alternators due to the corrosion from the ash... We changed the suspension shocks and think that that is kind of normal wear. There is a rattling sound underneath that seems to be some sort of suspension issue, but when we asked (when they changed the shocks) they said that everything was ok. My husband has his doubts about that as he doesn't think it should sound like that when we hit bumps. That rattling is something new...

We have no knowledge of her previous history - but she was obviously pre-owned. But in great shape!

I am checking the KMs with my husband who is with the car - I have no clue...

I am not sure who imports them - we dealt with a friend who has a friend... one of those deals. We had never even seen it when we bought it... not even a photo. We just knew we were getting a van... that's it. So, it was a trust deal.

Diesel is $580 pesos (about $1 USD) a litre in chile right now... cheaper in Argentina, but now they charge foreigners double so it is not the deal it once once... but it is still less than in Chile. We are a 3 hour drive from the closest gas station - so we try and stock up and then use it wisely once we have it.

Fried food - hmmm, yes I guess you could say there is a lot of fried food but you don't see it everywhere. A popular fast food is a completo - a hot dog loaded with avocado, mayo, ketchup and mustard... not my fave. Empanadas are very popular and VERY common -it's like a flakey dough pocket filled with meat or cheese or vegetables... but they are baked as often as they are fried. LOTS of bread in Chile... bread with butter, bread with jam, bread with pebre (salsa like)... lots of meat and fish... particularly where we are - it's meat and potatoes land. Near Santiago, Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas (the city just above Tierra del Fuego)- you can find great seafood. We are a bit too far inland for that... close to the Argentine border.

Thanks for your interest and your input!

Best, Liz