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. 🙄

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

I wish it wasn't so necessary to own a vehicle in most US cities and towns. We shouldn't be living this way.

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.

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

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

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