Driven: Subaru Vivio - The most fun you can have in a car

I was spending my Christmas holidays with my grandparents and was completely bored. My own car was 500km away and I was stuck with the public transport. One morning while making my plans for the day I recalled that my aunt had a little Subaru that I`ve always admired. Was it`s perkiness, cheerfulness or simply the fact that it was a 4x4 Subaru, I don`t know? I loved that car.
One phone call later I was riding the bus towards my aunts`house. There she gave me an ordinary looking key and pointed me in the direction the Subaru was parked. The Vivio is a Japanese Kei car that was produced between 1992 and 1998. It featured a 660 cc engine developing 54bhp and for the JDM market there was a 660 cc turbo version developing a whopping 64 bhp. It was available as 2WD as well as part-time 4WD.


 When I saw it at first, I thought it was parked further away than it actually was. How the Japanese managed to make such a small four door car is beyond me. Of course space in the back is either for really small Japanese children or for people without legs. Seats were very thin and uncomfortable. Basically, I felt like a giant in the car. 

The Subaru that I was going to drive was a greenish color and was the 4WD model. I unlocked it with the key ( no central locking) and opened the extremely light and thin door. You sit quite low, but the position is really good. Everything is a hand away, even the headlights. The radio-cassette player is surprisingly good for such a small and cheap car. As you glance over the dashboard you notice that there is no tachometer. The only way to know when to change gears is either by using your ears or by the little numbers on the speedometer telling you at what speed to change gear.

 

Turning the ignition key does absolutely nothing. The car is so quiet when idling that you would have to give it some gas just to make sure it's working. The clutch I so light that it looks like is pulling your leg when you press it. The gas pedal, on the other hand, is quite stiff and it takes some getting used to.

Driving the Vivio is full of adrenaline, noise, and bumps. The 54bhp feel more like 20bhp, but that doesn't ruin your fun. The max power is achieved at 7000 rpm meaning that there is around 1000 rpm more until the limiter kicks in. The good part is that you feel like driving a v-tec racing car, the bad part is that the noise it makes is so awful you begin to think that the car is screaming with pain. At the speed of about 50 km/h, there is a drone from the exhaust that is quite uncomfortable. Other than that the journey towards the ski resort I was heading to was slow and full of smiles.

At the ski resort, the little Subaru showed it`s real power: the amazing combination between narrow tires, 700kg weight, and 4WD. I picked a mountain trail that had only been plowed, no salt or sand on it, to test the little Subaru. I met a bloke in a Mercedes G-class that was struggling to get up the slope. I stopped right next to him, asked him how was the snow and, to his amazement, drove off straight up the slope. 

I was very sad when delivering the car back to my aunt. The way that the Subaru drove on the snow and the way that it was so small and nimble was unlike anything I had experienced before. And the best part of it was that the needle of the fuel gauge had barely moved after all that fun.