What a great little car. Like a fancy golf cart. As a kid one of my neighbors, a college student, swore by the little Honda and is probably driving an Accord today. ' When the leve breaks' was the tune.
Great video! Never expected you to do this one. I have a story about one. In 1972 I had a job where my commute was 50 miles each day. I had two little kids and wasn't making much money so gas costs were eating me alive. When I first saw one advertised I got really excited. I wasn't turned off to small cars because my friend had a Crosley in high school, and I loved riding in that car. After examining the 72, however, I knew it wouldn't work for me. It seem basically just a motorcycle fitted with an enclosed body. And if my boy got a bigger shoe size, he might no longer fit. But the very next year, 1973!!! That time, it fit me perfectly. Long story short, I purchased a 1973 Honda Civic, their demonstrator model, with 6,000 miles for $2,000. I loved that car, drove it 100,000 miles, and sold it for $1,000 four years later. That made me a Honda Man with 4 more in the ensuing years.
Awesome story what great memories I love Honda’s they are bullet proof and will run FOREVER just have to keep them clean they rust easy I’ve owned three two mini vans and a 92 civic hatch which I absolutely loved
Worked on a number of these after Honda stopped selling to motorcycle shops when I was a Honda tech Part of dealer agreement when you became a Honda car dealership. They held up pretty well, gas mileage? About 50 unless you drive it hard. I've driven several at 75 mph, no excitement. You could get 2 small kids in the back. Worked on far more sedans that coupes. Back in the day early techs after they went to the factory schools you got a framed certificate actually signed (not stamped or photocopied ) by Mr. Honda himself, with gold gilt text. I still have all my certificates form Honda Schools all 22 of them. I later became a dispatcher, service advisor, service manager, service and parts director then CEO of that Honda dealership group of 11 stores. Brought back some good memories
Awesome thank you so much for sharing your background with/at Honda must have been a great time to work there so much was changing 50 mpg is impressive considering these are carbureted... for some reason smart car can’t even get that now
I drove a Honda 600 for a photo delivery car for over 4 months. The "one-up, four down" shifter and lever BESIDE it for reverse (use 1st gear) was so much FUN! In-town, I went from the AMC Hornet (256 CID I-6 auto) at 13-15 MPG to 65-72 MPG! Merging into 50 MPH expressway traffic required shifting and PLANNING, but not much more than the excessively heavy and under-powered Hornet. "My" Honda was the bright yellow and the two-piece "hatchback" 1970 (maybe a 1969). It was like driving a go-kart on the street with it's tiny 12" wheels! I think I remember the gas tank was SIX GALLONS with a lever one gallon "reserve" (the ooold VW's were eight)! It was, of course, all sourced from Honda motorcycle parts, but it was well-made, safe, had good front disc/rear drum brakes (manual), manual semi-rack-and-pinon steering, and it was so light, it felt like you never would need a tow-truck, just PULL it to the garage! I drove a College buddy's two-stroke FWD Saab (was PINK the ONLY color???), the ULTIMATE ice-and-snow car, and the Honda was like VERY refined version of the Saab. Later that year we rented a Honda 900 "liquid-air cooled" I-4 with the one-up, four-down tranny, up-and-over reverse and it had, wonder of wonders, a REAL HEATER and A/C from the FACTORY! It would BOOGIE!!! 50-57 MPG in town, drop-down from the top "Y" shoulder harness (Japanese-style) and a REAR SEAT! I kept the rear seat folded down for my deliveries. A lady that worked at a photo lab I delivered to, had her late older brother's Datsun S-1600 roadster-all GREAT "micro-cars". After futzing with "Bug-Eyed Sprite's" and MGB's (More Garage Bills), and Austin "Marinas" and Renault's, a RELIABLE tiny car was a shock! In 1974 or 75, the Feddle HiWay Safeless Institute effectively banned micro-cars from US streets, giving us 15 years of over-weight under-powered "tanks" and the EPA giving us 3-10 MPG no-power engines.
Thank you so much for sharing all the memories as well as your experience I don’t understand why we can’t have these cars now just a little bit bigger I mean think about it they got for nominal gas mileage and you could use the whole car and it was fun =) I’m all about different driving experiences.. i’m in the camp where it’s more fun to drive a slow car fast and it is the drive a fast car fast I bought a Toyota Prius to commute back-and-forth from reviewing Classic Cars and my favorite thing to do with the Prius is the egg people on on the highway people that have cars that are supposed to be way faster it’s hilarious when they can’t catch up to a Prius... couple months ago I reach the Mazda speed three from the mid-2000s he kept getting on my butt and I said get on my butt one more time and you will not catch me he did not catch me.. until I got to a traffic light.. he pulled up next to me and said what engine is in that Prius and I said it’s got electric motor and a 26 hp gas motor that cuts in and out.. he left flabbergasted it was hilarious Next year I want to do a segment like that I wanna see if I could go to like a dragstrip and get some fast muscle cars and put them up against the Prius in a segment called and you thought your car was fast.. obviously it can’t be like a GTO or cars like Uber fast like that but anything that’s like eight seconds I think I could take them..
My BSA scoutmaster had a yellow Z600(c.72). On camping trips several of us guys used to carry it and hide it in the woods(!) Pissed him off, alright! (RIP, Rich)
Hahaha awesome story man that sounds like something I would do I wasn’t in the Boy Scouts but I did a lot of youth group when I was a kid with a local church made me think of that your story.. =)
My neighbor had two of these when I was a kid. He parked them end-to-end in his garage alongside his '59 Cadillac in what we called the snowblower space between the car and the wall.
It's so cute and tiny! I haven't seen one in person for many years. I have the impression it would almost fit in the trunk of my '73 Marquis. ;-) A fun feature, Jay.
Those were as primitive as can be. A minor accident would probably hurt you badly or worse. The Honda dealers hated them and by the late 70’s most wouldn’t work on them. Parts became very scarce or unavailable. There was a small shop in Berkeley CA that specialized in them. They had people drive or have them towed in and would wait long periods of time to get their beloved little cars fixed. As far as I know the shop was still in business in the early 80’s.
Well at least it's hard to hit a small target! There are a few shops around the country still working them. Merciless Mings in S. Calif is the one nearest me.
I had a N600 in the mid 80’s. Not bad around town, but was hard to drive any faster than 60mph on the highway. Come to a small hill on the highway and it slows down to 50 from 60. Mileage was ok, in the 40’s. I never saw anything close to 60mpg.
Yes it seemed like mileage varied a lot depending on user and situation thank you so much for sharing your experience with this car I feel like it should be able to get higher than 40 considering it was only a two cylinder which begs the question why can’t we have a car about maybe a little bit bigger than a smart car with a big single cylinder or twin I mean they got good gas mileage back in the 70s meanwhile today we have all this computer technology but we can’t get any better than 45 miles to the gallon in a hybrid on the hwy
WOW... did this take me back. I've only seen one of these in person, and it was the summer of '76 in southern California. I spent part of my summer vacation there with my birth mother, and we spent a lot of time in Laguna Beach. There was one of these there and I was in love with it. The back window made me think it was part submarine! Bright freakin' yellow! (this was also the summer I was introduced to Taco Bell and would have to wait 20 years til we got one here back home in upstate NY) I remember thinking everyone in CA drove tiny cars. Civics, Beetles, b210's and Pintos all over the place. My mother drove a Fiat 850 Spyder, my step-dad a Dasher. I came from the land of Newports, Impalas and LTD's, although my parents had just traded their Fury in on a Gremlin... LOL... That little Honda that I had seen once made such an impression on me! I of course went in the opposite direction, my first car being a '64 Galaxie, my first "good" car a '76 Grand Marquis, which, this liitle gem could have been a lifeboat for... LOL I might have even fit in the trunk! Thanx for a great review, Jay! WYR: 1) and 2) both the coupe!
Awesome choices thank you so much for sharing your experience with this car what memories =) What was laguna beach like in the 70s that’s a really cool part of the country dramatic cliffs hair pin turns I really need to go back there it’s been a long time
@@What.its.like. To me, being 13... it seemed pretty upscale except for the beach itself. It had a lot of "beachdwellers" (homeless) who were pretty young and all played guitars... lol... I saw cars there I never knw existed. A Pantera, a Lambo Countach, tons of classic folks drove every day, Benz and Porche's evetwhereOur friend Dolores lived on Anaconda, or Abracadabra, or something like that on a stilt house in the hills. My mother and her husband lived in Mission Viejo, suburbia central. I really didn't like it there, and refused after that.
Thanks Jay for another great video. Fun fact, I worked across the street from a Honda motorcycle dealership in 1973, On rainy mornings there would be several 600 's in the service drive. Rumor had it the car misbehaved when it rained and had starting problems
Glad you dig this episode on a different car thank you so much for sharing your experience as well as memories with these what is the fastest you’ve ever driven one?
Great memory I wish I could’ve fired this up I almost took a soundbite from a different video but didn’t I was really bummed to not be able to find a commercial
That’s awesome what does 75 feel like I would imagine it would be like space Mountain everything whizzing past you it would probably feels a whole lot faster than 75 because you’re low to the ground and you’re not in a very big object.. 55 mpg is impressive I have no idea why car companies don’t do this now like why don’t we have any cycle cars on sale at this moment in time.. Morgan three wheeler didn’t get this mileage ( another car I want to feature ) Just curious where are you located
@@What.its.like. I believe we do not have cars like this now because of safety. My Smart Fortwo which is not much bigger and interestingly seats only two is Way safer but I struggle to get 50 mpg. Both cars are great fun to drive. I am in northeast Ohio.
Bought a used and very ratty 71 civic in Dallas back in the early 80s. Previous owner figured out these tiny tires and wheels from the z600 would bolt on the front of it, I think they were 10 or so inch tires. Like changing the gear ratio , the thing topped out about 65, but went through the gears like a little race car. Simplest cheap fun you can have.
Awesome thank you so much for sharing the memories of yours. It sounds like it would be a really cool and fun card to drive and it’s a car that you could use all of it not get in trouble.
A friend of mine back in the day bought one of these brand new. She let me drive it and it is a total gas! You can leave a stop light at full throttle, redline it, play Ronnie Racer - and nobody would know it! She even drove it to Oklahoma from California. A buddy of mine and I could just pick up the rear end of this thing easily.
Hahaha nice it seems to be the type of car that you could use all of it and not get in trouble but have fun using it and be part of the driving experience.
My buddy and I were Honda motorcycle fans and when we saw these at the auto show when they first came out we thought they were really cool. They were a bit of a sensation around Boston at the time and you would see them on the road fairly often. In the WYR I'd choose the Z600 and the AZ-1. The Cappuccino is cool, but the AZ-1 is a bit outrageous and I like that.
I can’t believe what the AZ-1 are going for.. I want to review one really bad but I’m afraid that I’m gonna fall in love with that car and I’m gonna want one and I can’t afford it it’s too much money for what it is. I’ve never been across the pond and I’m afraid if I go I’m going to find a bunch of cars over there that I wanna bring back lol not that I can at the moment but there may come a time when I can who knows Great choices =) Will definitely try and feature more cars like this it may come as a surprise to you but I like Japanese cars for the simple fact that they run forever I have a Honda and the Toyota And 52 Chevy 1 ton truck
@@What.its.like. I'm not surprised you like Japanese cars. I've had muscle cars and many American cars over the years but one of my favorites was my Lexus RX350 (soccer mom car). I commuted with it on Texas 130 (85 mph speed limit) and it was comfortable and quiet at high speeds. You'd like some of the cars here in Costa Rica. It's not unusual to see 70's Japanese cars and pickups on the road, and old diesel Land Cruisers are abundant.
A friend had one of these in Europe back in the '70s. From what I remember, they were rough riding and incredibly noisy but still a pretty cool car, especially when it was rare to see a Japanese car back then and it garnered a lot of attention. Of course, everyone thought Japanese cars were crap and Japan would never survive as a car producing nation😂.
Awesome memory that’s crazy when you think about it I think Honda and Toyota at the top of the car pyramid as far as Reliability goes They should bring back the cycle car for a fuel efficient vehicle option I think it’s funny that those cars got that good of gas mileage back in the day but a smart car can’t even get more than 40 it doesn’t make sense
A girlfriend had one. The shifter was weird! Crossed the Golden Gate Bridge in it. As a owner of two AH Sprites, (& a MKII GT6) driving/riding in a "death trap" "clown car" was not unusual for me. Way better than the FIAT 500s.
That is a car that I’ve never been and I’ve never been in an original fiat 500 it would be interesting to compare specs to see how much bigger the Honda is to that car thank you so much for sharing that story with those incredible memories =)
This episode is well deserved. 1972 was a sentinel moment in US car history and Honda was the reason. Another car changing the automotive world at that time was the Volvo (142). Great episode.! Question….I didn’t see your famous crotch test…..and. I bet I know why 😂
It was the last car I shot yesterday I saw it sitting in the corner and I was like no way it was almost like seeing a ghost.. I haven’t seen one in 10 years at least probably maybe longer than that I think I was 18 when I saw the last one on 34 now so it’s been longer than that I wish I had the money back then $2000 when I was 18 might’ve well it’s been $2 million.. I was into land yachts at that point in time.. that car got away and there was a Datsun 260 Z for sale for I think three grand that one got away as well I really wanted that car but it was a stick shift and I didn’t know how to drive a stick shift at that moment.. it’s crazy when you look back at things like that how trivial somethings were and now I can drive just about anything except the big rigs Glad you dig this episode definitely want to cover some more Japanese cars next year I like Toyota’s Honda’s Datsun I have a Honda Odyssey Van Toyota Prius 52 Chevy 1 ton truck at the moment looking for another I really want to Metropolitan but after doing the Honda episode it would be really cool I have Kei car
I had a friend in LA that had one. His fuel pump went bad in El Paso TX (why the heck he drove it that far is a mystery) He could not find a fuel pump so he bought a chevy fuel pump, mounted it behind the seats, ran some fuel lines to the tank and carb and drove it all the way to LA using a broom handle to pump the fuel pump. I think I would have sold the car for enough for a bus ticket!
WYR the 1300 because it's big enough to be useful, and the Cappucino is a beauty even if the az1 is more interesting. I once had a later Civic 1200 which if driven very gently could give ~50 MPG. More than a few times I gassed up on my pocket change to pay for a day's work commute, so I can totally believe the 600's being able to do 70MPG, but the average driver wouldn't see that. The 600's are interesting cars but impractical for transportation here. We got these Kei cars here because they were selling like hotcakes in Japan and Honda saw it as a safe and easy way to break into the US market. Like the 3-wheelers of the UK, Kei cars were only meant for city driving and were the lowest class of automobile you could get. The Kei cars got a huge tax/ licensing break in Japan which made them popular there, but no similar cost break existed here. Road speeds were also low in Japan at the time so crashes with the other small cars weren't as severe as getting hit by a full-size Buick at 60MPH where Kei cars collapse like stepping on an empty Coke can. Not being meant for our road speeds, these were overstressed and potentially deadly here, plus they were cheaply made. One of the few cars a Yugo could out-race these were S-L-O-W but they were cheap and profitable for the manufacturer. After the disappointing sales of these, Honda created a study group for the US market and the result of that was the Civic; bigger, a more powerful engine, and a much better build quality than their Kei cars had.
Thank you so much for all the insight and information =) I had a 92 civic with a del sol motor in it and it was a fun little car you could beat the crap out of that thing all day long and it would still get 40 miles to the gallon and it was really fun to drive. What I loved about it was the motor did not blow up the moment that it ran out of oil because a couple times I did check the dipstick and there wasn’t a single drop of oil on stick put more in ran great I got rid of mine because shifter kept breaking
I’ve never drove one of these but I think they are cool, I had a couple of civics over the years 73, 75 and a 76 they were fun to drive and got great mileage I liked my Hondas for the handling and driving much more than my 2 vw bugs I had
Awesome which one was your favorite I’ve owned three Hondas two Honda Odyssey minivan’s one was a 2001 the other is a 2006 I had a 92 civic that was all riced out I didn’t rice it out but I didn’t change anything either hahaha big fart can say 2 inches off the ground with the ground effects it had a system when you listened to Chicago 25 or 6 to 4 the orchestra sounded like it was right behind you.. it didn’t have the original engine and transmission in it the transmission and engine came over del sol the guy that sold it to me Dino tested it it was making 175 hp at the wheels it would burn out in first gear second gear and chirp third and it was a front wheel drive car when it was low because I ended up putting stock suspension on it because I couldn’t drive it in the winter it would just act like a snow plow.. but when it was low you could go around the corner doing 90 and I didn’t have any body lean it was a cool car what I like most about it was you could beat the shit out of that thing all day long and it would get 40 miles to the gallon if you drive it like a civilized person it would really surprise you but the shifter kept breaking and it was a short shift kit and I just got tired of fixing it I ended up I had that car and a 67 mustang at the same time I got fed up with both of them I sold both of them and bought a 2014 veloster R spec turbo.. which when looking back it was a good car but civic and mustang were better.. but I needed that life experience that the R spec taught me =) I love Honda’s they just run but they also rot good and bad peaks and valleys
In high school, 1 of my best friends, Brian Hedrick had a green 1972 Civic with an "automatic" transmission. But you had to put in low to get moving then shift up. It made my Datsun 210 which was also green, seem like a scream machine. His Honda got about 60 MPG while my Datsun got 52 MPG.
Hi Jay!: This is one I never expected to see! In fact I haven't seen one since the early 1980's. There was a family in our little town that loved Hondas, and they had one of these. I never saw it on the road, but they had a yard sale one Saturday and my Mother and I went. A yellow one of these was sitting in tall grass in the front yard. This was without a doubt, the SMALLEST car I had ever seen! Those tiny wheels! I don't know if they were trying to sell it at the yard sale, but it seems like maybe they were. I didn't think I would ever fit in it, but seeing you do it, I would have for sure fit in those days as I was not tall and SKINNY. Now I don't think I could fit! Still not tall but WIDER! WYR#1 N600 Sedan. #2 I LIKE that Cappuccino!! Reminds me of a modern Austin-Healey Sprite!
I’d like to cover everything on this channel not going to be able to cover every single foreign car ever made but might come as a surprise to you I love Japanese cars.. Definitely want to cover more Hondas Toyotas next year my passion is with cars from the 30s and 50s but I like cars from all eras This channel I don’t want it to be about one generation if that makes any sense I wanted to be about everything and anything automotive related might even expand out do a couple airplanes I would love to cover some Chris craft boats maybe some tractors steam engine.. possibilities are endless Thank you so much for sharing all of the memories that you had with this car I really want to drive one these are always intrigued me
There are a lot of VERY interesting Japanese cars out there! Subaru 360, Mazda Cosmo, and the most beautiful sports car EVER made the Toyota 2000! Those are very rare here in the U.S., but man they look as good as a Ferrari! Another interesting early one is the early Toyota Celica. I had one a, 1973 ST. It is the only Japanese car I have ever owned , but it was a pretty darn cool little car! It was gold. It was like a mini sports car inside, but had rear seats, too.
My first girlfriend had a similar car (Daihatsu Cuore first generation). Well, you could get from A to B warm and dry, but although it could do 70 miles per hour, more than 50 was not fun. And it was borderline dangerously slow on acceleration. I still remember the noise the 2 cylinders made under load. But it was cheap, reliable and economical.
Sweet memories I could not imagine going more than 40 miles an hour in this thing it would feel so fast I had a 92 civic the fastest I had that going was 120 and you knew you were going that fast it was totally stable but because it was so small it just felt fast
WYR: z600 coupe, Suzuki Cappuccino. My smart is about a foot shorter than this car, but only 2 passenger. Plus a roll-cage Tridium cell. Goes 93mph (complete with white knuckles!). About 15 years ago there was a guy next to my work with both a N600 sedan and a Z600 coupe, which he DAILY'ed!
I have 3 of them today, well my ex has 2 of them still in my name. What set these apart from similar sized cars from Europe at the time they came out in 1971 was that they were much more reliable, better engineered and built. Not many Honda motorcycle shops actually sold them at first. They were for the most part sold at established GM or other car dealers as a secondary line. Later on epically when the Civic came out in 73 the motorcycle shops started to expand into car dealerships and the rest is history. I drove mine as a daily driver for about 30 years. Mileage varied according to how hard you drove them. Around town with my foot to the floor most of the time I would get in the high 30's MPG. Driving for MPG I once got 72 MPG. They can do 70 on a level open road all day but today with the average speed on S. Calif freeways 75-80 , traffic permitting, it is hard to keep up. Drove around the hills of San Francisco several times. Had no problem going up the hills but with the car loaded down with 2 adults and the back full of luggage it was hard to stop going down a steep hill. Still having lots of fun with mine today.
I clearly remember, around 1972-73, as a kid, a huge long line of cars all behind one of these on a Washington State mountain pass as it was doing its best to make it to the summit. I’m sure it did better on the way down!
5:29 Only 1971 & 1972 AZ600s sold in the USA. 6:57 Image is of a 1971 AN600 (sedan). 6000 RPM is redline at 75MPH thought I drove a Z600 on the Autobahn in Germany at 82MPH, not my car so I didn't care lol. 60mpg, don't believe anything you saw on the father son Leno interview - That Was Not a factory folding lug wrench, OMG. 12:26 Sorry, no oil pressure light - the 2 Greens are turn sig, Blue is high beam and bottom right is low brake fluid warning light. 14:35 Some dummy reversed the seats, the release levers go outside. I've owned over 80 of these 2 model Honda 600s and have been specializing in them since 1981 - I have 60+ fix it videos on UA-cam for Honda 600s.
I love the old foreign cars. I am 6'2" and have owned a beetle, first generation cvcc, an opel manta, corolla wagon, tercel, civic and throw in a chevette just to prove I am American. I would like to see more.
Awesome Will definitely try to feature more foreign cars next year I especially want to feature some more Japanese cars.. =) There are two other foreign cars in the pipeline one is a Lancia the other one is a Mercedes-Benz unimog from the 50s
The Honda Z600 was one car which was never sold on the Canadian market, but I recall seeing pictures of it. The N600 was sold here as was the sporty 2 seat convertible starting in 1966. The Civic made it to the Canadian market in 1973, even if it had made it to other markets the year prior. I have always preferred American cars over Japanese, and still do today.
I didn’t know that they didn’t sell these in Canada great information I prefer American cars up until a certain point they don’t really build quality stuff anymore and it sucks.. don’t hate me but as far as modern cars Honda and Toyota at the top of the heap as far as reliability goes. I was in Philadelphia over the summer and before I got to Philadelphia maintenance light came on in the Prius and I didn’t think nothing of it I just thought it needed an oil change because it was getting about that time. So I stopped and checked the oil level there was absolutely nothing on the dipstick and it didn’t blow up.. that’s happened a couple times I had a 2001 Honda van that The oil light actually came on I pulled off the side of the road immediately and walked to go get oil put it in fired right up no damage done.
Definitely will I like Japanese cars personally.. As far as brands of today nothing can top Honda or Toyota in terms of reliability plus they don’t blow up the instant they run out of oil same can’t be said about most everything else
17:05 - is definitely not a Honda 1300, that's a Honda Life Step Van - we didn't get those in Australia, though we did (briefly) get the Life - which was like a more refined version of the N360 with a water cooled engine and four (tiny) doors. We also got the 1300 coupe - and it's a strange beast indeed. The sportier 'Coupe 9' model had four carburettors and developed around 115hp. It had dry sump lubrication and a curious forced air cooling arrangement with an 'air jacket' having fins on the inside. Rear suspension was a pair of long swing-axles with the pivot point on the opposite side of the car, crossing over in the middle. Full of innovative and somewhat outlandish engineering ideas, it was not a sales success. The 145 model you mentioned is an even rarer bird - a reworking of the 1300 with a water-cooled 1.4l engine and fuel injection - perhaps slightly more sensible, but sold less than 10,000 units in total.
Thank you so much for that correction Google has been very hit and miss on what is white and it’s super confusing especially because I don’t think we got them here and I never saw one before so I thought the Honda life was the four-door because that is what the advertisement Pp said but it contradicted thank you so much for all the added insight and information as well as the correction greatly appreciate it =) The 145 looks awesome It almost looks like an early Celica which that would be a really epic video to do as a comparison but as you said both of those cars are really rare right now
I'd want the coupe because I like the styling. Frankly, I wonder if it's fast enough to use on the freeways. If so, it would be perfect to deliver things like food, etc.
first car i looked at were 76 civics like the author im 6'2"i had to recline the seat to have enough headroom Ver disappointed Found wht i wanted in a VW Rabbit So much roomier inside for 4 adults plus huge back doors on the 4dr
Honda Z600 Suzuki Years ago I lived in Yuma Arizona and there was a local gas station where all of us gearheads used to hang out where we would all work on our cars. At that time I was driving a 67 Dodge Coronet RT. We had it in the garage that day putting a new starter on it and installing a set of headers. Couple of other guys were there I think one guy had his Mustang and another guy had a Camaro. We look up and we see a tiny little yellow putt putt pull into the gas station. It was one of these Hondas the little. This would have been around 1971 so it would have been one of the very early years for this car. We were all pretty much laughing at the young guy that was driving it and teasing him about it. He said yeah but I get a lot better mileage than you guys get with those big V8 engines. Where upon we said yeah but we can burn rubber with our cars. When the guy left he got into his car and started and drove off when he pull out of the gas station he floored it and did a power shift and got a little bit of a chirp out of his tires going in to second gear. That provided all of us with some pretty good laughs. The guy wanted to show us that he could burn rubber with his little putt putt. We had the last laugh thinking about him trying to get over the mountains on the other side of El Centro California heading to Sam Diego on I-8.
Sweet choices thank you so much for sharing that awesome story what a great memory I would be impressed if they could chirp the tires 36 hp’s and all that much.. I think it would be cool to have one of these as a conversation piece or if you had to go uptown for some thing remove the backseat and you could use it as a grocery getter.. or if you had to just go up to town for something stupid I think it would be a great roundabout car..
@@What.its.like. we were all surprised he could get a chirp out of the tires. I do remember the engine sounded like it was going to blow up from over reving. We figured he knew better than us exactly how far he could push the engine on that little putt putt
There has always been a market for these micro cars in the U.S. Crash standards and emission controls killed them. Honda had already become a trusted name when they decided to try importing their micro cars here. Price was a major driving force in their popularity. You could buy a brand new Honda 600 for $1500. A friend in high school, in 1973, bought a new one and made him happy. We didn't know it in early-1973 yet, but the gas crisis was just around the corner. By June of 1973 full-service regular gas went up to 45 cents for a gallon of regular gas. Working at a full-service gas station at the time, people would come in and not fill up. Some just buying $1. worth. We still had to give them full service, the same as when someone with a big car or truck would fill 'er up, spending $20. People were freaked out and didn't know which way to turn. The people who owned these Hondas or other small foreign cars didn't like the prices either but when they thought about how much gas their parents full-sized cars used, they smiled. The Honda 600 was their base car and the Z600 was their sporty model. When I think about the Z600, it makes me wonder if Ford got the idea for the 2nd generation Taurus station wagon from it. Both the Z600 and Taurus s/w were hideously ugly to me and I definitely wouldn't want to be seen in either. These Honda 600's seemed to disappear as quickly as they had come on the scene. People just parked them in their yards, letting them melt into the ground. People would do weird modifications to them. I remember driving by a 600 that somebody had mounted a camper on it. I don't know if it was driveable as it sat there for years. Oh, yeh, I remember seeing one of those Honda "S" sports cars maybe in 1970? It was parked in front of a friend's house. It looked pretty cool and I always wondered why they never caught on. Maybe it was the steep competition from the British traditional sports cars.
Thank you so much for sharing all the insight it’s crazy how different things are now we have a gas station called sheets here they’re pretty popular gas station chain I’m not sure if there’s any in California they started in Altoona Pennsylvania I believe the crazy thing is is if you want oil you have to get it outside before you go in the store and some locations don’t even have oil they look at you weird when you have to top off. Idk weird But they have a free air machine which is nice and can set to desired tire pressure
@@What.its.like. No. We don't have those out here. Costco's have free air stations. I used one for the first time a couple of days ago. Set your pressure, clamp it to the tire stem and it stops automatically. Even the old full-service stations didn't charge for airing up your tires. If they weren't doing anything they'd do it for you. That was service! Reminds me or a story. A friend worked at a self-serve gas station years ago. They also had a repair dept., so they had some parts in stock. When a car came in, the station owner would sometimes come out and offer to check the car over, for free. He would short-stick the oil and try to sell them a quart or so of oil. Whether it was actually dirty of not, he would try to sell them a new air filter. If he didn't have the correct one in stock, he would put anything in which he could fit in there. lol
Great video on an interesting car. I was a sophomore in high school when this car came out. I knew a couple of girls that drove this to high school daily, sometimes with two extra passengers in the back seat! When they rolled out of the car, it was like a clown car from a circus. Curious, I looked at the car closely one time: yes it had real seats, a steering wheel, and tiny little air vents on the dash. But I couldn’t imagine myself shoe-horning my six foot frame into it… it’s really designed for a small Japanese person, not a bigger American, a foot taller!
I’m six foot two and fit in there It’s not as small as you would think inside there seem to be plenty room I just watched Leno did one a year ago and he fit in it with a passenger it sounds just like a motorcycle the backseat is pretty much useless I don’t know what the purpose of having a backseat would be may be insurance reasons It’s crazy your buddy could fit people in the back
@@What.its.like. I never have been in a Honda 600, but it must have been just a bit smaller than the 1st Civic. I had the misfortune of riding in the back seat of a 1st generation Civic and I had my knees up to my chin and even then I had to sit sideways with my head tucked… maybe that’s why my back and neck now have issues. The motorcycle derived drivetrain fascinates me as my old 88 Suzuki had an engine that was a water-cooled converted design, direct descendant also of a motorcycle cycle engine. It couldn’t go much over 65 unless one was driving over a cliff… I hadn’t tried that… but it was a great off-road vehicle.
That’s crazy I would never want to ride in the backseat of any of those micro cars for an extended period of time I had to ride in the backseat of a Chevy Colorado with the jump seats to Erie that’s a 2 Hour Dr. and it was miserable.. that was my friends first new truck I think it was like a 2008 and he was so proud of it but it was the biggest piece of crap.. everything was so cheap.. I haven’t seen him in years he has a Silverado now the last time I saw him Which was a coupe years ago he flagged me down I was driving past in the 52 and he said cool truck I told him it’s a real truck haha 😂 I like Hondas they run forever I had a 92 civic 5 speed Maybe the live chat I’ll talk about all the cars are some of the different cars that I’ve owned I’m going to make an episode one day I’ve owned a lot I’ve had like 36 cars or something crazy like that.. but they’ve all been cars that are affordable I’m not into the big fancy hyped up brands I think a vehicle should last more than three years 36,000 miles people get mad when I say that.. especially if you pay more than $50,000 for a vehicle it definitely should last a long time before you have any issues
@@What.its.like. Japan has lower taxes for cars with rear seats, leading to such idiocies as the Toyota/Scion IQ with a rear seat that really is just a cargo shelf.
These look like pretty cool little cars for for zipping around town in, I'm sure I've seen one of these before but can't remember when. I'd pick this one in the first, and the second I'd pick the AZ1, which looks really cool!😎
I want to drive and Autozam AZ one pretty bad but apparently those cars are pretty expensive for what they are but that would be one stellar car to have to just Putz around it =)
Well there’s a car I wasn’t expecting to see Jay! I haven’t seen one on Australian roads sine the end of the 70’s. The Civic on the other hand went on and on. I recall the Z600 was called the Zot or something similar, I guess it may have been a nickname for them, I was only a kid at the time! Did you notice the Honda badge on the hood, hasn’t changed except for the red background has gone from more modern Hondas.
=) love featuring cars off the beaten path next year we will definitely cover so more foreign stuff Interesting note about the Honda badge I wonder how many right hand drives were made I could find a figure
This is a good car to tool around town in or even have as a second car. You said a Nash Metropolitan would be slightly bigger but it be interesting to see this buggy parked next to a 2008- 2016 Smart car those are small but very spacious inside for such a small package but to drive one takes a person with a good sense of humor. I could recite a few jokes I have gotten since I drove one my personal favorite is I could fit your car in the back of my pick up truck. I’d like to see you try it smart ass.
@@What.its.like. Had an ‘87 Subaru “Justy” for a few years, over a decade ago, that was hit in its rear end, with me behind the wheel, on my way to work one night, AT A RED LIGHT! The broad that slammed into me, was doing well over SIXTY MPH!! Messed up THAT little gas sniffer real bad! The worst part was, her insurance company was willing to pay me its bluebook value.. that was $130.00 then, in Dec of 2005!!
Oh man I would’ve been so mad because you couldn’t get one of those cars for that price even then I’m happy that you were OK you didn’t sustain any injuries injuries from the accident did you..
@@What.its.like. Nothing major or longterm.. just sprains and such. Over the decades since the late 80’s, I’ve had quite a few different vehicles… generally BAD LUCK with itty-bitty gas sniffer economy cars! They just seem to be magnets for IDIOT DRIVERS! At least in-round SoCal. I currently have a 2000 F-250 Superduty Powerstroke and a couple 1955 Buick Super’s (full sized series’ coupe’s) so, a bit more protection from IDIOT DRIVERS! I do occasionally drive around in my 2002 Mitsubishi Eclipse as well… gotta keep BOTH EYES scanning in all directions, these days!
I remember one night after dinner when I was a little kid, my family went out to look at one. My father took a test drive with the salesman in the passenger seat and my two older brothers and myself in the back seat. My parents were looking for a second car for my Mother to use. Also in the early 1980's I had a chance to buy one for $85 because the guy selling it was moving (Navy), but my Mother talked me out of buying it. It would not be until 1986 that I would buy my first car when I was in the Navy, a rusted out, flood damaged piece of junk 1974 Mustang. My first new car would be bought in Feb 1987 a GMC S-15 that I would have the rest of time I was in the Navy.
My neighbor hood mechanic had one that didn't run , he put a 10hp Clinton lawn mover engine in and ran the pull starter rope thru the spot were the cigarette lighter would be.. 110mpg
A guy in school had one of those...he was a jerk, but the car was cool! Also seen one in a driveway a few blocks away. Was a few years ago. Don't know what happened to it.
Awesome =) I know I have a few doppelgängers when I was in high school I kind of sort of looked like Topher Grace from that 70s show in Ways I’ll get my high school yearbook from my parents house and show you some stuff in it during the live chat next Tuesday which I totally forgot to advertise in this episode but I plan on doing an episode once a day.. hopefully from here till the end of December =)
Darn! You didn't show us the spare tire. It's stored in a compartment under the rear bumper and looks about the size of a glove box on a full size pickup truck. Really!
i drove one in the early 70s, not much more than a go kart with a engine that had to be rebuilt every 6000 miles, a complete piece of crap. one trip o took in the 70s along the interstate 5 in high winds i saw one of these blow over and off the road.
Great choices that would be awesome I always wanted to get a volts wagon beetle and put a Harley V twin in the back I thought that would be really cool it produces the same horsepower with two less cylinders
In 1989 I had 2 N600 vans , 600 cc air-cooled twins , I left at a so called friends place and they scrapped them ! In Redcliffe Australia. How rare would the van version be now ! They are at the wreckers on Duffield Rd, Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia if anyone wants them .
@@What.its.like. yeah I regret leaving it there, but that's life , I now realise how rare the little panel van version of the N600 was . I've never seen another one . I put the current location in so someone might track them down and restore them .
I'll take a first gen Civic but with aluminum body panels and better steel structure to get around the problems with rust they had. Want that bigger 1200cc engine and it will still get 40mpg all day long.
I had one A Blue 600 Coupe and drove the car about three years in Heavy Los Angeles traffic I delivered newspapers with it commuted from the San Fernando Valley to downtown. Because I used it for work I kept excellent records for the car. It got 35 mpg ave over 80,000 miles NOT 50. I heard Old fat a--s Oh I got 50 or 60 mpg . Ask show me you records number of fills how much AND HOW YOU DID THE MATH. 9.9 adult males in this country are full of BS. No figures if you ask It's like calling them what they are LIAR. Most of'em can't count to ten without taking off the shoes. Mine used to stall on the freeway in front of BIG TRUCKS. A collapsed fuel strainer in the tank, caused the problem. One Sunday morning I came to close to being crushed by a big rig. I got off the freeway and drove though Griffith park to home. It sat Eight months for some one dumber than me to buy it. It or one just like it is in the Jay Leno collection. Nifty fun but Crosley and the Met are both better cars by my measure I've owned and or driven all three. American stuff is better built.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience I really appreciate it it’s crazy that that’s all you got out of it was 35 miles to the gallon.. considering it’s a two cylinder not very big.. What was your experience with the Metropolitan that is a car that I’m looking for.. to buy I love those they are small but big inside
Monty Python and the Crelm toothpaste car race. I'm sure the animator chose this car or one similar to it. 😊🚗 🚗 🦷 Jay as the Giant Business Man in a car! Looks like you're sitting in one of those amusement park cars intended for kids, and I have to say at one time these mini cars were quite popular. How does it compare to the huge Yugo?
I have never been in a Yugo I want to buy you go and put volts wagon badging all over it GTI take it to a Volkswagen show and see if anybody can tell the difference.. I think the Yugo Chevy Chevette GTI there is a bunch of other ones as well they all look very similar
@@What.its.like. Buy a Yugo! Modified it would be cool 😎 and it could be a mix of different makes, VW golf ⛳ parts and labels 🏷️🏷️.. One of my friend convinced his dad to buy him one (Reginald was a retired machinist from Milwaukee), so Dean got a red Yugo for his birthday. He put Porsche hubcaps on it and drove it like a maniac, those fork lift truck engines really do have power! ("Sports version"). 😅. I think he destroyed it Baja driving down swamp roads, but if treated well, they're pretty good machines, albeit the plastic interior parts feel like Mattel made them.. 🚗 😊. Great content Jay, keep on keeping on!! 🌄
@@What.its.like. See 2 of them at my neighbors house every day but they are drag racers, one of them is beautifully restored to look like a regular street car, that V8 makes some sweet noise.
@@What.its.like. Yes ! The Vega certainly needs to be featured. That's if you can find one in the eastern states. Harder still to find one with the original engine. Speaking of engines, you should make a video about the Vega engine. Specifically why it sucked so much. I had the personal misfortune of owning a Vega. I rebult most of the engine myself. I had a shop do the valve work. The Vega could have been a very good car. But Chevy cheaped out. It's the reason why so many people hated GM for decades. Also why so many people bought Japanese cars during the 1970s.
@@johanvangelderen6715 My college roommate had a 1974 Vega GT. He had me help him put glass packs (Cherry Bomb) on it. It didn't go any faster, but was loud... which let everyone in a mile radius know when he missed a shift !
WYR1: Probably the Z600, but a two-year-older Opel Kadett would be a more practical choice. WYR2: Subaru 360, but again. the period Toyota Corolla or Opel Kadett or Datsun 510 would be more suitable for US traffic conditions. Oh. It appears you may not have reviewed the Datsun 510, "the poor man's BMW".
Owners lie. Driven normally the car would actually get about 10 percent less than advertised because when MPG was first required it was tested differently than today. Car maybe got 45 if Honda was in error but to suggest that any car would get 50 percent more mileage than the rating that was required by law is just ludicrous. Information as such should be avoided as fact even if "owner have said". I have always gotten better mileage than advertised when I deliberately drive conservatively in all my vehicles. Still not a fact though.
I have a Prius that I drive to long distance meets shows and to go to Classic Automall at 80 miles an hour I get 40 miles to the gallon according to the EPA highway mileage isn’t supposed to I got it like a regular person I can get 50 55 out of it.. I would love to one day get one of these and put it to the test to see what the actual mileage is
@@What.its.like. my daily is a VW Jetta sportwagon 2.0 TDi 6 speed. Rated at 43 MPG before reprogramming because of dieselgate. Then rated at 40. I can rasily get 45 if I am conservative. Drive to have fun...37.
What a great little car. Like a fancy golf cart. As a kid one of my neighbors, a college student, swore by the little Honda and is probably driving an Accord today.
' When the leve breaks' was the tune.
What was the band?
I love Honda as a brand they made a lot of cool high Reving fun cars to drive
@@What.its.like.
Led Zeppelin of course.
Physical Graffiti was one of the first albums I purchased as a teen...
Congratulations You got name that tune I can’t believe no one else could get that =)
@@What.its.like.
Yeah I thought that was an easy one.😆
If you really want to get out into the weeds check out the original version by Kansas Joe & Memphis Minnie recorded in 1929...
Great video! Never expected you to do this one. I have a story about one. In 1972 I had a job where my commute was 50 miles each day. I had two little kids and wasn't making much money so gas costs were eating me alive. When I first saw one advertised I got really excited. I wasn't turned off to small cars because my friend had a Crosley in high school, and I loved riding in that car. After examining the 72, however, I knew it wouldn't work for me. It seem basically just a motorcycle fitted with an enclosed body. And if my boy got a bigger shoe size, he might no longer fit. But the very next year, 1973!!! That time, it fit me perfectly. Long story short, I purchased a 1973 Honda Civic, their demonstrator model, with 6,000 miles for $2,000. I loved that car, drove it 100,000 miles, and sold it for $1,000 four years later. That made me a Honda Man with 4 more in the ensuing years.
Awesome story what great memories I love Honda’s they are bullet proof and will run FOREVER just have to keep them clean they rust easy I’ve owned three two mini vans and a 92 civic hatch which I absolutely loved
Awww. It looks so gosh darn cute. It would make a great stocking stuffer!
Totally man that would be awesome if you got a big ass stocking and then you had this sticky get out of it a little bit haha
@@What.its.like. Exactly!😂
Worked on a number of these after Honda stopped selling to motorcycle shops when I was a Honda tech Part of dealer agreement when you became a Honda car dealership. They held up pretty well, gas mileage? About 50 unless you drive it hard. I've driven several at 75 mph, no excitement. You could get 2 small kids in the back. Worked on far more sedans that coupes. Back in the day early techs after they went to the factory schools you got a framed certificate actually signed (not stamped or photocopied ) by Mr. Honda himself, with gold gilt text. I still have all my certificates form Honda Schools all 22 of them. I later became a dispatcher, service advisor, service manager, service and parts director then CEO of that Honda dealership group of 11 stores. Brought back some good memories
Awesome thank you so much for sharing your background with/at Honda must have been a great time to work there so much was changing 50 mpg is impressive considering these are carbureted... for some reason smart car can’t even get that now
I drove a Honda 600 for a photo delivery car for over 4 months. The "one-up, four down" shifter and lever BESIDE it for reverse (use 1st gear) was so much FUN! In-town, I went from the AMC Hornet (256 CID I-6 auto) at 13-15 MPG to 65-72 MPG! Merging into 50 MPH expressway traffic required shifting and PLANNING, but not much more than the excessively heavy and under-powered Hornet. "My" Honda was the bright yellow and the two-piece "hatchback" 1970 (maybe a 1969). It was like driving a go-kart on the street with it's tiny 12" wheels! I think I remember the gas tank was SIX GALLONS with a lever one gallon "reserve" (the ooold VW's were eight)! It was, of course, all sourced from Honda motorcycle parts, but it was well-made, safe, had good front disc/rear drum brakes (manual), manual semi-rack-and-pinon steering, and it was so light, it felt like you never would need a tow-truck, just PULL it to the garage! I drove a College buddy's two-stroke FWD Saab (was PINK the ONLY color???), the ULTIMATE ice-and-snow car, and the Honda was like VERY refined version of the Saab. Later that year we rented a Honda 900 "liquid-air cooled" I-4 with the one-up, four-down tranny, up-and-over reverse and it had, wonder of wonders, a REAL HEATER and A/C from the FACTORY! It would BOOGIE!!! 50-57 MPG in town, drop-down from the top "Y" shoulder harness (Japanese-style) and a REAR SEAT! I kept the rear seat folded down for my deliveries. A lady that worked at a photo lab I delivered to, had her late older brother's Datsun S-1600 roadster-all GREAT "micro-cars". After futzing with "Bug-Eyed Sprite's" and MGB's (More Garage Bills), and Austin "Marinas" and Renault's, a RELIABLE tiny car was a shock! In 1974 or 75, the Feddle HiWay Safeless Institute effectively banned micro-cars from US streets, giving us 15 years of over-weight under-powered "tanks" and the EPA giving us 3-10 MPG no-power engines.
Thank you so much for sharing all the memories as well as your experience I don’t understand why we can’t have these cars now just a little bit bigger I mean think about it they got for nominal gas mileage and you could use the whole car and it was fun =) I’m all about different driving experiences.. i’m in the camp where it’s more fun to drive a slow car fast and it is the drive a fast car fast
I bought a Toyota Prius to commute back-and-forth from reviewing Classic Cars and my favorite thing to do with the Prius is the egg people on on the highway people that have cars that are supposed to be way faster it’s hilarious when they can’t catch up to a Prius... couple months ago I reach the Mazda speed three from the mid-2000s he kept getting on my butt and I said get on my butt one more time and you will not catch me he did not catch me.. until I got to a traffic light.. he pulled up next to me and said what engine is in that Prius and I said it’s got electric motor and a 26 hp gas motor that cuts in and out.. he left flabbergasted it was hilarious
Next year I want to do a segment like that I wanna see if I could go to like a dragstrip and get some fast muscle cars and put them up against the Prius in a segment called and you thought your car was fast.. obviously it can’t be like a GTO or cars like Uber fast like that but anything that’s like eight seconds I think I could take them..
@@Walkercolt1 ten inch wheels
My BSA scoutmaster had a yellow Z600(c.72). On camping trips several of us guys used to carry it and hide it in the woods(!) Pissed him off, alright! (RIP, Rich)
Hahaha awesome story man that sounds like something I would do I wasn’t in the Boy Scouts but I did a lot of youth group when I was a kid with a local church made me think of that your story.. =)
My neighbor had two of these when I was a kid. He parked them end-to-end in his garage alongside his '59 Cadillac in what we called the snowblower space between the car and the wall.
Hahaha nice great memory Thank you so much for sharing that with us
It's so cute and tiny! I haven't seen one in person for many years. I have the impression it would almost fit in the trunk of my '73 Marquis. ;-) A fun feature, Jay.
Haha yeah it would fit in the back of my truck I could probably fit this and a metropolitan in the back of my truck at the same time lol
WYR: All of them.
Honda makes great motorcycles, especially the Goldwing.
Yes =) Great choices they make a good sounding V-twin as well
@@What.its.like. Yep!
I'm a hondog! All my bikes were Honda except for a junky Yamaha 650 special. Had two PC 800s. Loved them.
@@kennethanway7979 Sweet.
Those were as primitive as can be. A minor accident would probably hurt you badly or worse. The Honda dealers hated them and by the late 70’s most wouldn’t work on them. Parts became very scarce or unavailable. There was a small shop in Berkeley CA that specialized in them. They had people drive or have them towed in and would wait long periods of time to get their beloved little cars fixed. As far as I know the shop was still in business in the early 80’s.
Great information thank you so much for sharing that insight yeah you definitely don’t wanna get in an accident and this car
Well at least it's hard to hit a small target!
There are a few shops around the country still working them. Merciless Mings in S. Calif is the one nearest me.
I had a N600 in the mid 80’s. Not bad around town, but was hard to drive any faster than 60mph on the highway. Come to a small hill on the highway and it slows down to 50 from 60. Mileage was ok, in the 40’s. I never saw anything close to 60mpg.
Yes it seemed like mileage varied a lot depending on user and situation thank you so much for sharing your experience with this car I feel like it should be able to get higher than 40 considering it was only a two cylinder which begs the question why can’t we have a car about maybe a little bit bigger than a smart car with a big single cylinder or twin I mean they got good gas mileage back in the 70s meanwhile today we have all this computer technology but we can’t get any better than 45 miles to the gallon in a hybrid on the hwy
WOW... did this take me back. I've only seen one of these in person, and it was the summer of '76 in southern California. I spent part of my summer vacation there with my birth mother, and we spent a lot of time in Laguna Beach. There was one of these there and I was in love with it. The back window made me think it was part submarine! Bright freakin' yellow! (this was also the summer I was introduced to Taco Bell and would have to wait 20 years til we got one here back home in upstate NY) I remember thinking everyone in CA drove tiny cars. Civics, Beetles, b210's and Pintos all over the place. My mother drove a Fiat 850 Spyder, my step-dad a Dasher. I came from the land of Newports, Impalas and LTD's, although my parents had just traded their Fury in on a Gremlin... LOL... That little Honda that I had seen once made such an impression on me! I of course went in the opposite direction, my first car being a '64 Galaxie, my first "good" car a '76 Grand Marquis, which, this liitle gem could have been a lifeboat for... LOL I might have even fit in the trunk! Thanx for a great review, Jay! WYR: 1) and 2) both the coupe!
Awesome choices thank you so much for sharing your experience with this car what memories =)
What was laguna beach like in the 70s that’s a really cool part of the country dramatic cliffs hair pin turns I really need to go back there it’s been a long time
@@What.its.like. To me, being 13... it seemed pretty upscale except for the beach itself. It had a lot of "beachdwellers" (homeless) who were pretty young and all played guitars... lol... I saw cars there I never knw existed. A Pantera, a Lambo Countach, tons of classic folks drove every day, Benz and Porche's evetwhereOur friend Dolores lived on Anaconda, or Abracadabra, or something like that on a stilt house in the hills. My mother and her husband lived in Mission Viejo, suburbia central. I really didn't like it there, and refused after that.
Its absoultly adorable.
Thanks Jay for another great video. Fun fact, I worked across the street from a Honda motorcycle dealership in 1973, On rainy mornings there would be several 600 's in the service drive. Rumor had it the car misbehaved when it rained and had starting problems
Glad you dig this episode on a different car thank you so much for sharing your experience as well as memories with these what is the fastest you’ve ever driven one?
@@What.its.like. Ha Ha, never have driven one
A neighbor in the 70's when I grew up had one of these he buzzed that thing everywhere.
Great memory I wish I could’ve fired this up I almost took a soundbite from a different video but didn’t I was really bummed to not be able to find a commercial
I still have my Z600 that I bought new in 1972! It will go 75 mph and it will give you 55 mpg if you avoid those high speeds.
Is it scary at 75?
That’s awesome what does 75 feel like I would imagine it would be like space Mountain everything whizzing past you it would probably feels a whole lot faster than 75 because you’re low to the ground and you’re not in a very big object.. 55 mpg is impressive I have no idea why car companies don’t do this now like why don’t we have any cycle cars on sale at this moment in time.. Morgan three wheeler didn’t get this mileage ( another car I want to feature )
Just curious where are you located
@@kennethanway7979 Yes!! But feels fine at 55 or 60. You definitely keep your eyes open and your wits about you at speed.
@@What.its.like. I believe we do not have cars like this now because of safety. My Smart Fortwo which is not much bigger and interestingly seats only two is Way safer but I struggle to get 50 mpg. Both cars are great fun to drive. I am in northeast Ohio.
I’m in Western Pennsylvania send me an E mail maybe we could set something up
What_its_like@yahoo.com
Bought a used and very ratty 71 civic in Dallas back in the early 80s. Previous owner figured out these tiny tires and wheels from the z600 would bolt on the front of it, I think they were 10 or so inch tires. Like changing the gear ratio , the thing topped out about 65, but went through the gears like a little race car. Simplest cheap fun you can have.
Awesome thank you so much for sharing the memories of yours. It sounds like it would be a really cool and fun card to drive and it’s a car that you could use all of it not get in trouble.
I remember them new in a Honda motorcycle showroom. The engine looked like a bigger CB350 engine.
A friend of mine back in the day bought one of these brand new. She let me drive it and it is a total gas! You can leave a stop light at full throttle, redline it, play Ronnie Racer - and nobody would know it! She even drove it to Oklahoma from California. A buddy of mine and I could just pick up the rear end of this thing easily.
Hahaha nice it seems to be the type of car that you could use all of it and not get in trouble but have fun using it and be part of the driving experience.
My buddy and I were Honda motorcycle fans and when we saw these at the auto show when they first came out we thought they were really cool. They were a bit of a sensation around Boston at the time and you would see them on the road fairly often. In the WYR I'd choose the Z600 and the AZ-1. The Cappuccino is cool, but the AZ-1 is a bit outrageous and I like that.
I can’t believe what the AZ-1 are going for.. I want to review one really bad but I’m afraid that I’m gonna fall in love with that car and I’m gonna want one and I can’t afford it it’s too much money for what it is. I’ve never been across the pond and I’m afraid if I go I’m going to find a bunch of cars over there that I wanna bring back lol not that I can at the moment but there may come a time when I can who knows
Great choices =)
Will definitely try and feature more cars like this it may come as a surprise to you but I like Japanese cars for the simple fact that they run forever I have a Honda and the Toyota And 52 Chevy 1 ton truck
@@What.its.like. I'm not surprised you like Japanese cars. I've had muscle cars and many American cars over the years but one of my favorites was my Lexus RX350 (soccer mom car). I commuted with it on Texas 130 (85 mph speed limit) and it was comfortable and quiet at high speeds.
You'd like some of the cars here in Costa Rica. It's not unusual to see 70's Japanese cars and pickups on the road, and old diesel Land Cruisers are abundant.
Neat 😀
A friend had one of these in Europe back in the '70s. From what I remember, they were rough riding and incredibly noisy but still a pretty cool car, especially when it was rare to see a Japanese car back then and it garnered a lot of attention. Of course, everyone thought Japanese cars were crap and Japan would never survive as a car producing nation😂.
Awesome memory that’s crazy when you think about it I think Honda and Toyota at the top of the car pyramid as far as Reliability goes
They should bring back the cycle car for a fuel efficient vehicle option I think it’s funny that those cars got that good of gas mileage back in the day but a smart car can’t even get more than 40 it doesn’t make sense
There's a whole world to explore with cars like this, including 'exotic' stuff from Russia and similar, so please incorporate!
YES definitely will I would love to find an original civic and go down the Japanese rabbit hole
A girlfriend had one. The shifter was weird! Crossed the Golden Gate Bridge in it. As a owner of two AH Sprites, (& a MKII GT6) driving/riding in a "death trap" "clown car" was not unusual for me. Way better than the FIAT 500s.
That is a car that I’ve never been and I’ve never been in an original fiat 500 it would be interesting to compare specs to see how much bigger the Honda is to that car thank you so much for sharing that story with those incredible memories =)
This episode is well deserved. 1972 was a sentinel moment in US car history and Honda was the reason. Another car changing the automotive world at that time was the Volvo (142). Great episode.!
Question….I didn’t see your famous crotch test…..and. I bet I know why 😂
It was the last car I shot yesterday I saw it sitting in the corner and I was like no way it was almost like seeing a ghost.. I haven’t seen one in 10 years at least probably maybe longer than that I think I was 18 when I saw the last one on 34 now so it’s been longer than that I wish I had the money back then $2000 when I was 18 might’ve well it’s been $2 million.. I was into land yachts at that point in time.. that car got away and there was a Datsun 260 Z for sale for I think three grand that one got away as well I really wanted that car but it was a stick shift and I didn’t know how to drive a stick shift at that moment.. it’s crazy when you look back at things like that how trivial somethings were and now I can drive just about anything except the big rigs
Glad you dig this episode definitely want to cover some more Japanese cars next year I like Toyota’s Honda’s Datsun
I have a Honda Odyssey Van Toyota Prius 52 Chevy 1 ton truck at the moment looking for another I really want to Metropolitan but after doing the Honda episode it would be really cool I have Kei car
I had a friend in LA that had one. His fuel pump went bad in El Paso TX (why the heck he drove it that far is a mystery) He could not find a fuel pump so he bought a chevy fuel pump, mounted it behind the seats, ran some fuel lines to the tank and carb and drove it all the way to LA using a broom handle to pump the fuel pump.
I think I would have sold the car for enough for a bus ticket!
Great story thank you so much for sharing that memory =)
WYR the 1300 because it's big enough to be useful, and the Cappucino is a beauty even if the az1 is more interesting. I once had a later Civic 1200 which if driven very gently could give ~50 MPG. More than a few times I gassed up on my pocket change to pay for a day's work commute, so I can totally believe the 600's being able to do 70MPG, but the average driver wouldn't see that. The 600's are interesting cars but impractical for transportation here.
We got these Kei cars here because they were selling like hotcakes in Japan and Honda saw it as a safe and easy way to break into the US market. Like the 3-wheelers of the UK, Kei cars were only meant for city driving and were the lowest class of automobile you could get. The Kei cars got a huge tax/ licensing break in Japan which made them popular there, but no similar cost break existed here. Road speeds were also low in Japan at the time so crashes with the other small cars weren't as severe as getting hit by a full-size Buick at 60MPH where Kei cars collapse like stepping on an empty Coke can. Not being meant for our road speeds, these were overstressed and potentially deadly here, plus they were cheaply made. One of the few cars a Yugo could out-race these were S-L-O-W but they were cheap and profitable for the manufacturer. After the disappointing sales of these, Honda created a study group for the US market and the result of that was the Civic; bigger, a more powerful engine, and a much better build quality than their Kei cars had.
Thank you so much for all the insight and information =) I had a 92 civic with a del sol motor in it and it was a fun little car you could beat the crap out of that thing all day long and it would still get 40 miles to the gallon and it was really fun to drive. What I loved about it was the motor did not blow up the moment that it ran out of oil because a couple times I did check the dipstick and there wasn’t a single drop of oil on stick put more in ran great I got rid of mine because shifter kept breaking
I’ve never drove one of these but I think they are cool, I had a couple of civics over the years 73, 75 and a 76 they were fun to drive and got great mileage I liked my Hondas for the handling and driving much more than my 2 vw bugs I had
Awesome which one was your favorite
I’ve owned three Hondas two Honda Odyssey minivan’s one was a 2001 the other is a 2006
I had a 92 civic that was all riced out I didn’t rice it out but I didn’t change anything either hahaha big fart can say 2 inches off the ground with the ground effects it had a system when you listened to Chicago 25 or 6 to 4 the orchestra sounded like it was right behind you.. it didn’t have the original engine and transmission in it the transmission and engine came over del sol the guy that sold it to me Dino tested it it was making 175 hp at the wheels it would burn out in first gear second gear and chirp third and it was a front wheel drive car when it was low because I ended up putting stock suspension on it because I couldn’t drive it in the winter it would just act like a snow plow.. but when it was low you could go around the corner doing 90 and I didn’t have any body lean it was a cool car what I like most about it was you could beat the shit out of that thing all day long and it would get 40 miles to the gallon if you drive it like a civilized person it would really surprise you but the shifter kept breaking and it was a short shift kit and I just got tired of fixing it I ended up I had that car and a 67 mustang at the same time I got fed up with both of them I sold both of them and bought a 2014 veloster R spec turbo.. which when looking back it was a good car but civic and mustang were better.. but I needed that life experience that the R spec taught me =)
I love Honda’s they just run but they also rot good and bad peaks and valleys
In high school, 1 of my best friends, Brian Hedrick had a green 1972 Civic with an "automatic" transmission.
But you had to put in low to get moving then shift up. It made my Datsun 210 which was also green,
seem like a scream machine. His Honda got about 60 MPG while my Datsun got 52 MPG.
That Datsun had one great engine.
Awesome I love Datsun as well thank you so much for sharing your experience with those cars =)
cool car ,I wanted one of these. as pre teen , easy for a lil kid to drive
Totally I want to drive one of these still
If you go try the back seat, make sure you have your phone to call 911.
Hahaha very true depending on how big you are me daughter could fit back there
Hi Jay!: This is one I never expected to see! In fact I haven't seen one since the early 1980's. There was a family in our little town that loved Hondas, and they had one of these. I never saw it on the road, but they had a yard sale one Saturday and my Mother and I went. A yellow one of these was sitting in tall grass in the front yard. This was without a doubt, the SMALLEST car I had ever seen! Those tiny wheels! I don't know if they were trying to sell it at the yard sale, but it seems like maybe they were. I didn't think I would ever fit in it, but seeing you do it, I would have for sure fit in those days as I was not tall and SKINNY. Now I don't think I could fit! Still not tall but WIDER! WYR#1 N600 Sedan. #2 I LIKE that Cappuccino!! Reminds me of a modern Austin-Healey Sprite!
I’d like to cover everything on this channel not going to be able to cover every single foreign car ever made but might come as a surprise to you I love Japanese cars..
Definitely want to cover more Hondas Toyotas next year my passion is with cars from the 30s and 50s but I like cars from all eras
This channel I don’t want it to be about one generation if that makes any sense I wanted to be about everything and anything automotive related might even expand out do a couple airplanes I would love to cover some Chris craft boats maybe some tractors steam engine.. possibilities are endless
Thank you so much for sharing all of the memories that you had with this car I really want to drive one these are always intrigued me
There are a lot of VERY interesting Japanese cars out there! Subaru 360, Mazda Cosmo, and the most beautiful sports car EVER made the Toyota 2000! Those are very rare here in the U.S., but man they look as good as a Ferrari! Another interesting early one is the early Toyota Celica. I had one a, 1973 ST. It is the only Japanese car I have ever owned , but it was a pretty darn cool little car! It was gold. It was like a mini sports car inside, but had rear seats, too.
My first girlfriend had a similar car (Daihatsu Cuore first generation). Well, you could get from A to B warm and dry, but although it could do 70 miles per hour, more than 50 was not fun. And it was borderline dangerously slow on acceleration. I still remember the noise the 2 cylinders made under load. But it was cheap, reliable and economical.
Sweet memories
I could not imagine going more than 40 miles an hour in this thing it would feel so fast
I had a 92 civic the fastest I had that going was 120 and you knew you were going that fast it was totally stable but because it was so small it just felt fast
WYR: z600 coupe, Suzuki Cappuccino. My smart is about a foot shorter than this car, but only 2 passenger. Plus a roll-cage Tridium cell. Goes 93mph (complete with white knuckles!). About 15 years ago there was a guy next to my work with both a N600 sedan and a Z600 coupe, which he DAILY'ed!
That’s awesome =) if I saw one of these on the road today I would absolutely freak probably follow them and say hey let’s talk about your car lol
I remember that a co-worker had one of these, a forgotten piece of automobile history.
I might change the title remember one Honda got 70 miles to the gallon in a car.. For some reason they can’t do that today
I have 3 of them today, well my ex has 2 of them still in my name. What set these apart from similar sized cars from Europe at the time they came out in 1971 was that they were much more reliable, better engineered and built. Not many Honda motorcycle shops actually sold them at first. They were for the most part sold at established GM or other car dealers as a secondary line. Later on epically when the Civic came out in 73 the motorcycle shops started to expand into car dealerships and the rest is history. I drove mine as a daily driver for about 30 years. Mileage varied according to how hard you drove them. Around town with my foot to the floor most of the time I would get in the high 30's MPG. Driving for MPG I once got 72 MPG. They can do 70 on a level open road all day but today with the average speed on S. Calif freeways 75-80 , traffic permitting, it is hard to keep up. Drove around the hills of San Francisco several times. Had no problem going up the hills but with the car loaded down with 2 adults and the back full of luggage it was hard to stop going down a steep hill. Still having lots of fun with mine today.
Awesome thank you so much for sharing your experience with yours I love these really want to drive one one day =)
I clearly remember, around 1972-73, as a kid, a huge long line of cars all behind one of these on a Washington State mountain pass as it was doing its best to make it to the summit. I’m sure it did better on the way down!
I want to drive one of these they seem really cool and it’s smaller than a metropolitan
5:29 Only 1971 & 1972 AZ600s sold in the USA. 6:57 Image is of a 1971 AN600 (sedan). 6000 RPM is redline at 75MPH thought I drove a Z600 on the Autobahn in Germany at 82MPH, not my car so I didn't care lol. 60mpg, don't believe anything you saw on the father son Leno interview - That Was Not a factory folding lug wrench, OMG. 12:26 Sorry, no oil pressure light - the 2 Greens are turn sig, Blue is high beam and bottom right is low brake fluid warning light. 14:35 Some dummy reversed the seats, the release levers go outside. I've owned over 80 of these 2 model Honda 600s and have been specializing in them since 1981 - I have 60+ fix it videos on UA-cam for Honda 600s.
coupe and a cap , for me. Interesting car that seemed to have more room inside than the outside would suggest. Thx Jay and good interesting car.
Glad you dig this episode =)
I love the old foreign cars. I am 6'2" and have owned a beetle, first generation cvcc, an opel manta, corolla wagon, tercel, civic and throw in a chevette just to prove I am American. I would like to see more.
Awesome Will definitely try to feature more foreign cars next year I especially want to feature some more Japanese cars.. =)
There are two other foreign cars in the pipeline one is a Lancia the other one is a Mercedes-Benz unimog from the 50s
The Honda Z600 was one car which was never sold on the Canadian market, but I recall seeing pictures of it. The N600 was sold here as was the sporty 2 seat convertible starting in 1966. The Civic made it to the Canadian market in 1973, even if it had made it to other markets the year prior. I have always preferred American cars over Japanese, and still do today.
I didn’t know that they didn’t sell these in Canada great information I prefer American cars up until a certain point they don’t really build quality stuff anymore and it sucks.. don’t hate me but as far as modern cars Honda and Toyota at the top of the heap as far as reliability goes. I was in Philadelphia over the summer and before I got to Philadelphia maintenance light came on in the Prius and I didn’t think nothing of it I just thought it needed an oil change because it was getting about that time. So I stopped and checked the oil level there was absolutely nothing on the dipstick and it didn’t blow up.. that’s happened a couple times I had a 2001 Honda van that The oil light actually came on I pulled off the side of the road immediately and walked to go get oil put it in fired right up no damage done.
There was a red one for sale, new, at the Honda motorcycle dealer on Bank Street, Ottawa, in 1972. I don't think they sold many/any.
I enjoysedthis segment, do more please.
Definitely will I like Japanese cars personally..
As far as brands of today nothing can top Honda or Toyota in terms of reliability plus they don’t blow up the instant they run out of oil same can’t be said about most everything else
17:05 - is definitely not a Honda 1300, that's a Honda Life Step Van - we didn't get those in Australia, though we did (briefly) get the Life - which was like a more refined version of the N360 with a water cooled engine and four (tiny) doors. We also got the 1300 coupe - and it's a strange beast indeed. The sportier 'Coupe 9' model had four carburettors and developed around 115hp. It had dry sump lubrication and a curious forced air cooling arrangement with an 'air jacket' having fins on the inside. Rear suspension was a pair of long swing-axles with the pivot point on the opposite side of the car, crossing over in the middle. Full of innovative and somewhat outlandish engineering ideas, it was not a sales success. The 145 model you mentioned is an even rarer bird - a reworking of the 1300 with a water-cooled 1.4l engine and fuel injection - perhaps slightly more sensible, but sold less than 10,000 units in total.
Thank you so much for that correction Google has been very hit and miss on what is white and it’s super confusing especially because I don’t think we got them here and I never saw one before so I thought the Honda life was the four-door because that is what the advertisement Pp said but it contradicted thank you so much for all the added insight and information as well as the correction greatly appreciate it =)
The 145 looks awesome It almost looks like an early Celica which that would be a really epic video to do as a comparison but as you said both of those cars are really rare right now
I'd want the coupe because I like the styling. Frankly, I wonder if it's fast enough to use on the freeways. If so, it would be perfect to deliver things like food, etc.
Sweet also great reasoning behind your choice =)
first car i looked at were 76 civics like the author im 6'2"i had to recline the seat to have enough headroom Ver disappointed Found wht i wanted in a VW Rabbit So much roomier inside for 4 adults plus huge back doors on the 4dr
Honda Z600
Suzuki
Years ago I lived in Yuma Arizona and there was a local gas station where all of us gearheads used to hang out where we would all work on our cars. At that time I was driving a 67 Dodge Coronet RT. We had it in the garage that day putting a new starter on it and installing a set of headers. Couple of other guys were there I think one guy had his Mustang and another guy had a Camaro.
We look up and we see a tiny little yellow putt putt pull into the gas station. It was one of these Hondas the little. This would have been around 1971 so it would have been one of the very early years for this car. We were all pretty much laughing at the young guy that was driving it and teasing him about it. He said yeah but I get a lot better mileage than you guys get with those big V8 engines. Where upon we said yeah but we can burn rubber with our cars.
When the guy left he got into his car and started and drove off when he pull out of the gas station he floored it and did a power shift and got a little bit of a chirp out of his tires going in to second gear. That provided all of us with some pretty good laughs. The guy wanted to show us that he could burn rubber with his little putt putt.
We had the last laugh thinking about him trying to get over the mountains on the other side of El Centro California heading to Sam Diego on I-8.
Sweet choices thank you so much for sharing that awesome story what a great memory I would be impressed if they could chirp the tires 36 hp’s and all that much..
I think it would be cool to have one of these as a conversation piece or if you had to go uptown for some thing remove the backseat and you could use it as a grocery getter.. or if you had to just go up to town for something stupid I think it would be a great roundabout car..
@@What.its.like. we were all surprised he could get a chirp out of the tires. I do remember the engine sounded like it was going to blow up from over reving.
We figured he knew better than us exactly how far he could push the engine on that little putt putt
There has always been a market for these micro cars in the U.S. Crash standards and emission controls killed them.
Honda had already become a trusted name when they decided to try importing their micro cars here. Price was a major driving force in their popularity. You could buy a brand new Honda 600 for $1500. A friend in high school, in 1973, bought a new one and made him happy.
We didn't know it in early-1973 yet, but the gas crisis was just around the corner. By June of 1973 full-service regular gas went up to 45 cents for a gallon of regular gas. Working at a full-service gas station at the time, people would come in and not fill up. Some just buying $1. worth. We still had to give them full service, the same as when someone with a big car or truck would fill 'er up, spending $20. People were freaked out and didn't know which way to turn. The people who owned these Hondas or other small foreign cars didn't like the prices either but when they thought about how much gas their parents full-sized cars used, they smiled.
The Honda 600 was their base car and the Z600 was their sporty model. When I think about the Z600, it makes me wonder if Ford got the idea for the 2nd generation Taurus station wagon from it. Both the Z600 and Taurus s/w were hideously ugly to me and I definitely wouldn't want to be seen in either.
These Honda 600's seemed to disappear as quickly as they had come on the scene. People just parked them in their yards, letting them melt into the ground. People would do weird modifications to them. I remember driving by a 600 that somebody had mounted a camper on it. I don't know if it was driveable as it sat there for years.
Oh, yeh, I remember seeing one of those Honda "S" sports cars maybe in 1970? It was parked in front of a friend's house. It looked pretty cool and I always wondered why they never caught on. Maybe it was the steep competition from the British traditional sports cars.
Thank you so much for sharing all the insight it’s crazy how different things are now we have a gas station called sheets here they’re pretty popular gas station chain I’m not sure if there’s any in California they started in Altoona Pennsylvania I believe the crazy thing is is if you want oil you have to get it outside before you go in the store and some locations don’t even have oil they look at you weird when you have to top off. Idk weird
But they have a free air machine which is nice and can set to desired tire pressure
@@What.its.like. No. We don't have those out here. Costco's have free air stations. I used one for the first time a couple of days ago. Set your pressure, clamp it to the tire stem and it stops automatically. Even the old full-service stations didn't charge for airing up your tires. If they weren't doing anything they'd do it for you. That was service!
Reminds me or a story. A friend worked at a self-serve gas station years ago. They also had a repair dept., so they had some parts in stock. When a car came in, the station owner would sometimes come out and offer to check the car over, for free. He would short-stick the oil and try to sell them a quart or so of oil. Whether it was actually dirty of not, he would try to sell them a new air filter. If he didn't have the correct one in stock, he would put anything in which he could fit in there. lol
The tiny van,
The gullwing roadster,
Your under my skin , by the seatbelts
The tune you sang at the end of the episode was " A kind of hush" by Petula Clark, .
Herman’s hermits =)
The Carpenters
So cool , never seen one before
I love these 2nd one I’ve ever saw
Honda 1300, because it looks so weird! And the color too is reminiscent of some phone junction box paint 🎨 🎁. 😊
Kind of reminds me of the Datsun 100A my dad had in mid-1990s. Probably one size smaller yet. Learned to drive in that car.
I’ll have to look for one of those
Try to find a Mazda Chantez, a friend of mine had one years ago! It was tiny too.
I’ll have to look for one
I’ve had mine off the clock when working the taco figure back 96 mph down hill with the wind behind me in 1974
@@GarrityDavid that must have been terrifying lol
@@What.its.like. exhilerating
I had one of these in Okinawa. It was water cooled version though. I think some of them were air cooled.
Very cool car to feature. I love that car.
Awesome glad you dig this episode
Great video on an interesting car. I was a sophomore in high school when this car came out. I knew a couple of girls that drove this to high school daily, sometimes with two extra passengers in the back seat! When they rolled out of the car, it was like a clown car from a circus. Curious, I looked at the car closely one time: yes it had real seats, a steering wheel, and tiny little air vents on the dash. But I couldn’t imagine myself shoe-horning my six foot frame into it… it’s really designed for a small Japanese person, not a bigger American, a foot taller!
I’m six foot two and fit in there It’s not as small as you would think inside there seem to be plenty room I just watched Leno did one a year ago and he fit in it with a passenger it sounds just like a motorcycle the backseat is pretty much useless I don’t know what the purpose of having a backseat would be may be insurance reasons
It’s crazy your buddy could fit people in the back
@@What.its.like. I never have been in a Honda 600, but it must have been just a bit smaller than the 1st Civic. I had the misfortune of riding in the back seat of a 1st generation Civic and I had my knees up to my chin and even then I had to sit sideways with my head tucked… maybe that’s why my back and neck now have issues.
The motorcycle derived drivetrain fascinates me as my old 88 Suzuki had an engine that was a water-cooled converted design, direct descendant also of a motorcycle cycle engine. It couldn’t go much over 65 unless one was driving over a cliff… I hadn’t tried that… but it was a great off-road vehicle.
That’s crazy I would never want to ride in the backseat of any of those micro cars for an extended period of time I had to ride in the backseat of a Chevy Colorado with the jump seats to Erie that’s a 2 Hour Dr. and it was miserable.. that was my friends first new truck I think it was like a 2008 and he was so proud of it but it was the biggest piece of crap.. everything was so cheap.. I haven’t seen him in years he has a Silverado now the last time I saw him Which was a coupe years ago he flagged me down I was driving past in the 52 and he said cool truck I told him it’s a real truck haha 😂
I like Hondas they run forever I had a 92 civic 5 speed
Maybe the live chat I’ll talk about all the cars are some of the different cars that I’ve owned I’m going to make an episode one day I’ve owned a lot I’ve had like 36 cars or something crazy like that.. but they’ve all been cars that are affordable I’m not into the big fancy hyped up brands I think a vehicle should last more than three years 36,000 miles people get mad when I say that.. especially if you pay more than $50,000 for a vehicle it definitely should last a long time before you have any issues
@@What.its.like. Japan has lower taxes for cars with rear seats, leading to such idiocies as the Toyota/Scion IQ with a rear seat that really is just a cargo shelf.
This little thing makes my 97 Geo Metro hatch look huge
That could probably fit inside a geo metro lol
These look like pretty cool little cars for for zipping around town in, I'm sure I've seen one of these before but can't remember when. I'd pick this one in the first, and the second I'd pick the AZ1, which looks really cool!😎
I want to drive and Autozam AZ one pretty bad but apparently those cars are pretty expensive for what they are but that would be one stellar car to have to just Putz around it =)
Well there’s a car I wasn’t expecting to see Jay!
I haven’t seen one on Australian roads sine the end of the 70’s. The Civic on the other hand went on and on.
I recall the Z600 was called the Zot or something similar, I guess it may have been a nickname for them, I was only a kid at the time!
Did you notice the Honda badge on the hood, hasn’t changed except for the red background has gone from more modern Hondas.
=) love featuring cars off the beaten path next year we will definitely cover so more foreign stuff
Interesting note about the Honda badge
I wonder how many right hand drives were made I could find a figure
@@What.its.like. how many right hand drive Z600’s? I wouldn’t have a clue!
Japan is a RHD country, so thousands upon thousands I guess
This is a good car to tool around town in or even have as a second car. You said a Nash Metropolitan would be slightly bigger but it be interesting to see this buggy parked next to a 2008- 2016 Smart car those are small but very spacious inside for such a small package but to drive one takes a person with a good sense of humor. I could recite a few jokes I have gotten since I drove one my personal favorite is I could fit your car in the back of my pick up truck. I’d like to see you try it smart ass.
Had a classic old 900 for a spell decades ago… had to go to a golf cart supply shop for freakin’ tires!!
Haha thank you for sharing that memory
I was going to add you could get tires at harbor freight Not sure if they’re speed rated for over 50 though
@@What.its.like. I can’t even remember if I ever even got that old Honda 900 TOO 50 MPH! 😳😱🤣
@@What.its.like. Had an ‘87 Subaru “Justy” for a few years, over a decade ago, that was hit in its rear end, with me behind the wheel, on my way to work one night, AT A RED LIGHT! The broad that slammed into me, was doing well over SIXTY MPH!! Messed up THAT little gas sniffer real bad! The worst part was, her insurance company was willing to pay me its bluebook value.. that was $130.00 then, in Dec of 2005!!
Oh man I would’ve been so mad because you couldn’t get one of those cars for that price even then I’m happy that you were OK you didn’t sustain any injuries injuries from the accident did you..
@@What.its.like. Nothing major or longterm.. just sprains and such. Over the decades since the late 80’s, I’ve had quite a few different vehicles… generally BAD LUCK with itty-bitty gas sniffer economy cars! They just seem to be magnets for IDIOT DRIVERS! At least in-round SoCal. I currently have a 2000 F-250 Superduty Powerstroke and a couple 1955 Buick Super’s (full sized series’ coupe’s) so, a bit more protection from IDIOT DRIVERS! I do occasionally drive around in my 2002 Mitsubishi Eclipse as well… gotta keep BOTH EYES scanning in all directions, these days!
I remember one night after dinner when I was a little kid, my family went out to look at one. My father took a test drive with the salesman in the passenger seat and my two older brothers and myself in the back seat. My parents were looking for a second car for my Mother to use. Also in the early 1980's I had a chance to buy one for $85 because the guy selling it was moving (Navy), but my Mother talked me out of buying it. It would not be until 1986 that I would buy my first car when I was in the Navy, a rusted out, flood damaged piece of junk 1974 Mustang. My first new car would be bought in Feb 1987 a GMC S-15 that I would have the rest of time I was in the Navy.
Thank you so much for your service =) great story crazy you fit in the back seat.
Cool little car
My neighbor hood mechanic had one that didn't run , he put a 10hp Clinton lawn mover engine in and ran the pull starter rope thru the spot were the cigarette lighter would be.. 110mpg
Hahaha that’s absolutely awesome, does he still have it? I would love to review something like that I love cars that are totally different.
A guy in school had one of those...he was a jerk, but the car was cool! Also seen one in a driveway a few blocks away. Was a few years ago. Don't know what happened to it.
One of the guys in my outfit at Ft Sill, OK had one!
Jay; I commented before that you look like my nephew....his name is....Clay!
Awesome =) I know I have a few doppelgängers when I was in high school I kind of sort of looked like Topher Grace from that 70s show in Ways
I’ll get my high school yearbook from my parents house and show you some stuff in it during the live chat next Tuesday which I totally forgot to advertise in this episode but I plan on doing an episode once a day.. hopefully from here till the end of December =)
Best part is that the battery is bigger than the motor, go figure….
Im trading a old chevy truck for one of these this sunday! Can't wait!
Sweet =)
Honda B210 not a choice but dang fine car.
Darn! You didn't show us the spare tire. It's stored in a compartment under the rear bumper and looks about the size of a glove box on a full size pickup truck. Really!
I find it very hard to be attracted by those soda cans with motorcycle engines...
i drove one in the early 70s, not much more than a go kart with a engine that had to be rebuilt every 6000 miles, a complete piece of crap. one trip o took in the 70s along the interstate 5 in high winds i saw one of these blow over and off the road.
That’s crazy thank you for sharing that story =)
coupe, cappuccino
I always wanted to try putting a 1200cc gold wing engine in one
Great choices that would be awesome I always wanted to get a volts wagon beetle and put a Harley V twin in the back I thought that would be really cool it produces the same horsepower with two less cylinders
I almost said the coupe because it’s sporty. But the 1300 would be the most practical.
Honda for sure
I remember they had an optional 2 speed automatic!!!
Yes thank you so much for that
It was three speed actually and worked brilliantly.
1972 the Best Year of Innovations... Alfasud,Renault 5 , Citroen GS,Honda Civic,Rekord D, Commodore B, Citroen SM etc...
You didn't DRIVE IT?
Mini Cooper's are performance versions of standard Minis and not the default brand name.
Good to know I haven’t looked into the original mini yet I had a Good friend who had one but he sold it years ago
In 1989 I had 2 N600 vans , 600 cc air-cooled twins , I left at a so called friends place and they scrapped them ! In Redcliffe Australia. How rare would the van version be now ! They are at the wreckers on Duffield Rd, Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia if anyone wants them .
Wow I’m sorry that happened to you people can be such jerks
@@What.its.like. yeah I regret leaving it there, but that's life , I now realise how rare the little panel van version of the N600 was . I've never seen another one . I put the current location in so someone might track them down and restore them .
They make the Honda E in Europe which is the modern version
Capicino on the second one.
Can you review more trucks or old Japanese cars?
Yes definitely will =)
I'll take a first gen Civic but with aluminum body panels and better steel structure to get around the problems with rust they had. Want that bigger 1200cc engine and it will still get 40mpg all day long.
I had a blue Z Coupe just like that. It only got about 45 MPG, not 70.............
Awesome thank you so much for sharing your experience it’s crazy that it didn’t get more
I saw two ones in 2001.
Sweet
Coupe all day.
Sweet =)
Peter Frampton Baby i love your ways 🤞???
Great guess it’s that same era but it’s not that band or the song
@@What.its.like. Led Zeppelin but I can't remember the song title it will come back to me 😱😂
It might be a Zeppelin song
Imagine if that had AC, 0-60 in 1hour
Haha I don’t know if the two cylinder engine could produce enough power to run the air conditioning compressor.. that’s hilarious 😂
no lie! LOL
I had one A Blue 600 Coupe and drove the car about three years in Heavy Los Angeles traffic I delivered newspapers with it commuted from the San Fernando Valley to downtown. Because I used it for work I kept excellent records for the car. It got 35 mpg ave over 80,000 miles NOT 50. I heard Old fat a--s Oh I got 50 or 60 mpg . Ask show me you records number of fills how much AND HOW YOU DID THE MATH. 9.9 adult males in this country are full of BS. No figures if you ask It's like calling them what they are LIAR. Most of'em can't count to ten without taking off the shoes. Mine used to stall on the freeway in front of BIG TRUCKS. A collapsed fuel strainer in the tank, caused the problem. One Sunday morning I came to close to being crushed by a big rig. I got off the freeway and drove though Griffith park to home. It sat Eight months for some one dumber than me to buy it. It or one just like it is in the Jay Leno collection. Nifty fun but Crosley and the Met are both better cars by my measure I've owned and or driven all three. American stuff is better built.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience I really appreciate it it’s crazy that that’s all you got out of it was 35 miles to the gallon.. considering it’s a two cylinder not very big..
What was your experience with the Metropolitan that is a car that I’m looking for.. to buy I love those they are small but big inside
Monty Python and the Crelm toothpaste car race. I'm sure the animator chose this car or one similar to it. 😊🚗 🚗 🦷 Jay as the Giant Business Man in a car! Looks like you're sitting in one of those amusement park cars intended for kids, and I have to say at one time these mini cars were quite popular. How does it compare to the huge Yugo?
I have never been in a Yugo I want to buy you go and put volts wagon badging all over it GTI take it to a Volkswagen show and see if anybody can tell the difference.. I think the Yugo Chevy Chevette GTI there is a bunch of other ones as well they all look very similar
@@What.its.like. Buy a Yugo! Modified it would be cool 😎 and it could be a mix of different makes, VW golf ⛳ parts and labels 🏷️🏷️.. One of my friend convinced his dad to buy him one (Reginald was a retired machinist from Milwaukee), so Dean got a red Yugo for his birthday. He put Porsche hubcaps on it and drove it like a maniac, those fork lift truck engines really do have power! ("Sports version"). 😅. I think he destroyed it Baja driving down swamp roads, but if treated well, they're pretty good machines, albeit the plastic interior parts feel like Mattel made them.. 🚗 😊. Great content Jay, keep on keeping on!! 🌄
Cute 🚙💙
Had a 72 Vega bad choice
I need to cover the Vega on here I haven’t seen one in years
@@What.its.like. See 2 of them at my neighbors house every day but they are drag racers, one of them is beautifully restored to look like a regular street car, that V8 makes some sweet noise.
I’ve only seen one in my lifetime and it was in my friend’s dad’s basement who knows it might still be there
@@What.its.like.
Yes ! The Vega certainly needs to be featured. That's if you can find one in the eastern states.
Harder still to find one with the original engine.
Speaking of engines, you should make a video about the Vega engine. Specifically why it sucked so much.
I had the personal misfortune of owning a Vega. I rebult most of the engine myself. I had a shop do the valve work.
The Vega could have been a very good car. But Chevy cheaped out.
It's the reason why so many people hated GM for decades. Also why so many people bought Japanese cars during the 1970s.
@@johanvangelderen6715 My college roommate had a 1974 Vega GT. He had me help him put glass packs (Cherry Bomb) on it. It didn't go any faster, but was loud... which let everyone in a mile radius know when he missed a shift !
WYR1: Probably the Z600, but a two-year-older Opel Kadett would be a more practical choice.
WYR2: Subaru 360, but again. the period Toyota Corolla or Opel Kadett or Datsun 510 would be more suitable for US traffic conditions.
Oh. It appears you may not have reviewed the Datsun 510, "the poor man's BMW".
They realistically get around 40 mpg.
I’ve heard conflicting I know people who swear they got 50-60mpg
I'd rather have a King Midget model ii.
Owners lie. Driven normally the car would actually get about 10 percent less than advertised because when MPG was first required it was tested differently than today. Car maybe got 45 if Honda was in error but to suggest that any car would get 50 percent more mileage than the rating that was required by law is just ludicrous. Information as such should be avoided as fact even if "owner have said". I have always gotten better mileage than advertised when I deliberately drive conservatively in all my vehicles. Still not a fact though.
I have a Prius that I drive to long distance meets shows and to go to Classic Automall at 80 miles an hour I get 40 miles to the gallon according to the EPA highway mileage isn’t supposed to I got it like a regular person I can get 50 55 out of it.. I would love to one day get one of these and put it to the test to see what the actual mileage is
@@What.its.like. my daily is a VW Jetta sportwagon 2.0 TDi 6 speed. Rated at 43 MPG before reprogramming because of dieselgate. Then rated at 40. I can rasily get 45 if I am conservative. Drive to have fun...37.
Z600