By Jeff Glucker
A few days ago, my family and I were in Mexico. Anytime you leave the country, you’re bound to see all sorts of vehicles you never get to see. Often, you’ll at least have heard of these cars and trucks but they don’t sell them where you live so you never come across them. Occasionally though, you’ll run into a vehicle you’ve never heard of before. And that’s how I wound up on the Wikipedia page for the JAC Frision T8 pickup truck.
It’s called the JAC Shuailing in its native Chinese market. The Frision name is added for Mexico. It’s also sold in Iran and Italy. And there’s a smaller T6 version as well as an electric version. You can only get the fuel versions with a six-speed stick, and they’re offered in 4×2 or 4×4 versions. It’s not a bad-looking truck, and it immediately caught my eye as something unfamiliar.
What’s the last vehicle you saw that you didn’t know existed?
Kamil Kaluski
I absolutely love all the Chinese EVs coming to our shores. My last surprise was a Voyah, which looks like a Volkswagen, really:
https://voyah.no/
A few years ago a Sunbeam Harrington passed me on the freeway; I recognized it as a Sunbeam but was unaware of the Harrington variants. I’ve seen it around town a few times since then and it’s always a treat.
Right hand drive Toyota Crown Hearse.
(Comment on the Frision – how weird to have lighting on the surface of the bumper, where it could be damaged doing truck things. The only other example I can think of is El Camino, but those at least were integrated into the bumper structure.)
I was unaware that the Pontiac Wave / Pontiac G3 existed until I saw a G3 with an Ontario plate driving here in Michigan. This was the Pontiac version of the often rebadged Daewoo Kalos, AKA Chevy Aveo.
A Suzuki Equator pickup truck. Some online research told me it was a rebadged Nissan Frontier.