I finally realized that Americans buy for edge-case scenarios. Well, I might go off-road someday. Or I might need to haul something big someday. Same with houses. I might have six friends over for a month someday, so I should buy a house that will mostly sit unused until then. Instead, we should buy for what we actually use, then rent something for the rare occasion when what we have isn’t enough. We’d save a fortune, and not waste so much energy. 🙄
this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2024
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I’m looking into buying a kei truck for these exact edge case scenarios. Realistically I only need a vehicle that can reliably drive a few miles a day. With one of these I can get that plus 4wd, amazing mpg, a whole ass truck bed, and they cost PEANUTS compared to regular vehicles.
I don’t plan on hauling anything, but I do love the option.
Holy shit, I didn’t even know those were a thing. Thanks! That’s kinda perfect for what I’d need and they are reasonably priced (but ooooooooold, most of the once’s I’m finding are from the 90s for 5-7k. Certainly much lower price for the low mileage than any work truck I’ve come across..
Check your local laws, but if you can find a dealership in your state you’re probably fine.
I saw conflicting reports about legality in my state, but there’s also dealerships selling vehicles with valid in-state titles that they claim are highway legal. I just assume there’s some semantic/bureaucratic bullshit at play.
I checked, street legal in my state, but with restrictions.
Idk how accurate this resource is, but it’s what I found. I figure I’ll check with the dmv before I buy one, but I found a forum post that seemed to confirm it..
Didn’t see any dealerships in the area tho.
Yeah same I've been looking at a few different models because eventually I wanna build my own house out of cob and be self sufficient and all that. It'd be nice to have something that doesn't take up a lot of space, can be relatively easily fixed, and gets good MPG
Even with all the importation fees and taxes?
There’s stateside dealers with inventory! Realistically the import fees/taxes get lumped into the final price, but altogether that price is still well below typical used car prices.
If you do some searching you can even find dealerships that deliver to large swaths of the country.
I felt a bit of pride when I managed to move out of my apartment in one trip... with a Subaru Impreza. It was basically 3D Tetris, only the drivers seat wasn't totally full.
I bought into this thought and downsized my vehicle. Then I realized just how much of a pain in the ass renting a pickup truck is. Most rental agencies focus on business trips out whatever. They have plenty of sedans, but no pickups. U-Haul is the only consistent place to rent one. They take terrible care of their shit. The first two trucks they presented had broken turn signals. The third was burning oil. They had no other options.
Home Depot has decent truck rentals in my experience. Also their work vans are quite good. I've paid $44 CAD for a rental for work I needed to do within a day.
Half of the YouTube comments are like "yeah well they're not road legal in the US" which entirely misses the point. It's not like that's some kind of cosmic truth that can never be changed. It just means the law is dumb as well
They're legal in a ton of states. They're only actually outright banned in 2 states, and mixed rules in 19 others. The other 28 states don't have any laws on them.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/kei-truck-legal-states
Which isn't even true
Some states have made them illegal for use on roads (in various ways like just no highways or all roads in general)
It varies from state to state
And yeah it can be changed and I really hope it does as they're great little trucks
In my home state they're perfectly legal as long as they're imported at least 25 years after they were made
I wish it wasn't so necessary to own a vehicle in most US cities and towns. We shouldn't be living this way.
Mostly farmers buying these. Helps that it doesn't have to be road legal(🙄) for them to register it as an agricultural vehicle. Wish the rest of us had equivalent options.
We do though, they are called UTVs.
I mean, this conversation led me to look into it, and yeah, I as a random suburbanite can totally register a mini-truck in Indiana. Just can't drive it on the Interstate.
I don't think these trucks were allowed on Japanese highways either.
Kei class vehicles are allowed on expressways here in Japan.
I see these more at job sites where they actually need to haul stuff. Most of the big Fords, I only ever see hauling ass.
Dude if kill for a reissue 80s hilux without all the modern bullshit.
Fuck this auto playing video.
I wish there were affordable velomobiles on the market. I would totally use that to buy groceries and get around town.
There are some plans for building a tadpole yourself. The xyz spaceframes is relatively easy but not ideal.
This actually looks pretty cool. A modular bike frame has all sorts of applications.
The main advantage of this is you can build it with simple tools, there are better plans you can build by welding. Or using composite. Then everything is modular ;) I'm planing to build my own version of of the XYZ
Now I’m imagining a bike made out of profile with all kinds of shit bolted to it and you end up with a pedal powered car
I like the idea of a small truck, but these don't really cut it for anything but farm and backroad use. They are just too underpowered; we're talking an engine the size of a motorcycle engine. I'm an American living in Japan and 90% of the traffic issues are caused by these and the similarly spec'd passenger vehicles. They are good for the utilitarian use that they were designed for, but are not capable commuter vehicles. These are not the solution for weening people off of the oversized trucks in America.
Side note: One of the comments on this video led me to look into CAFE regulations. Basically, the reason manufacturers in America don't offer S-10 or other small trucks anymore is because the EPA requirements are more lenient the larger the vehicle is. So instead of the regulations incentivising efficient, small vehicles as intended, manufacturers ditched the small trucks all together and went with larger, less efficient trucks. This seems to me like something that could easily be solved legislatively or maybe even at the EPA level. Here's a great, quick video on this. https://youtu.be/azI3nqrHEXM?si=Bc29YLqWEuSvcHEB
The Ford Maverick is a step in the right direction. More power than a kei by a mile.
It's still bigger, but not as large as the mega trucks. Plus it's actually affordable for the working man.
Aussies can be dumb too, heaps of these oversized trucks are popping up and most of them have oversized boats and caravans behind them. They don't even fit into our existing road and parking infrastructure. Very annoying
More and more of our parking lots around here are starting to block off spots on the corners/turns just so these 4 wheeled penis extensions can drive around without crashing into things.
I've always bought small pickups so I can haul materials when working on remodel jobs. I hadn't surveyed the market since I bought my last used 2006 frontier 12 years ago. I had to do a double take when first looking at the size of the "small size" pickups offered by the car manufactures. I couldn't believe the size of them. The only thing offered these days is the ford maverick. I've given up on trying to get a replacement truck. The offerings today are completely impractical.
Sometimes
To my understanding the use and popularity of kei cars in Japan is a thing for the same reason as massive cars in the US- favorable regulation.
My undersunderstanding, take with a grain of salt:
Japan created the kei class of cars during an economic recession to try and get motorcycle manufacturers to make super small, lightweight, affordable cars with spare parts in order to help the economy and make motorized transportation more accessible. They had a huge tax advantage for buyers.
Here in the US, emissions regulations that change based on the size and weight of the vehicle inadvertently resulted in SUVs and massive trucks being more favorable to manufacturers and less expensive to consumers.
Japan kinda seems like they've always had more appreciation for small cars, and america kinda seems like they've always had a bit of a preference for large heavy cars, and we could speculate why that is culturally (amount of space, road sizes, what the motorsports there have historically looked like with mountain driving vs drag strips and highways cruising, and all sorts of other reasons) but it seems almost misleading to leave out massive regulatory factors that differ in the two countries- intentional in Japan, and I think very unintentional in the US
For those who think kei cars are super cool (they are) hagerty did a really fun video on the exciting kei cars that enthusiasts enjoy, but it also kinda takes you through the conditions that led to their existence and then eventual popularity as regulations were tweaked. (But do know in advance that it's a car enthusiast's channel, and the man loves cars. I recognize not everyone here might enjoy his perspective on automobiles as much as I do)
Hagerty's mini-doc video on kei cars: https://youtu.be/LcB-nFt_bm0?si=tj-RquKZfwgUW0Uo
Edit: fixed a typo
Japan kinda seems like they’ve always had more appreciation for small cars
I got a motorcycle and not a car purely because of the tight corners with stone walls and other insanity that is Tokyo street size.
Kei cars were meant to wear the roads less, be more fuel efficient (we import a lot of the various fuels we use), etc.
I actually am buying a farm in northern Japan and probably will end up buying a kei truck (though I'm debating buying a van instead, but money is super tight right now). Engine power and heating/AC are definitely factors to think about.