Had a coworker looking into importing these. He could make a fair profit and make people very happy, plus he had the capital to get going just off his salary. No idea where he left off on that, but I’d buy one quick.
Now I’m looking at how to get one. A 4WD would replace almost everything I use my 2WD 2004 F150 for, and a trailer hitch would get the rest.
Maybe those car manufacturers should get with the kei truck program instead of fighting it.
Nonsense! They want to sell you an $80,000 car. Not a $10,000 car.
They get insane margins on those big payment princesses. For a lot of US automakers that’s what’s keeping them above water.
The market shifting towards small affordable utility vehicles is their worst nightmare.
Sounds like they need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
Could you imagine if the US made kei truck production a utility?
Utility, in the context of the automobile market, is a class of vehicles, hence why Australians call pickups “utes”.
Kai trucks count as utility vehicles, as do american pickup trucks.
Although, realistically, most pickup trucks sold In the US would better be described as “premium” or “luxury” vehicles given that most people buying them are not using them for off roading, hauling or towing, but rather as “life style” vehicles and status symbols.
These things get used everywhere in the world. Used to have a yellow one on a farm. Tough, super cheap, and reliable hauler around the property. It got used more than the main 4×4s which were more for long distance off-roading in remote parts of the property where terrain gets nuts.
You could get a fleet of these for the price of an American “truck”. And that means US car companies start losing profit from their useless overpriced can+trays.
The university in my town has a fleet of them.
I would guess it’s hard to break parts on them since they’re so light?
Yep, exactly. Plus the mechanical simplicity means much fewer things fail anyway. Common repairs take minutes (suspension, servicing, electrics, etc.), are very simple, and very cheap. It’s exactly what you want out of a workhorse vehicle. They’ve been so cleverly thought out because Japanese manufacturers had to be with KEI designs. Plus plemty come 4×4 and are very capable on soft terrain due to the lightness.
They’re just so insanely practical and affordable. Everyone loves them. Everyone loves a big V8 turbo diesel that never gets stuck and can haul anything, but they’re inferior mechanically and economically for most day-to-day run around jobs around the property.
I’m sure these will start flooding into the US agriculture industry if they’re able to.
Go talk to the NHTSA. It’s their regulations that are keeping US manufacturers from making small cars.
you’re dumb if you think American companies won’t find excuses to fuck with American consumers for profit. America is a land where morons blame regulation for things while corporations have been controlling the policy for decades and laugh as people play diversion for them often for free.
They arent keeping them from doing shit, the manufacturers are trying to avoid responsibilty and using a loophole in the regulations by making the trucks bigger than they should be.
Regulations are supposed to be designed in such a way that the “loophole” to avoid responsibility is the actual effect the regulator is seeking.
The objective is to increase fuel economy. If you are designing a regulation to increase fuel economy, you would identify the best method the industry has come up with, the worst method the industry has come up with. You’d use a carrot approach on the best method, and a stick approach on the worst.
They didn’t do that. They created a perverse regulatory incentive where a small, naturally-economical car has to meet the highest, toughest standard. They are smacking the smallest car with the stick, and the smaller the manufacturer makes that car, the harder they get hit.
If the smallest subcompacts were legally allowed to get 10mpg, every manufacturer would be making subcompacts. They’d be fighting to shrink down their compacts to qualify as subcompacts, and would actually be getting 50+ mpg.
But that’s not the regulatory environment we have. The regulations say “This drivetrain you already have will meet next year’s standards if you widen the body by an inch. Yes, widening it will decrease the MPG relative to this year’s model, but you’ll still be under the limits of the next higher bracket.”
Eliminate that perverted incentive, and cars will get smaller.
What you want is a fuel/distance tax. You can from there have variations of passenger vehicles, work cans, and pickup trucks each having a maximum fuel to distance ratio.
Potentially, sure. There are a number of ways it could be done. Eliminating specific MPG restrictions on subcompacts below a certain weight is what I’d start with, and slowly lower the weight for that category.
We could impose a large hurdle for vehicles below the 15th percentile economy for their class. If they try to bump a smaller car up a class, they harm the vehicles they actually design for that class.
There are lots and lots and lots of ways a good regulation could be structured.
I do not make vehicles, so a vehicle manufacturer should probably do that.
You’re arguing for regulatory capture.
Please dont do that.
Truck size growth is driven at least partially, if not mainly, by gas mileage regulations, where you can have lower gas mileage on larger vehicles, an allowance that was made to accommodate work vehicles. So people who want a powerful vehicle are forced to go bigger. If these regulations were relaxed or eliminated, we would have much smaller but still powerful trucks. I’d be interested in something like that…
Or we could just tighten the regulations on large vehicles, rather than removing the whole system which is a net good over all.
Best not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Well it doesn’t look like a net good right now. We have a million oversized trucks everywhere. We could have the same number of trucks, but smaller, for the same or less gas consumption. It would also be less dangerous to pedestrians and easier on the roads. Less tire wear and tear, and so on.
Your reasoning is lacking.
You’re “forced” to go bigger, because car manufacturers are too greedy. The big pickups and SUVs are basically classified as commercial trucks, so the regulations are much looser when it comes to emissions and safety. Which make them cheaper to produce.
Car companies are more than capable of making powerful small cars under current regulations and even stricter ones, but that has a smaller profit margin. That’s why they are fighting this, they want to keep their margins and not have to compete with these cars.
Not sure I see the connection between margin and truck size.
Just make those who want to get lower taxes for driving “commercial use” vehicles bring clear evidence of commercial use.
Whereas you are correct, there’s a really smart solution. If we simply got everyone who owns a big pickup truck (not for work) and euthanized them, our problems would be solved.
Murder is the word you’re looking for and for some twisted reason you want more of it as if there isn’t already enough.
It’s not that “there isn’t enough” — it’s that the wrong people are dying.
I like they way you think
I love living in a country where businesses make the rules.
We already drive Japanese cars on the roads. Why can’t we drive small ones?
tHeYrE uNsAfE
It’s the child-slayer emotional support trucks that can’t see the damn road ahead of themselves that are broadly unsafe vehicles. I had an arrogant boss tell me “maybe unsafe for you, but I’ll crush the other guy and be fine!”
Thus, in the future, all cars will be ten tons minimum, and you drive by feeling the impacts as you hit stuff bumping around the neighborhood.
Cause its piracy against cuck trucks. Having a small, effecient vehicle that is more practical, has more cargo space and capacity and is cheaper is simply unamerican.
The guys on the YouTube channel MightyCarMods love these little trucks
I was thinking about importing something like that back when I had money
One day, me too.
which have top speeds of around 60 miles per hour and can lack modern safety equipment like airbags
I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to let people fly down a highway at 55mph without airbags. Maybe restrict the bill just a little to ensure these sorts of things.
The article says in like the next sentence they won’t be allowed on highways.
… and then the very next sentence after that:
“But there’s absolutely no reason why they can’t be safely operated on city streets or on farm roads [or] state highways where the speed limit’s 55,” he said.
Us already lets people fly down the highway without seatbelts, functional brakes, airbags, any safety equipment, rusted out chassis etc. Its always land of the free until someone starts threatening the margins of a corporation.
Guess what part of your body the airbag is when you’re riding a motorcycle. The cute hat is just so they can have open casket service without people puking.
I guess what I’m trying to get at is that allowing new cars without airbags is a regression in auto safety in the US.
Why can’t a small truck have airbags?
