Ever heard of the Italian car brand Bremach? Yeah, me neither. What about the Russian brand UAZ? That rings a bell, but it’s faint, ringing softly from over the hills and far away. Well, Bremach went bankrupt in 2015, pulled out of it, and is now teaming up with UAZ to maybe, if their little trucks are worth a damn, answer many off-road driver’s pleas for a simple and rugged overland platform that doesn’t break the bank.
At last month’s LA Auto show, Bremach debuted the Taos, a plucky SUV that looks awfully similar to the UAZ Patriot, which has been for sale in Russia since 2005. This one will be built at a Bremach facility in Southern California.
It’s a bare-bones rig that comes with a ladder-style frame, Eaton selectable locker in the rear, solid axles, a simple two-speed transfer case, and, if you want, a manual transmission. An inline 4-cylinder motor makes a perfectly reasonable 150 hp. It comes with a 10-year, 100,000 mile powertrain warranty too, which is enticing, assuming the company is around for those ten years. MSRP is a refreshing $26,405.
In the flesh.
Look! Actual, physical buttons!
— BREMACH (@BREMACH_USA) October 21, 2021
Inside it looks like, well, a car from 2005, just with a touchscreen. Big chunky buttons, simple interfaces, things where you want and expect them. Perfect. Oh, and leather is standard, as are heated seats.
As for the looks, it has a definite Euro vibe, which is great. Every car for sale in this country looks like every other car, so a little weirdness is greatly appreciated.
The Fast Lane did a little walkthrough at the LA Auto Show, check it out below.
Oh, and there’s a quirky-looking truck option coming too, the Brio, though it’s still undergoing testing.
Kinda falling in love with this thing.
For years and years, outdoor folks, car folks, and the intersection of the two, overlanding folks, have asked for simple, inexpensive, rugged little trucks and SUVs. A sub-$30k rig with what seems to be outstanding capability and a manual transmission and heated leather seats—oh, heck yes.
You can navigate over to the Bremach website, which, frankly, looks like a site cobbled together by a company that went bankrupt five years ago only to be rescued by an obscure Russian automaker, to put down a $100 deposit on the Taos, which is expected to go on sale at dealerships (their own, we presume?) in 2022.
Super cool, a little too bad they didn’t see the writing on the wall though, and offer it in a plug in hybrid option, maybe that’s coming?
The truck? Nifty, but will someone please tell manufacturers that stumpy beds are USELESS. 6 foot beds should be the industry minimum standard….
Still, glad there’s smaller companies out there, giving the big boys hell, they deserve it.
Love the weird truck!
I was excited to read this, but I am not sure this is so little. It appears to be over 188″ long, which is 8″ longer than my RAV4 and only 6″ shorter than a Land Cruiser. 13/24 MPG isn’t that exciting, either.
Give me a reliable, high-MPG, off-road-worthy little car the size of a Kia Soul, then you’ll have my attention.
I mean, have you seen the stuff some Foresters climb over? That’s about the size of a Kia Soul.
My next car will likely be a Forester, but my RAV4 gets 40+MPG driving to and from the Sierra and other trailheads, but it has some challenges getting to some rough desert trailheads.
My main issue was the title reads “Little,” which I assumed (my fault) to mean that it was actually little. IMHO, it’s not.
Since there’s no car out there that meets my needs, I will hike the extra miles when the road gets too rough. I’ll go back to my full garage now, if I can get my belly off the couch.
Buy an ATV or better yet, a SxS, problem solved for you.
The Bremach’s standard ground clearance of 8.3 inches is laughable–the base model 2021 Forester has 8.7. Also, the UAZ versions are said to rust like nothing else that’s for sale as a new vehicle.
Good, [email protected]#^%$g grief, here is a relatively cheap 4×4 that would more than satisfy almost anyone’s basic ‘get me to the outdoors’ needs and like I guessed as I read it, the comments already starting about it not being a hybrid, too long, too short, not enough clearance. Get a life people. I’ve commented before here and on auto websites, ‘car people’ are the absolute worst at commenting on BS stuff when they darn well know they wont ever be buying anyway. I can almost picture the out of shape dude, or gal, with a garage full of all the cool gear for outdoor adventures but never uses it, drives a Tacoma with crap hanging off of it, probably a “RTT” but it has not a scratch because, you know, monthly payments, yet they are great keyboard warriors. God, I should just have stayed off the internet today and gone surfing.
This would be a fun thing to research, but I bet surfers make up the biggest share of annoying keyboard warriors on the planet, and as a daily surfer of 25+ years, I should know.
We are for sure a close 2nd, I’d agree. Beautiful thing about surfing, not a whole lot of equipment to blame or nitpick. But the waves always suck 🙂