What was once the most cost effective new four-wheel-drive automotive to be had in the USA all through the early Nineteen Nineties? No, it wasn’t the Subaru Loyale sedan, nor was once it the Ford Pace/Mercury Topaz AWD. It was once the Subaru Justy 4 wheel drive, a tiny three-cylinder system to be had right here for the 1988 thru 1994 style years. These days’s Junkyard Gem is a type of now-rare automobiles, present in a Northern California boneyard a couple of months again.

The MSRP for the Justy 4 wheel drive GL two-door hatchback for 1993 was once $9,478, or about $21,073 in 2023 bucks. This automotive is the four-door hatchback, so its listing worth began at $9,913 (round $22,041 after inflation).

There was once one new four-wheel-drive truck that was once a little inexpensive than the Justy in 1993: the Suzuki Samurai 4 wheel drive, which value $8,599 ($19,119 now) that 12 months.

The Justy was once sluggish, to place it mildly, with its fuel-injected 1.2-liter SOHC straight-three producing 66 horsepower and 73 pound-feet; some assets say that Suburu was once nonetheless placing carburetors in U.S.-market Justys as overdue as 1993, however the earliest I have observed so provided was once a 1992 style. This automotive simply slightly controlled to tip the scales at a ton (curb weight was once 2,045 kilos for the four-door), so it was once gentle sufficient to overcome a 49-horsepower Geo Metro XFi in a drag race.

In fact, the Justy was once even slower with Subaru’s CVT bolted to its engine. This one has the bottom five-speed handbook. The 4 wheel drive button at the shift knob was once used to change between front- and four-wheel-drive; depart the auto in 4 wheel drive on dry pavement for too lengthy and you would put on out the tires and perhaps wreck drivetrain portions.

Previous Justys had five-digit odometers, however this one has six digits and so we will see that it simply squeaked previous 200,000 miles all through its existence.

It is rusty for a California automotive, however its ultimate parking spot is with regards to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains and so most likely it spent each iciness buried in snow.

You’ll be able to to find one in each automotive. You’ll be able to see.

A Vary Rover that is extra to your vary.

The off-roading collection on this business calls for some suspension of disbelief.

Subaru shipped a right-hand-drive Justy to California with the intention to shoot this business.

A sedan model of the Justy was once bought in Taiwan as the Subaru Tutto.