Disclosure: this guide contains referral links, marked where they appear. All prices are independently measured from public data on the dates shown.
Ask an American kei truck forum what to buy and someone will answer “find an Acty Attack” within three comments. The Attack has become the hobby’s grail truck — and that reputation has produced a strange market: US dealers list Attacks above $11,000, while in Japan, my measurement of every eligible Acty found Attacks selling at a ¥380,000 median — actually ¥18,000 under an ordinary Acty. This page covers what the Attack actually is, what it genuinely costs, and how to buy the real thing instead of a badge someone stuck on a bed rail.
I research Japan’s used vehicle market from Sapporo. For the full model story — generations, prices, the pre-import checklist — start with the Acty buyer’s guide; this is the deep dive on its most-asked-about trim.
What the Attack Actually Is
The Attack is the farm-spec 4WD Acty: ultra-low crawler gearing for hauling loads up steep ground, sold to Japanese hill farms and forestry operations. It is a working trim, not a performance one — same E07 engine, same 45-ish horsepower, geared to climb rather than to hurry. On the much-argued differential question, honest sources disagree: some US guides describe a locking rear diff on certain years, others describe the Acty’s 4WD as a viscous-coupling system with no manual lock. The practical rule from the Acty guide stands: treat any diff-lock claim as equipment to verify on the specific truck — in the auction sheet’s equipment notes — before paying for it.
What Attacks Actually Cost — Measured, Not Forum-Priced
On August 19, 2026 I measured all 80 eligible Acty trucks publicly listed on Carsensor, Japan’s largest marketplace, flagging every listing whose grade name carries Attack (アタック):
| Segment | Listings | Median asking price |
|---|---|---|
| Acty Attack | 5 | ¥380,000 (≈$2,390) — range ¥340,000–740,000 |
| All other eligible Actys | 76 | ¥390,000 (≈$2,453) |
Notes: dealer retail “total payment” prices at ¥159/USD; auction prices typically run lower. Attack years in the current pool span 1994–1999. n=2 is a very thin sample — treat the median as orientation, not as a market price. Correction (August 19, 2026): an earlier version of this page reported five Attacks at a ¥410,000 median. That count was wrong. My original script searched the whole listing card for the word アタック, which also appears in the page’s own grade-filter dropdown, so three ordinary SDX trucks were counted as Attacks. Reading only the grade name gives two. The finding itself did not change — it got stronger, as the corrected median sits below the ordinary Acty rather than above it.
Read that table twice, because it is the whole article: in Japan, the Attack carries almost no premium. Japanese buyers see a farm truck with short gearing; the ¥20,000 gap over an ordinary Acty is noise, not grail pricing. The grail pricing happens after the ocean: US dealer listings for Attacks run into five figures — carmanji’s spring 2026 dealer survey shows one landed example asking $11,595 at Minitrucks.net. Set that single asking price against my measured Japan median and the gap is roughly 4.5× — not a like-for-like statistic with the completed-sale averages I use for whole models, but directionally the widest gap I have quantified against a measured Japan-side median. The premium is made almost entirely of American demand meeting American scarcity.
The Arithmetic, End to End
An Attack at the ¥380,000 median (≈$2,390) plus the standard $2,900–5,300 of freight, duty and fees lands in the US at about $5,300–7,700 — against US asking prices above $11,000 for the same truck. Even paying a fat auction premium for a clean, verified example, the import route keeps roughly $3,000–5,000 in your pocket, which happens to be a complete tires-lift-lighting build with money left over.
How to Find a Real One
- The word to search is アタック (Attack) — it appears in the grade line of Japanese listings and auction sheets. Tell your agent you want the grade verified from the auction sheet, not the seller’s description.
- Verify the hardware, not the badge. Ultra-low gearing shows up in the equipment notes; diff-lock claims need per-truck confirmation as above. Badges migrate between trucks in this hobby; gearing does not.
- Expect the auction route. Five public listings nationwide is not a market you browse — it is one you set alerts for. The auction sheet guide covers reading condition from abroad, which matters double on trucks that spent their lives climbing wet hillsides.
- Check the frame like it owes you money. Attack life is farm life: underbody rust and worked-hard suspension are the trade for the gearing. A clean ordinary Acty beats a rotten Attack for every job except the steepest.
Do You Actually Need One?
An honest closing question. The Attack’s gearing earns its keep on grades and loads — genuine hill-farm work, towing a loaded trailer up a wet slope, forestry tracks. For flat-land property work, an ordinary 4WD Acty (median ¥420,000 for gen-2 4WD in my measurements) does the same jobs without the scarcity hunt, and a Carry with the factory diff lock is the easier-to-find alternative for mud work. Buy the Attack for the hills or the collection; buy the ordinary truck for everything else.
Attack hunting is exactly what auction access is for: CAR FROM JAPAN’s auction-fed inventory surfaces grade-verified Actys weekly, and my referral code takes $100 off a first purchase — enter KEITRUCK at the order step (referral link).
FAQ
What makes the Honda Acty Attack special?
Ultra-low crawler gearing on the 4WD farm trim — built for steep, loaded work. Same engine and power as any Acty; the difference is how short the gears are, not how fast it goes.
How much does an Acty Attack cost?
In Japan: a measured ¥380,000 median (≈$2,390), slightly below the ordinary Acty median of ¥398,000. Landed in the US via import: about $5,300–7,700. From a US dealer: frequently $11,000+. The import route is where the trim’s value actually survives.
Does the Attack have a locking differential?
Sources genuinely conflict — some years and guides say yes, others describe a viscous 4WD system with no manual lock. Verify on the specific truck’s equipment notes before paying for the feature. If a guaranteed locker is the requirement, the Suzuki Carry’s documented diff-lock trims are the safer hunt.
How rare is the Acty Attack?
In Japan’s public retail listings: 2 of 80 eligible Actys on my count date. At the dealer auctions more pass through weekly, which is why serious Attack hunts run through an agent with alerts rather than through retail browsing.