Growing up in the sixties, it was normal for people to ride in the back of the truck. My whole little league team was fit in the back of the pickup to go get ice cream after a game.
I spent most of my pre 16 years riding in the back of a truck. We could leave high school at noon for lunch so there would be a whole load of guys going down town for lunch. I learned to absorb bumps stand not on a motorcycle but in the back of a truck. Plus as the gate opener on farms you rode on the tailgate. The cab of the truck was like the big table at family dinners.
It was the 70's. We rode in the bed of pickups all the time. Dad kept a wooden bench in the bed for us to sit on. The Brat seemed like an upgrade verses just sitting on the floor.
same, but early 80s. And we were well under 10. Dad knew how to take it easy with kids in the back, and we were not so stupid as to jump out. Also, went on more than one "hay ride" with a load of kids and hay bales to sit on, for a sorta slow tour of a farm or something like fall trees or christmas lights. Later in HS, when we would "cruise" main street, particularly poor types might over load the back of a pickup, particularly in summer. All gone, traded for instagram and teektok. Stupid laws.
In the early 80s, my mom‘s boyfriend had one of these. I recall riding around town by myself in the back of that thing. I was around four years old and I absolutely loved it. Safe no. Fun… yes!
Im 55, we rode in the back of pickup trucks, back dash of cars, back of station wagons..... no seat belts... love your videos especially the Model T ones since I have one.
And that was when we were kids!! Parents didn't have to worry about "child endangerment ". Now if kids aren't strapped in 15 different ways and wrapped in bubble wrap, the parents get arrested and tossed in jail.
This was our families only transportation in 1979-81. It was my mom and 3 kids in Maine. Yup Maine! It was so cold one winter that we had to put a shop light with a 100 watt bulb under the car so the oil was warm enough to start the car. I was the eldest child at home so I got to sit in the front. I actually learned to drive stick in that car. I loved that car, there are so many great memories!!!
I'd love TFL to make a video of calling and talking to their insurance provider, asking if it's OK to ride in the back and the insurance companies' response.
Having seats and seat belts was a step up in safety from just piling into the back of a pickup truck. Also, if you were a kid, that was probably a fun experience.
These seats were put into the back of Brats to get around the 25% 'Chicken Tax' on imported light trucks. The seats made the Brat a passenger vehicle instead of a light truck and not subject to the tax. These seats were usually removed at the dealership before rhe vehicle was sold. This tax still exists today.
Ford is being *wrongfully* sued right now because they put extremely cheap seats in the back of the Made In Turkey Transit Connect to get around the Chicken Tax. So the rear seat loophole has been utilized as recently as 2010.
You have to transport yourself back to the 70s when riding in the back of the pickup was a common thing. The least safe was probalby the teanagers driving with the bed full of friends heading to a drive in or the lake. People didn't see safety the same back then, we were not as worried about it. I remember when it wasn't a law to wear a seatbelt at all, people resisted when the law was passed.
I’m half way through this video and I’m convinced you should keep the Brat forever and make a weekly video just like this. By far the funniest video I’ve watched in a long, long time. This is so great!
That Subaru is rhino guard then painted? That’s cool. It looks good. That model Brat the Gen 1 also had two canopy options you could get. A high top and a low top. Both versions were to accommodate a high or low roll bar if it was equipped in the vehicle. This car shown is a low top roll bar. With a high roll bar you can sit rain free under the canopy, and would have windows like a typical canopy for air flow. And for no reason you could get a front bumper with a winch or snow blow attachment.
Hilarious video, guys! I remember seeing these Brats around back in the day; I never saw anyone actually ride in the back of one. It’s really tiny back there & I had no idea how little room there actually is!
A friend at high school had a Brat. I rode in the back many times. I have also ridden in the back of many pickups over my years too. All of that was destroyed by a Ford Courier and a kid named Alan Cole. He drove his little truck filled with high schoolers down Patuxent Road in Maryland and missed a corner and killed several kids. Maryland passed a law that no one could ever ride in a pickup bed ever again. It was called the Alan B. Cole law.
When you consider we were all riding in the back of the truck anyway back then, the seats and lap belt were a huge safety upgrade. It finally became against the law for regular passengers to ride loose in the back of the truck on February 1st, 2000 in my area.
really? I'm in my 60's. We used to ride standing in the back of old pickups (with an FBI agent driving no less), we survived....and that with seats is way safer...safer is relative... You've never seen a Rumble Seat? Now THAT was dangerous. Uh, let me introduce you to my sidecar... 😎
It's funny that you mention the Rumble Seat. My wife and I were on our way to the store yesterday, and happened to see an old model car with one installed. I about lost it when we saw that. My wife had never seen that model of car, and didn't know what a Rumble Seat was. I knew, because I was raised by my grandmother, who told me many stories about "incidents" in that Rumble Seat. I'm 57, so I also grew up in the "rode in the back of a pickup truck" era. One of the wildest ones was when 8 teenagers (including myself), were sat in the back of a pickup truck heading to a Civil War Reenactment up in Pennsylvania.... along with the 8 of us, was a full size canon that was strapped down, and a cooler full of beer that we not only had access to, but raided the entire 3 hour drive up from Baltimore. The canon and the cooler were secured in.... unlike the 8 of us, who were free to move around. I want to say that was 1982, which would have made me 15 at the time. The "legal" drinking age was 18 at that time, and IIRC, I was the oldest of the teenagers in the back of that truck. Everyone else was a year or two younger than I was. But yeah.... 8 drunk teenagers, a canon, and a cooler full of beer packed into the bed of a pickup truck on a road trip. Somehow, we all lived through that insane weekend. Also, there was another 10 cases of beer in the other vehicle that was hauling the other adults of our crew. What a time to be alive....
I remembered riding in the back of my dad's truck without seats and later on he bolted a bench seat in the bed.❤❤❤ good times and memories. This episode is funny😂😂😂
Growing up in the 70s and 80's we rode in the back of pickup trucks all the time. I remember going on camping trips from Southern California to Yellowstone riding in the back of a 72 Ford F-100 pickup all the way there laying down looking up at the stars on a bed roll and sleeping bag for a pillow. The truck was only a single cab.
I love this little thing. My parents really wanted one back in the early 80's. From what my mom said they settled on a brand new 1982 2WD Subaru GL wagon. It unfortunately got repoed a few months after they got it when my dad was between jobs and they missed ONE payment!
My father had 3 of these. The New Zealand spec did not have the backseats. They were a great farm runabout and good for carting dogs or doing fence maintenance or other light duty jobs. Being so light they didn't make pasture damage the way a tractor did.
Ah, the memories. I had a 78 and a 79 Brat. The motors are durable, if you catch a CV joint before it goes out they're rebuildable, that's the clicking from the front end. There aren't any aftermarket rims for that year really so you have to get creative for terrain tires. The roll bar in that looked nothing like the roll bar in mine as it went above the level of the cab to a point that I could sit back there comfortably with the headrest set in its highest position which would also extend above the level of the cab. I also had the topper as well. When you looked under the front end I noticed that it is missing the skid plate which made those things work like a big ski over mud holes when going fast enough. Unfortunately I lost all of my Subaru collection with the 2003 Cedar Fire in San Diego county Southern California. They're an incredibly easy to work on vehicle. I had more than once going around corners and spinning a 360 in those on pavement but they never flipped, not a really top heavy vehicle. They ran on muddy fire roads without issue also. I could tell some stories but I won't. Fun times.
I had the exact same one - '79 with the painted white wheels (that promptly rusted). College graduation present from my parents. I scared the devil out of my brother and his GF, who rode in the back in the seats ONCE. The car went through tires in 8k miles (belts came through), so I dumped it. I believe it was in fact a terrifying ride at higher speeds, on curves.
"How can anyone think this is OK" ohhh how i laughed . as the shot moves to Alex in the relative safety of the BRAT cabin laughing as he says we are doing 80. You just know he is trying for 88 Great episode guys, fantastic vibes n informative even . love how you make a genuine effort to keep it fun (rather than make fun or disrespect these old cars ) but also nice to see younger enthusiasts like u , tryinbg to discovere n enjoy these older models . checking out and showing us as u find out the beauty and interest n features of these old n quirky cars . rather than so many others that just point out how crappy they seem compared to 2024 cars thanks . ....
A buddy of mine had one back when I was a teenager, and we had a blast riding around in it. At that time, you'd often see pickups driving around with all the kids riding in the bed, so having the seats in the Brat was considered a safety feature!
Here in Australia, it's called the Subaru Brumby. They don't put the seats in the back, but they put the little pegs for the hold-down straps on a tonneau cover lining the edge of the tray.
I was in Milwaukee for New Years Eve. We got dumped with a foot of snow in a blizzard. I was one of the passengers in that back seat while bar hoping till dawn. It was a blast....the early eighties was a different time. The driver did get it struck in a large snow bank ( more tha three feet) created by the snow removal crew.. A guy in a full sized pickup truck pulled us out....he was equally amuzed.
Grew up in 1970s-1980s Oregon. Just beyond Portland suburbia so I guess rural, but just houses on acreage, not many full time farms. You seem to have know idea how common it was for children and teens to ride in the back of regular pick-up. Not just near the cab, but also in the back corner so you could look forward. Bug splats in the eyes really hurt. Unless on the freeway, anyone who was older usually sat on the wheel wells or even on the sides of the bed, because it was more comfortable. I and most of my friends had small pick-ups after we started driving and went on at least a dozen trips around 2 hours away with people in the back (beach, rafting, & visit friends at college) those trips we would throw blankets and sleeping bags in the back to make it quite comfy. In 1988 I bought a new Ford Ranger. It had the extra cab with sideways jump seats, in the cab, behind the front seats. Your legs would cross the guy facing you, and your feet would be under their jumpseat. Extra cab was about 18" extra, so not quite as wide as your shoulders. Loaded up that Ranger with six guys and went to Reno for a couple days. 10 hours driving each way, plus any stops. We rotated positions. Often one of the jump seat people would opt for the bed instead. All good times.
My buddy had one around 1982 & we had a lot of fun in that car especially going off road! Crazy thing is in the '70s us as kids used to sit on the tailgate of my dads truck going down the interstate dragging our feet at 60-70 mph & ALWAYS rode in the back whenever we would go to town for supplies....yes we lived in the sticks in rural Georgia! Young folks nowadays {especially city folks} always amuse me when they learn all the things we did back in the day! On a side note...why are you eating the nastiest fast food there is, sorry but they have the worst fries {only 51% potato} ✌💖☮
I had a Brother in law that had one of these Brats when someone else was driving after a day canal surfing he was sitting in the back on 3 cased of beer and thrown out just after a curve getting back on to paved road taking a good tumble and hitting a road side marker. while at the hospital and getting a CT scanner he woke up thinking he was a filing cabinet.
I Live in Australia & i remember feeling Jealous That the US Got The SUBARU with the rear seats . Because we had the same Ute Here But it was called the Brumby & had no rear seats Plus we got it with high & low range with 2x4 or 4x4 selection . Some people here even imported the seats & installed them . Especially in Bush towns but they were expensive to buy .thanks you for reminding about my late teen years ...
GenX here. I remember riding in the back of my dad's pickup truck down the 101 Freeway in the Bay Area in the 70s or early 80s. I think it was legal until seatbelt laws came in the mid-80s. Even in the 90s is was common to ride in the back of a truck -- just lay down so you don't get caught. I had friends who had Brats and have sat in the back many times -- including during a snowstorm.
I had one, mine came with a taller roll bar, and a camper shell was added... I cut the bottoms off the seats and left the backs in place.. that little piece of crap could hold WAY more than it appeared , dump run for a truck was like $8.75. Brat w/seats was $1.25... I added a skid plate, 4 wheeling.. who needs ground clearance when you have momentum. the newer Subi's don't even hold a candle to the amount of abuse the older ones could take. Thanks for memory
This is a 79 Subaru Bratt. I was 17 in 1979 so I was driving and I did regularly drive few of these that belonged to my employer. Society as a whole simply weren't the scaredy-cats that they are now. These little trucks were meant to be fun with safety being at YOUR discretion. I wish they still made them just like that.
We were loaded into the rear of Dad's 4 cylinder cream colored Datsun Truck, as kids . It felt Like sitting on moving gravel around every turn . Some parents actually put a mattress back there....
In 1991 I had a BRAT and picked up a hitchhiker on 75 highway near Topeka and drove him 30 miles north in the jump seat of my brat. He loved it. I was a jr in high school at the time. Btw, those are not stock seat belts.
Until i graduated in 1975 I regularly rode in the back of a pickup. Even use to use to hold on to the tail gate chain to ski behind on Oklahoma dirt roads and I am still alive.
Looks like luxury compared to our 80’s adventures. We’d regularly ride in the bed of our Toyota from LA to Ensenada Mexico & from LA to Vegas. With nothing more than a blanket (for safety of course).
It was a really fun video, but I'm calling lightweights on this one. I was volunteering in another country for awhile, the Dominican Republic, and the only way to get us to the city and back was a one and a half to two hour ride on the highway going 90-95 kilometers per hour (about 58 miles per hour) most of the time. The thing was, the only vehicle that could fit us was a two-wheel drive Toyota Hilux Crew Cab that seated five, and there were eight of us, so three had to take the back with no seats, no seatbelts, no grab handles (unless you count the headache rack behind the cab for whoever was in the front of the bed) and no topper. I spent a total of four trips in the back of that truck, and it was really fun. I would definitely do it again. The sole downside was when we had to stop for a traffic backup and it was sunny out because it was maroon, so the metal bed would start to bake us. My most memorable experience was when a cement mixer blew a tire right next to us at speed and a piece of the tire landed in the bed of the truck still hot. I kept it as a souvenir.
Mid 80's Nissan hard bodies had the option of a removable hammock style seat that hooked into the factory roll bar. Had seat belts and everything. Rode many times in the one in the back of my buddy's truck.
Ask any Gen Xer. We grew up riding around in the backs of pickups WITHOUT seats. The one guy who had a little Datsun pickup in high school would take 8 people in back to go grab a burger for lunch. Or we would stuff 8 people total in a little '70s Japanese wagon, or 6 in a 1960s VW Beetle. And I grew up in heavily populated coastal Southern California, not some tiny town in Montana. In the context of what we actually did at the time, seats in the back of a tiny little truck, with seatbelts, was relatively safe. Ride around in an original WW2 or early flatfender CJ Jeep. No seat belts. No headrests. No roll bars. No doors. The BRAT was much safer.😂
So when is there going to be a TFL show on one of the big networks. I’ve been following you guys since 2013 and I’m starting to get Top Gear vibes. It’s awesome! 👏🏼
I was 11 or 12 and we went on a 4 hour road trip. Me and my best friend rode in the back of the truck the entire way to the campground. It was awesome.
I had a Brat in the 80s and friends loved to ride in the back for local road rides to the beach or lake. Coming back you didn't have to care about wet or sandy clothes or friends still wearing wetsuits. Definitely not great for high speed travel. I don't remember using seatbelts, I think there were some lap belts. We would have ignored the racing harnesses that were in the video. When I sold the Brat I took out the seats and mounted them on removable mounts in an F-150, no seatbelts there. We managed to live through all of this. It all comes down to our training, no seat belts laws, no baby seats, riding in the front as a little kid, fifteen kids in the back of a station wagon with some hanging out over the top of the tailgate, lawn darts, building tree forts by ourselves, being with friends and having no supervision going anywhere you could pedal your bike to. We never wore helmets which probably wasn't the best idea. Otherwise It was great. I feel sorry for kids these days not having the freedoms enjoyed by kids up to the 90s. Now there is a little too much oversight, and less respect and trust.
In the early eighties my brother and I drove 4 girls in the back of a Mini pickup (not available in North America I think. Got stopped by the cops, who just wanted make sure they were ok. A few years later it was banned in the UK also. Many experiences of riding in the bed of trucks land rovers etc.
The seats were added to the back to cut the tax cost on the US would charge a way bigger interest on imparts that weren't 4 seater so this was there way around it
Between this one, the video of them taking the Model T to Brighton Ford, and the video of them taking the WWII-era Willys MB "Jeep" on the interstate, this channel has basically become Tommy and Kase Put Themselves In Mortal Danger For Your Entertainment. LoL
Oh, the whining! LOL Growing up in the days before seat belt laws existed (and highway deaths were much more frequent), we loved riding in the back of open pickups and utes like the Brat, El Camino, and Ranchero. Double cab pickups were a rarity back then. Fun video that brought back old memories. Thanks, guys!
I do t know why you guys think this was silly. We enjoyed having seats in the Bear. You got to remember. When I was a teenager. We used to sit in the back of pick up trucks. When the brat came out. We liked having a seat instead of sitting on the wheel wells in a pick up truck.
Not only did we ride in the back of trucks as kids but we'd do it on top of a full load of hay bales. Fifteen feet off the road our job was to lift up tree branches to keep them from wiping the top row of bales (and us) off the back of the truck. Good times.
I'm surprised the Brat didn't have low range. I owned 4 1980 something Subarus: 3 wagons and 1 hatchback and all had 4 speed stick and a high/low shifter. Another thing many people don't know is if you used a socket wrench, you can jack up the Subaru another 3 inches (not that that made a big difference). Did a lot of off roading in upper New England with them.
To beat the chicken tax, other companies shipped cab and chassis to the US where the beds were made and installed. Subaru could not do that because the Brat was unibody.
when I was a kid we rode in the back of trucks all the time you're lucky you got a seat we used to ride on the truck bed or wheel wells. and hoped we didn't fall out
I thought the talk of chickens at the start was a euphemism for something that I was missing, took me a while to realize they were legitimately talking about taxation on chickens.
It's hilarious watching modern kids trip out over this stuff. The only thing unusual about the Brat is it has seats and belts in the back. That would have been considered a safety feature in the '70s and '80s. It was very common for people, especially kids, to ride in the backs of pickups. And not only did we not have seats or safety belts, often we sat on the top of the bed wall and held on. Of course, we'd make the younger kids sit on the wheel wells or the spare... you know, for safety. 🙂 Back then we weren't just surviving, we were _living._ And it was great.
Those of us who remember riding in the bed of their parents truck (nissan pickup in our case) before the bed laws became a thing. No seats, just bouncing around as we went down the road.
Spent many miles in the bed of trucks. At one point, Ford was importing just the passenger version of their Transit Connect. When they arrived in New Jersey some of them would have the rear seats ripped out and the back windows would be replaced with metal panels so they could be sold as cargo versions.
I was supposed to inherit my uncles brat before he mived to KS. Unfortunately he couldn't find the title and they wouldn't let him file for a lost title. He died last year. Rip Lourne❤
The folks had one of those when I was a teen. I loved riding in the back. Was pissed when Dad put a canopy on it. The Brat was a fun little beast. Was good offroad, and a beast in the snow. Was NOT meant for tall people to drive. At 6' I always felt crammed into it.
Y'all kids just don't appreciate the danger and terror the older generations went thru. If that was terrifying to you, having the front wheel of a quad come off at 40 mph down a gravel road would change your DNA. Sometimes you can only lean, hope, and laugh your butt off when you don't die.
Around 26min, an old memory popped into my brain. I had been in one of those subarus years ago, it was the worst thing ever, I banged my neck and head on the roll bar hard; it hurt bad. (I very likely got a concussion, I felt very sick after that ride and for 3 days after also. Until now, I think I had blocked that memory.)
Love these fun videos! Great job guys! Absolutely a fun and hilarious video, one of your all time best! Makes for fun upbeat start to the weekend seeing these fun videos on a Saturday morning. Thanks guys!
Back in the day of the BRAT it was legal to ride in the back of the trucks. I road on the freeway a few times back in the day and it was legal back then. Yes you're right about the tax and also how it classifies the vehicle as a car and not a truck. Honestly though back in the 70's and 80's I don't think I ever saw someone riding in the back like you showed here. I never realized how small those seats really are. A lot of people that had those seats out of the Brat. This way it was lighter and more room to carry items. I guess back then when drive-ins were popular it would be enice to sit back there and watch the movie. My old 72 Datsun truck I remember double dating and seeing the movie Arthur sitting in the back of the truck.
You have to admire the genius dodge of the chicken tax. Back in the day, some engineers must have been 7 drinks in and said "they can sell convertibles and meet safety standards. They can sell roadsters and meet safety standards. What is our truck w/seats in the back? A roadster!" Awesome! Cheers to those blasted engineers and to y'all dor for the entertainment.
My parents were looking to buy their first new car in 1979. I was 8 and my brother was 7. We saw that truck at the Subaru dealer and we were BEGGING our parents to buy it. We ended up with a Toyota Corolla Hatchback. At least we had air conditioning and an FM radio for the first time.
I laughed through the complete video, GREAT job guys !!
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@TFLclassicsIn other words they were getting "cock blocked" 🤣
My dad was a Subaru tech since 1980. I rode in the back of a Brat many times as a kid. Very fond memories.
Growing up in the sixties, it was normal for people to ride in the back of the truck. My whole little league team was fit in the back of the pickup to go get ice cream after a game.
In the rural areas of Mexico you drink beer and travel sitting on the edge !😅
Exactly. No “seats” never mind seat belts !
Good times, before all those safety regulations…
back when kids were adults
I spent most of my pre 16 years riding in the back of a truck. We could leave high school at noon for lunch so there would be a whole load of guys going down town for lunch. I learned to absorb bumps stand not on a motorcycle but in the back of a truck. Plus as the gate opener on farms you rode on the tailgate. The cab of the truck was like the big table at family dinners.
That's actually still not completely abnormal in much of the US South...
It was the 70's. We rode in the bed of pickups all the time. Dad kept a wooden bench in the bed for us to sit on. The Brat seemed like an upgrade verses just sitting on the floor.
Same here. And we never put a tailgate down to get in the back. You put your foot on the bumper or climb over the side by stepping on the tire!
@@jamesgreen5560to be fair my dads 1993 Nissan pickup was not nearly as tall as any truck nowadays
same, but early 80s. And we were well under 10. Dad knew how to take it easy with kids in the back, and we were not so stupid as to jump out. Also, went on more than one "hay ride" with a load of kids and hay bales to sit on, for a sorta slow tour of a farm or something like fall trees or christmas lights. Later in HS, when we would "cruise" main street, particularly poor types might over load the back of a pickup, particularly in summer.
All gone, traded for instagram and teektok. Stupid laws.
My mom had a '79 BRAT when I was a kid. My friends and I loved riding in the back. Many trips were spent back there.
In the early 80s, my mom‘s boyfriend had one of these. I recall riding around town by myself in the back of that thing. I was around four years old and I absolutely loved it. Safe no. Fun… yes!
Im 55, we rode in the back of pickup trucks, back dash of cars, back of station wagons..... no seat belts... love your videos especially the Model T ones since I have one.
UP HILL! BOTH WAYS!
And that was when we were kids!! Parents didn't have to worry about "child endangerment ". Now if kids aren't strapped in 15 different ways and wrapped in bubble wrap, the parents get arrested and tossed in jail.
In the Midwest we still did that in the 80s and 90s
People that give up freedom for safety deserve and will receive neither- Ben Franklin
@@enz6312 That's because the ones that died can't talk. Survivorship bias is real.
This was our families only transportation in 1979-81. It was my mom and 3 kids in Maine. Yup Maine! It was so cold one winter that we had to put a shop light with a 100 watt bulb under the car so the oil was warm enough to start the car. I was the eldest child at home so I got to sit in the front. I actually learned to drive stick in that car. I loved that car, there are so many great memories!!!
Alex having the time of his life, trying to freak out or embarrass the guys 🤣
I'd love TFL to make a video of calling and talking to their insurance provider, asking if it's OK to ride in the back and the insurance companies' response.
Having seats and seat belts was a step up in safety from just piling into the back of a pickup truck. Also, if you were a kid, that was probably a fun experience.
"Who would you talk into riding into these seats?"
"Bro, hold my beer"🍺
Kids. Until recently it was normal, especially in rural areas.
These seats were put into the back of Brats to get around the 25% 'Chicken Tax' on imported light trucks. The seats made the Brat a passenger vehicle instead of a light truck and not subject to the tax. These seats were usually removed at the dealership before rhe vehicle was sold.
This tax still exists today.
Yup. And I believe the upcoming grenadier truck will be subject to it.
I read this in Butthead's voice. xD
Ford is being *wrongfully* sued right now because they put extremely cheap seats in the back of the Made In Turkey Transit Connect to get around the Chicken Tax.
So the rear seat loophole has been utilized as recently as 2010.
You have to transport yourself back to the 70s when riding in the back of the pickup was a common thing. The least safe was probalby the teanagers driving with the bed full of friends heading to a drive in or the lake. People didn't see safety the same back then, we were not as worried about it. I remember when it wasn't a law to wear a seatbelt at all, people resisted when the law was passed.
Yup many days just ridin around in the back as a kid
And a lot of people died or got hurt to stupid stuff back then.
I’m half way through this video and I’m convinced you should keep the Brat forever and make a weekly video just like this. By far the funniest video I’ve watched in a long, long time. This is so great!
That Subaru is rhino guard then painted? That’s cool. It looks good. That model Brat the Gen 1 also had two canopy options you could get. A high top and a low top. Both versions were to accommodate a high or low roll bar if it was equipped in the vehicle. This car shown is a low top roll bar. With a high roll bar you can sit rain free under the canopy, and would have windows like a typical canopy for air flow. And for no reason you could get a front bumper with a winch or snow blow attachment.
Hilarious video, guys! I remember seeing these Brats around back in the day; I never saw anyone actually ride in the back of one. It’s really tiny back there & I had no idea how little room there actually is!
Funny video. Next want to see Nathan and Andre in the back seats while Roman and Mr. Truck go up the Ike.
Ya need to find a Subaru Baja and compare it to the Maverick, Santa Cruze and the Brat.
In the 1980s most of us didnt have the luxury of seats in the back of trucks! You loved riding with dogs in the back!! LoL
A friend at high school had a Brat. I rode in the back many times. I have also ridden in the back of many pickups over my years too.
All of that was destroyed by a Ford Courier and a kid named Alan Cole. He drove his little truck filled with high schoolers down Patuxent Road in Maryland and missed a corner and killed several kids. Maryland passed a law that no one could ever ride in a pickup bed ever again. It was called the Alan B. Cole law.
That's how my late uncle passed well, but it was off-road and the truck hit a rut and he popped out.
Love seeing you youngins bringing back the memories of my youth !
When you consider we were all riding in the back of the truck anyway back then, the seats and lap belt were a huge safety upgrade. It finally became against the law for regular passengers to ride loose in the back of the truck on February 1st, 2000 in my area.
really? I'm in my 60's. We used to ride standing in the back of old pickups (with an FBI agent driving no less), we survived....and that with seats is way safer...safer is relative...
You've never seen a Rumble Seat? Now THAT was dangerous. Uh, let me introduce you to my sidecar... 😎
Yup. Makes me wanna break out the lawn darts. I hate the government telling me what I can and can not do. Pussies.
It's funny that you mention the Rumble Seat. My wife and I were on our way to the store yesterday, and happened to see an old model car with one installed. I about lost it when we saw that. My wife had never seen that model of car, and didn't know what a Rumble Seat was. I knew, because I was raised by my grandmother, who told me many stories about "incidents" in that Rumble Seat.
I'm 57, so I also grew up in the "rode in the back of a pickup truck" era. One of the wildest ones was when 8 teenagers (including myself), were sat in the back of a pickup truck heading to a Civil War Reenactment up in Pennsylvania.... along with the 8 of us, was a full size canon that was strapped down, and a cooler full of beer that we not only had access to, but raided the entire 3 hour drive up from Baltimore.
The canon and the cooler were secured in.... unlike the 8 of us, who were free to move around.
I want to say that was 1982, which would have made me 15 at the time. The "legal" drinking age was 18 at that time, and IIRC, I was the oldest of the teenagers in the back of that truck. Everyone else was a year or two younger than I was. But yeah.... 8 drunk teenagers, a canon, and a cooler full of beer packed into the bed of a pickup truck on a road trip. Somehow, we all lived through that insane weekend. Also, there was another 10 cases of beer in the other vehicle that was hauling the other adults of our crew.
What a time to be alive....
I remembered riding in the back of my dad's truck without seats and later on he bolted a bench seat in the bed.❤❤❤ good times and memories. This episode is funny😂😂😂
Growing up in the 70s and 80's we rode in the back of pickup trucks all the time. I remember going on camping trips from Southern California to Yellowstone riding in the back of a 72 Ford F-100 pickup all the way there laying down looking up at the stars on a bed roll and sleeping bag for a pillow. The truck was only a single cab.
I love how Tommy is flat out panicking, while Kase is just like "yeah, this is a bad idea. *laugh shrug*"
amazing how people have become such pussies in just 40 years.
I love this little thing. My parents really wanted one back in the early 80's. From what my mom said they settled on a brand new 1982 2WD Subaru GL wagon. It unfortunately got repoed a few months after they got it when my dad was between jobs and they missed ONE payment!
My father had 3 of these. The New Zealand spec did not have the backseats. They were a great farm runabout and good for carting dogs or doing fence maintenance or other light duty jobs. Being so light they didn't make pasture damage the way a tractor did.
Goofy vids and weekends go together like Beavis and Butthead...which you two should have dressed as for this vid! It definitely would have gone viral.
Ah, the memories. I had a 78 and a 79 Brat. The motors are durable, if you catch a CV joint before it goes out they're rebuildable, that's the clicking from the front end. There aren't any aftermarket rims for that year really so you have to get creative for terrain tires. The roll bar in that looked nothing like the roll bar in mine as it went above the level of the cab to a point that I could sit back there comfortably with the headrest set in its highest position which would also extend above the level of the cab. I also had the topper as well. When you looked under the front end I noticed that it is missing the skid plate which made those things work like a big ski over mud holes when going fast enough. Unfortunately I lost all of my Subaru collection with the 2003 Cedar Fire in San Diego county Southern California. They're an incredibly easy to work on vehicle. I had more than once going around corners and spinning a 360 in those on pavement but they never flipped, not a really top heavy vehicle. They ran on muddy fire roads without issue also. I could tell some stories but I won't. Fun times.
I remember riding in the back of the truck in the 80s with all the friends and their dad's trucks. No problem at all. We have weenies today is all.
I had the exact same one - '79 with the painted white wheels (that promptly rusted). College graduation present from my parents. I scared the devil out of my brother and his GF, who rode in the back in the seats ONCE. The car went through tires in 8k miles (belts came through), so I dumped it. I believe it was in fact a terrifying ride at higher speeds, on curves.
"How can anyone think this is OK" ohhh how i laughed .
as the shot moves to Alex in the relative safety of the BRAT cabin laughing as he says we are doing 80.
You just know he is trying for 88
Great episode guys, fantastic vibes n informative even .
love how you make a genuine effort to keep it fun (rather than make fun or disrespect these old cars )
but also nice to see younger enthusiasts like u , tryinbg to discovere n enjoy these older models .
checking out and showing us as u find out the beauty and interest n features of these old n quirky cars .
rather than so many others that just point out how crappy they seem compared to 2024 cars
thanks . ....
A buddy of mine had one back when I was a teenager, and we had a blast riding around in it. At that time, you'd often see pickups driving around with all the kids riding in the bed, so having the seats in the Brat was considered a safety feature!
Here in Australia, it's called the Subaru Brumby. They don't put the seats in the back, but they put the little pegs for the hold-down straps on a tonneau cover lining the edge of the tray.
Man I haven't seen Nathan in a video for a long time... I almost forgot about him haha 😅 Good to see ya Nate!
I was in Milwaukee for New Years Eve. We got dumped with a foot of snow in a blizzard. I was one of the passengers in that back seat while bar hoping till dawn. It was a blast....the early eighties was a different time. The driver did get it struck in a large snow bank ( more tha three feet) created by the snow removal crew.. A guy in a full sized pickup truck pulled us out....he was equally amuzed.
Grew up in 1970s-1980s Oregon. Just beyond Portland suburbia so I guess rural, but just houses on acreage, not many full time farms. You seem to have know idea how common it was for children and teens to ride in the back of regular pick-up. Not just near the cab, but also in the back corner so you could look forward. Bug splats in the eyes really hurt. Unless on the freeway, anyone who was older usually sat on the wheel wells or even on the sides of the bed, because it was more comfortable.
I and most of my friends had small pick-ups after we started driving and went on at least a dozen trips around 2 hours away with people in the back (beach, rafting, & visit friends at college) those trips we would throw blankets and sleeping bags in the back to make it quite comfy.
In 1988 I bought a new Ford Ranger. It had the extra cab with sideways jump seats, in the cab, behind the front seats. Your legs would cross the guy facing you, and your feet would be under their jumpseat. Extra cab was about 18" extra, so not quite as wide as your shoulders.
Loaded up that Ranger with six guys and went to Reno for a couple days. 10 hours driving each way, plus any stops. We rotated positions. Often one of the jump seat people would opt for the bed instead.
All good times.
Built during the time before helicopter moms, internet, Purel, and bubble wrap for children.
And couldnt wait to to outside and play...sitting indoors was pure hell for us
Almost never saw other kids that werent skinny
This mini-truck made a little cameo in Napoleon Dynamite which was driven by Diedrich Bader's character, the martial arts instructor Rex!
The BRAT is literally my second favorite car behind the NSX. Love seeing it put through its paces.
My buddy had one around 1982 & we had a lot of fun in that car especially going off road! Crazy thing is in the '70s us as kids used to sit on the tailgate of my dads truck going down the interstate dragging our feet at 60-70 mph & ALWAYS rode in the back whenever we would go to town for supplies....yes we lived in the sticks in rural Georgia! Young folks nowadays {especially city folks} always amuse me when they learn all the things we did back in the day! On a side note...why are you eating the nastiest fast food there is, sorry but they have the worst fries {only 51% potato} ✌💖☮
We rode in the back of a Brat when we were kids, off-road or around the neighborhood, didn't have seat belts back there, nobody used them anyway.
I had a Brother in law that had one of these Brats when someone else was driving after a day canal surfing he was sitting in the back on 3 cased of beer and thrown out just after a curve getting back on to paved road taking a good tumble and hitting a road side marker. while at the hospital and getting a CT scanner he woke up thinking he was a filing cabinet.
14:25 my niece sold her Brat for way more than she actually paid for it 8 years before....because it had the actual Subaru back seats still installed
I Live in Australia & i remember feeling Jealous That the US Got The SUBARU with the rear seats . Because we had the same Ute Here But it was called the Brumby & had no rear seats Plus we got it with high & low range with 2x4 or 4x4 selection . Some people here even imported the seats & installed them . Especially in Bush towns but they were expensive to buy .thanks you for reminding about my late teen years ...
Thank you 1980, for being FUN. I'm a Brat back seat kid.
GenX here. I remember riding in the back of my dad's pickup truck down the 101 Freeway in the Bay Area in the 70s or early 80s. I think it was legal until seatbelt laws came in the mid-80s. Even in the 90s is was common to ride in the back of a truck -- just lay down so you don't get caught. I had friends who had Brats and have sat in the back many times -- including during a snowstorm.
I had one, mine came with a taller roll bar, and a camper shell was added... I cut the bottoms off the seats and left the backs in place.. that little piece of crap could hold WAY more than it appeared , dump run for a truck was like $8.75. Brat w/seats was $1.25... I added a skid plate, 4 wheeling.. who needs ground clearance when you have momentum. the newer Subi's don't even hold a candle to the amount of abuse the older ones could take. Thanks for memory
I grew up riding in the back of trucks and we loved when those came out.
In 1979 I rode to high school in my BF's Brat. It was a crazy pickup.
This is a 79 Subaru Bratt. I was 17 in 1979 so I was driving and I did regularly drive few of these that belonged to my employer. Society as a whole simply weren't the scaredy-cats that they are now. These little trucks were meant to be fun with safety being at YOUR discretion. I wish they still made them just like that.
We were loaded into the rear of Dad's 4 cylinder cream colored Datsun Truck, as kids . It felt Like sitting on moving gravel around every turn . Some parents actually put a mattress back there....
In 1991 I had a BRAT and picked up a hitchhiker on 75 highway near Topeka and drove him 30 miles north in the jump seat of my brat. He loved it. I was a jr in high school at the time. Btw, those are not stock seat belts.
I think Clint Eastwood said it best...
"I Miss the Good Ole Days When Everybody Wasn't Such a Pussy"
Until i graduated in 1975 I regularly rode in the back of a pickup. Even use to use to hold on to the tail gate chain to ski behind on Oklahoma dirt roads and I am still alive.
Looks like luxury compared to our 80’s adventures. We’d regularly ride in the bed of our Toyota from LA to Ensenada Mexico & from LA to Vegas. With nothing more than a blanket (for safety of course).
I had a 1978 Subaru Brat. My friends and I would get a cooler with our favorite beverages and cruise in 1978. Oh to go back and party like that again.
We used to ride in the back of open bed pickup trucks. I had a 1978 Toyota long bed and carried 2-6 people, no seats, no seatbelts.
LMFAO!!! Great video guys. I think they sold life insurance at the dealership when they sold this car in 1979.
It was a really fun video, but I'm calling lightweights on this one. I was volunteering in another country for awhile, the Dominican Republic, and the only way to get us to the city and back was a one and a half to two hour ride on the highway going 90-95 kilometers per hour (about 58 miles per hour) most of the time. The thing was, the only vehicle that could fit us was a two-wheel drive Toyota Hilux Crew Cab that seated five, and there were eight of us, so three had to take the back with no seats, no seatbelts, no grab handles (unless you count the headache rack behind the cab for whoever was in the front of the bed) and no topper. I spent a total of four trips in the back of that truck, and it was really fun. I would definitely do it again. The sole downside was when we had to stop for a traffic backup and it was sunny out because it was maroon, so the metal bed would start to bake us. My most memorable experience was when a cement mixer blew a tire right next to us at speed and a piece of the tire landed in the bed of the truck still hot. I kept it as a souvenir.
Mid 80's Nissan hard bodies had the option of a removable hammock style seat that hooked into the factory roll bar. Had seat belts and everything. Rode many times in the one in the back of my buddy's truck.
Just watch the show "My Name is Earl". Great Patriotic Brat and neat how their kids rode in the back when it was raining. Great show :)
Ask any Gen Xer. We grew up riding around in the backs of pickups WITHOUT seats.
The one guy who had a little Datsun pickup in high school would take 8 people in back to go grab a burger for lunch. Or we would stuff 8 people total in a little '70s Japanese wagon, or 6 in a 1960s VW Beetle.
And I grew up in heavily populated coastal Southern California, not some tiny town in Montana.
In the context of what we actually did at the time, seats in the back of a tiny little truck, with seatbelts, was relatively safe.
Ride around in an original WW2 or early flatfender CJ Jeep. No seat belts. No headrests. No roll bars. No doors. The BRAT was much safer.😂
So when is there going to be a TFL show on one of the big networks. I’ve been following you guys since 2013 and I’m starting to get Top Gear vibes. It’s awesome! 👏🏼
I was 11 or 12 and we went on a 4 hour road trip. Me and my best friend rode in the back of the truck the entire way to the campground. It was awesome.
I had a Brat in the 80s and friends loved to ride in the back for local road rides to the beach or lake. Coming back you didn't have to care about wet or sandy clothes or friends still wearing wetsuits. Definitely not great for high speed travel. I don't remember using seatbelts, I think there were some lap belts. We would have ignored the racing harnesses that were in the video. When I sold the Brat I took out the seats and mounted them on removable mounts in an F-150, no seatbelts there. We managed to live through all of this. It all comes down to our training, no seat belts laws, no baby seats, riding in the front as a little kid, fifteen kids in the back of a station wagon with some hanging out over the top of the tailgate, lawn darts, building tree forts by ourselves, being with friends and having no supervision going anywhere you could pedal your bike to. We never wore helmets which probably wasn't the best idea. Otherwise It was great. I feel sorry for kids these days not having the freedoms enjoyed by kids up to the 90s. Now there is a little too much oversight, and less respect and trust.
In the early eighties my brother and I drove 4 girls in the back of a Mini pickup (not available in North America I think. Got stopped by the cops, who just wanted make sure they were ok. A few years later it was banned in the UK also. Many experiences of riding in the bed of trucks land rovers etc.
The seats were added to the back to cut the tax cost on the US would charge a way bigger interest on imparts that weren't 4 seater so this was there way around it
One of your best videos. I see a series coming - "performing various tasks in rear of a Brat."
Between this one, the video of them taking the Model T to Brighton Ford, and the video of them taking the WWII-era Willys MB "Jeep" on the interstate, this channel has basically become Tommy and Kase Put Themselves In Mortal Danger For Your Entertainment. LoL
Oh, the whining! LOL Growing up in the days before seat belt laws existed (and highway deaths were much more frequent), we loved riding in the back of open pickups and utes like the Brat, El Camino, and Ranchero. Double cab pickups were a rarity back then. Fun video that brought back old memories. Thanks, guys!
I am old enough to have ridden in the back of one of these as a kid. Thought it was awesome!
in Australia these were called Subaru Brumby and never came with the seats (Brumby is a wild horse here)
As a child in the 80's this was normal and no seat belts! and sometimes the tailgate was open lol
Sell it to the Phillies... the Phanatic can do his on field antics in the back... heck, it's already Phantic green.
I do t know why you guys think this was silly. We enjoyed having seats in the Bear. You got to remember. When I was a teenager. We used to sit in the back of pick up trucks. When the brat came out. We liked having a seat instead of sitting on the wheel wells in a pick up truck.
i remember riding in the back of a truck in norcal in the late 90s and early 2000s.
The 2010 through 2013 Ford Transit connect were sent here as a passenger van and converted here to commercial vans to avoid the 25% tax
Didn't know that Kace is from Ga. Hello fellow neighbor NW Ga here near Chattanooga
Not only did we ride in the back of trucks as kids but we'd do it on top of a full load of hay bales. Fifteen feet off the road our job was to lift up tree branches to keep them from wiping the top row of bales (and us) off the back of the truck.
Good times.
I'm surprised the Brat didn't have low range. I owned 4 1980 something Subarus: 3 wagons and 1 hatchback and all had 4 speed stick and a high/low shifter. Another thing many people don't know is if you used a socket wrench, you can jack up the Subaru another 3 inches (not that that made a big difference). Did a lot of off roading in upper New England with them.
To beat the chicken tax, other companies shipped cab and chassis to the US where the beds were made and installed. Subaru could not do that because the Brat was unibody.
when I was a kid we rode in the back of trucks all the time you're lucky you got a seat we used to ride on the truck bed or wheel wells. and hoped we didn't fall out
Congratulations guys for making this video as well as for the courage, such a fun one to watch but I bet it wasn't so when it was being made.
I thought the talk of chickens at the start was a euphemism for something that I was missing, took me a while to realize they were legitimately talking about taxation on chickens.
It's hilarious watching modern kids trip out over this stuff. The only thing unusual about the Brat is it has seats and belts in the back. That would have been considered a safety feature in the '70s and '80s. It was very common for people, especially kids, to ride in the backs of pickups. And not only did we not have seats or safety belts, often we sat on the top of the bed wall and held on. Of course, we'd make the younger kids sit on the wheel wells or the spare... you know, for safety. 🙂
Back then we weren't just surviving, we were _living._ And it was great.
we had one growing up in the 80s. It was never an issue back then lol you just didn't go on the highway. fun little truck.
It wasn’t an issue for you, but we can’t ask the people who DID have issues with it because they’re dead now.
Those of us who remember riding in the bed of their parents truck (nissan pickup in our case) before the bed laws became a thing. No seats, just bouncing around as we went down the road.
Happens every day in Mexico without factory built seats. In fact, police pickups have seats for the perps like this
Spent many miles in the bed of trucks.
At one point, Ford was importing just the passenger version of their Transit Connect. When they arrived in New Jersey some of them would have the rear seats ripped out and the back windows would be replaced with metal panels so they could be sold as cargo versions.
I rode in the back of one of those as a kid. Safer than riding in the back of a pickup. One ride in a brat, hundreds in the back of pickups.
I was supposed to inherit my uncles brat before he mived to KS. Unfortunately he couldn't find the title and they wouldn't let him file for a lost title. He died last year. Rip Lourne❤
The folks had one of those when I was a teen. I loved riding in the back. Was pissed when Dad put a canopy on it. The Brat was a fun little beast. Was good offroad, and a beast in the snow. Was NOT meant for tall people to drive. At 6' I always felt crammed into it.
Y'all kids just don't appreciate the danger and terror the older generations went thru. If that was terrifying to you, having the front wheel of a quad come off at 40 mph down a gravel road would change your DNA. Sometimes you can only lean, hope, and laugh your butt off when you don't die.
Around 26min, an old memory popped into my brain.
I had been in one of those subarus years ago, it was the worst thing ever, I banged my neck and head on the roll bar hard; it hurt bad.
(I very likely got a concussion, I felt very sick after that ride and for 3 days after also. Until now, I think I had blocked that memory.)
Love these fun videos! Great job guys! Absolutely a fun and hilarious video, one of your all time best!
Makes for fun upbeat start to the weekend seeing these fun videos on a Saturday morning.
Thanks guys!
Back in the day of the BRAT it was legal to ride in the back of the trucks. I road on the freeway a few times back in the day and it was legal back then. Yes you're right about the tax and also how it classifies the vehicle as a car and not a truck. Honestly though back in the 70's and 80's I don't think I ever saw someone riding in the back like you showed here. I never realized how small those seats really are. A lot of people that had those seats out of the Brat. This way it was lighter and more room to carry items. I guess back then when drive-ins were popular it would be enice to sit back there and watch the movie. My old 72 Datsun truck I remember double dating and seeing the movie Arthur sitting in the back of the truck.
You have to admire the genius dodge of the chicken tax. Back in the day, some engineers must have been 7 drinks in and said "they can sell convertibles and meet safety standards. They can sell roadsters and meet safety standards. What is our truck w/seats in the back? A roadster!" Awesome! Cheers to those blasted engineers and to y'all dor for the entertainment.
My parents were looking to buy their first new car in 1979. I was 8 and my brother was 7. We saw that truck at the Subaru dealer and we were BEGGING our parents to buy it. We ended up with a Toyota Corolla Hatchback. At least we had air conditioning and an FM radio for the first time.