Retro Japanese off-road vehicles are trendy right now, with many import car enthusiasts scooping up as many trucks, SUVs, and vans as they can get off of the island nation. But what if I told you there was an option that technically comes from Japan that’s cooler than any Mitsubishi Delica? This is the Bertone Freeclimber, a glorious luxury diesel SUV that started life as a Daihatsu, got upgraded by Italian firm Bertone, and then powered by a slick BMW straight-six diesel. Oh yes, and you can buy them right now.
SUVs were far different animals more than three decades ago. Until the 1970s, SUVs were largely for getting dirty off-road, not hauling you to the shops in supple leather. Then the Jeep Wagoneer and Land Rover Range Rover demonstrated that SUVs can be more than rough and tough mudding rigs. Instead, they can be posh and trendy, too.
It took some time for the luxury SUV to really catch on like a wildfire. Early SUVs didn’t exactly carry a ton of prestige. Sure, the Chevrolet K5 Blazer cashed in on America’s lust for ripping a vehicle through the outdoors, but at its heart it was still a hard worker. This was displayed for all to see in GM’s advertising, where literature boasted about the SUV’s towing capacity and wheeling capabilities. In contrast, if you looked at an advertisement for a Jeep Wagoneer or a Range Rover, the marketing copies often talked up their target buyers as being accomplished people who want a luxury car with extra capability.
Luxury SUVs eventually began heating up in Europe enough to catch the attention of Italian coachbuilder Bertone. It would eventually toss its own entry into the ring, making a delightfully weird multi-national mashup SUV. That’s the Bertone Freeclimber, a little posh cutie that started life as a humble Japanese off-roader.
From Work To Play
The Bertone Freeclimber couldn’t have existed without a special little Japanese 4×4. Like countless household names, Daihatsu had a humble beginning. The company was founded in 1907 as Hatsudoki Seizo Co., Ltd. and its calling to fame was the creation of Japan’s first suction gas engine. From Daihatsu:
Although imported real internal combustion engines existed in Japan, neither designs nor documents concerning such engines were available at that time. Therefore, the engineers had to devote themselves to research day and night, and confronted an endless series of difficulties. In December 1907, they finally carried out a trial test of a suction gas engine, and decided to unveil it in motion at a general meeting of shareholders planned soon after the test. However, it took a long time for them to turn on the engine. As some attendees began to leave their seats, a loud engine sound eventually echoed around the venue, drawing enthusiastic applause from the shareholders. This moment marked the completion of the first nationally made 6-horsepower suction gas engine.
Hatsudoki Seizo took that early success and ran with it, developing into an industrial powerhouse. The company’s engines grew into powerful generators and by 1917, Hatsudoki Seizo was fitting its steam engines into ships. This origin story is interesting as a number of marques started with the likes of bicycles. The company that would become Daihatsu didn’t get into cars until the Great Depression, when Japan’s industrial sector plummeted into turmoil. Daihatsu tried its hands at a bit of everything from train brakes to motorcycle engines. Its first car, a three-wheeler, came in December 1930 as the Model HA Daihatsu.
The now freshly-minted automaker didn’t stray too far from its industrial roots. Many of Daihatsu’s most famous vehicles in history were made with work in mind. In the early 1950s, Daihatsu identified a potential niche in the Japanese market for small trucks. Three-wheel trucks in post-World War II Japan had gotten quite massive while motorcycles were still too small. Daihatsu’s solution? The 1957 Midget, a trike truck with more capability than a motorcycle, but better agility than a larger three-wheeler. The Midget would eventually become a Japanese icon.
The 1960s saw rapid growth in the Japanese economy as well as in its businesses. Daihatsu says Japan also opened up trade, which meant that Japan’s automakers soon had to be concerned with competing with more than each other. Companies also faced the threat of potentially being merged if they couldn’t compete. To secure its position, Daihatsu joined the Toyota Motor Group in 1967 and the two have been partners ever since.
Daihatsu’s rise helped it move away from just building commercial vehicles and soon it was building small passenger vehicles and eventually, off-roaders. The Taft, the Rugger’s predecessor, launched in 1974 and had a mission similar to that of the Mitsubishi Jeep and the Suzuki Jimny. Tiny off-roaders took off in popularity as seemingly everyone wanted to play in the dirt. That name is interesting too, as Daihatsu says it means “Tough & Almighty Four-wheel Touring vehicle.”
Bertone Pimps Out A Baby SUV
As the book SUV: The World’s Greatest Sport Utility Vehicles, by Giles Chapman writes, the successor to the Taft was meant to be more than just a rugged off-roader. Launched in 1984, the Rugger was supposed to be a trendy and fashionable urban car on top of having great off-road chops. The Rugger – which Daihatsu says was inspired by the athleticism of rugby players – was also a huge international push, with the basic vehicle finding itself sold around the world under various aliases. Depending on where and how you approach a Rugger, it might be named the Daihatsu Rocky, the Toyota Blizzard, the Daihatsu Taft, the Daihatsu Hiline, or the Daihatsu Feroza. If you’re one of our European readers, you might know it as the Daihatsu Fourtrak.
Reportedly, the leaf spring suspensions, the uncomfortable seats, and the loud engines of the early Ruggers made them not so great at being urban vehicles, but they displayed remarkable prowess off-road. It was also a versatile platform available in two wheelbase lengths, as a hardtop, a convertible, or as a wagon.
Over in Italy, the famed coachbuilder Bertone was beginning to have some trouble. Giuseppe “Nuccio” Bertone’s design outfit, which was founded in 1912, was famous in the 1960s for its work on the Volvo 780 Coupé, the Opel Astra, and Citroën XM. That was after Bertone began the decade by taking over both the manufacturing and sales of the Fiat X1/9 and the Fiat Ritmo Cabrio. Outside of those vehicles, Bertone was also known for its work on the Fiat 8V Spider, the Lamborghini Miura, the NSU Spider, the Lancia Stratos, and even the Chery A1.
By the late 1980s, Nuccio noticed the growing popularity of luxury SUVs in Europe and decided to capitalize on it. Nuccio reportedly wanted to base his luxury SUV on an existing vehicle, and Bertone conducted a study to find the perfect base to build off of. Bertone eventually landed on the Daihatsu Rugger, which was being sold in Europe as the Feroza. By this time, the Feroza was known for its durable build quality and capable off-road chops.
Nuccio selected the little Feroza and Bertone would end up fixing the Daihatsu’s problems on the way to turning it into a luxury small SUV. The sport ute got an aggressive exterior upgrade. Bertone tossed the base vehicle’s pair of sealed beam headlights in the trash, replacing them with a quad set of reflector housings. The SUV was then given a wider stance, polished OZ wheels, and rich two-tone paint.
Inside, the changes were mild, with Bertone swapping out the uncomfortable cloth seats for leather thrones. The company also tossed in its own badging and minimal upgrades to the dashboard. For the most part, the rest of the Daihatsu was left unchanged. So your luxury SUV still had rubbery shift boots and an instrument cluster best described as “utilitarian.” The good news is that the Daihatsu’s four-wheel-drive system remained intact, so the new SUV still had the same great off-roading power.
The biggest change happened under the hood, where Bertone tossed out the SUV’s original Toyota engines for a selection of three engines from BMW. As the Truth About Cars noted, BMW was also interested in having a compact luxury SUV in Europe, and it saw a benefit in this automaker menagerie. On the lower end was a M20B20 2.0-liter straight-six good for 129 HP and 141 lb-ft of torque. The top engine was a 2.7-liter M20B27 six making 129 HP and 170 lb-ft of torque. Finally, for something a bit different, you could get the new Bertone with a BMW M21 2.4-liter turbodiesel straight-six good for 114 HP and 163 lb-ft of torque.
The BMW M21 is a bit of an interesting engine. While it did find a home in various BMW models, it was also bolted into Vixen 21 motorhomes and the Lincoln Continental. So this is an engine at least a several Americans today are familiar with, even though they might not own a BMW.
Those power figures also aren’t that impressive, but they were an improvement over the base engines. An early Rugger made 87 HP from a 2.0-liter Toyota four. At least an early ’90s Rugger with a 2.7-liter intercooled turbodiesel made 114 HP.
The finished product was named Freeclimber and built mostly by Bertone in its own facility, and marketed in Europe in 1989. That BMW power is why you’ll sometimes see car blogs call the Freeclimber BMW’s first SUV. Well, the truth is a bit more complicated than that. The Freeclimber started life as a Daihatsu and had a Toyota engine, then it was lightly redesigned by Bertone and fitted with BMW power. It’s not so much the first BMW SUV as it is a melting pot of an off-roader.
Things get even weirder from here. That diesel model was available only in France, where the Bertone Freeclimber was further modified by importer Chardonnet to be even more luxurious with the addition of Alcantara.
Amazingly, the Freeclimber ended up selling enough copies to justify making a second-generation model (above) when the Rugger moved to a second-generation in 1992. The Bertone Freeclimber II hit many of the same notes, being an upscale version of the Rugger. But this time, it got a BMW M40 1.6-liter straight-four good for 99 HP. The base SUV underneath also got an upgrade in the form of an independent front suspension and coil springs.
Rare And Hard-Working
While I’ve never seen an MSRP anywhere, it’s been reported that a new Freeclimber had a price comparable to that of a new Range Rover of the day. So, the Bertone Freeclimber was probably a bit of a weird proposition. You could have bought a Range Rover, or spent about the same price to get a smaller SUV that was still a cheap off-roader at heart.
Sadly, I don’t have a review to quote, either. But here’s something that might be better. Watch a Freeclimber live up to its name off-road:
Bertone called the Freeclimber series quits in 1995 to chase the contracts to build the Fiat Punto and Opel Astra. When all was said and done, Bertone managed to build 2,795 original Freeclimbers and 2,860 Freeclimber IIs. That makes these beasts pretty rare. Yet, they’re also not worth a ton of money. One was listed for sale for the equivalent of just $15,000 back in 2017. A Freeclimber in Florida sold for just $8,500 on Bring a Trailer in 2021. Another example in Colorado went for just $10,000.
There might be one for sale right now in Florida. This 1991 Bertone Freeclimber was imported into America in 2017 and then sold on eBay in 2018.
A seller is claiming to have that Freeclimber and has it listed for sale for $12,000. However, this listing is lazy at best and suspicious at worst because it uses photos from the eBay ad from back in 2018 and a description as written by a Bring a Trailer blog. The seller has yet to return a message from me.
With that being said, you can currently find a ton of Bertone Freeclimbers for sale in Europe for well under $10,000. Then, you can use my guide to bring one here.
Perhaps the most fascinating part about the Bertone Freeclimber is that Bertone actually had the right idea, but perhaps decades too early. Buyers love luxury SUVs and crossovers nowadays, so something like this might be successful today. I could see a modern interpretation of the Freeclimber going up against the Land Rover Defender. Instead, the Freeclimber gets to go down in history as a weird attempt to capture a niche, and now you have something to look forward to importing that isn’t the same kei truck as everyone else is buying.
Top graphic images: Petrolicious; depositphotos.com
That BMW 2.4 diesel is an unkillable beast (very different than the barely-making-it-out-of-warranty BMW engines of today).
I had one in a 524td, bought it at 220,000km, drove it for about 90,000km, sold it and I would still see it runing around town a decade later. Never had a single issue with it, even when ‘forgetting’ to change its oil, or running it on cheap locomotive diesel.
Didn’t realize Toyota provided the engine for these… makes the Rocky way more appealing.
So really, its as much BMWs first SUV as it a precursor for the current Supra…
Reminds me of when Top Gear talked about the Alfa Romeo Arna being a car that was done completely backward. “Designed by Nissan, built by Alfa Romeo”
The Natalie Cole duet with a recording of her father, Nat King Cole, singing “Unforgettable” also came out in 1991. It was not about the Freeclimber.
Pretty good approximation of a Samurai/Jimny it would seem. perhaps better engine. Got to wonder how unobtanium most of the parts might be though. Still I would take that over a similar year Samurai.
Getting the Axis band back together one last time.
I have a buddy who put an SR20 in an E30 BMW. His best friend and the main mechanic of their friends group had some kind of late 80s or early 90s 5 series with an RB swap in it. They called themselves Blitzkrieg.
It’s just a souped up Daihatsu Rocky, I would expect a little more “designed” bodywork, with Bertone involved… So reminds me of the whole horrible “Chrysler by Maserati” story from the eighties, the way some Italians were tricked into lending (selling) their good name to some inferior product.