I think the actual problem is that when compared to other cars in their category these kei trucks do have abysmal safety standards such as no airbags or crumple zones. Which is because there isn’t a mini truck category in the US. Basically all pick up trucks are the same category.
The point about older cars still on the road is a valid point though, cars made before 1998 didn’t require airbags so if they can still be registered then the kei trucks should too.
Only 7500 kei vehicles are imported into the entire US each year - is this really a problem that needs addressing?
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/07/14/business/kei-trucks-japan...
And horse riding on the road - it’s still legal. I believe you can even ride cows in most countries
Safety of the driver, mind you, should be lower priority than safety of others, I.e. pedestrians.
Driver chose to drive whatever that is, but pedestrians didn’t. From that perspective motorcycles are great, they are least likely vehicle to main a pedestrian or child.
I take it you've never lived around Amish or Mennonite communities?
(Although to be fair, they have been required to put reflectors and sometimes turn signals on their buggies...)
Yet even compacts are disappearing. My kingdom for an EV compact that is compact. Even the Fiat 500s and Mini Coops feel like they get bigger each year.
HN users are not representative. Kei car enthusiasts are not representative. Americans love F-150s, Tacomas, Highlanders, 4runners, RAV4s, CRVs, etc. They by-and-large buy the largest car/truck they can afford. You look up the sales numbers for this stuff and there's just no contest; e.g., CRVs outsold Fits by almost a factor of 10. The marginal gain of "parking is slightly easier in streets or unlined lots" is something most people don't care enough about to buy a smaller vehicle. They prefer the other conveniences of large cars.
Is it true that manufacturers like selling larger cars because they have higher margins? Sure; they also like to sell you on the higher trim levels of small cars for the same reason. But Americans are happily making that easy for them.
I am sure that profit margin/advertising plays a mix into the decisions but I also think the consumer largely does not want small cars.
Edit: And for small work trucks, most of that market seems to be eaten up by the smaller commercial van vehicles at this point.
I guess im more just wondering if the lack of demand for small cars is just that after being absent from the market and seeing the least innovation over the last X years, whether there is some sort of collective amnesia that such a segment exists.
Car companies know what they're doing, so im probably just coping. I should stop wishing the free market to do what's right rather than profitable :P
And the 95% want an SUV or a Sedan. The 5% in dense cities, even if you successfully target and sell to 100% of them, isn't much revenue. Whereas if you make a crappy sedan and only 10% of the 95% consider it, that's STILL more sales.
So it might make more sense to simply give up those markets, take that money and dump it into the big sellers. Your Accords and F-150s of the world. To further capture more of the biggest market. So that's my guess.
If you want to sell cars and make money, compacts are not where it is at.
As noted in TheDrive.com [1] a few weeks ago, the lobby/professional group for various state DMVs, American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, has decided for some reason to promote DMVs outlawing by regulation small vehicles. The kei car enthusiast community is directly threatened by this and the Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) enthusiast community sees this effort as a shot across the bow. Thus they are working the PR channels to get legislative help in rolling back the regulatory rulemaking.
0. https://www.nhtsa.gov/importing-vehicle/importation-and-cert...
1. https://www.thedrive.com/news/massachusetts-reviewing-kei-ca...
Foreign markets are often very different and those vehicles don't pass safety in the US. My favorite was the death traps that Toyota Mexico made up until a couple years ago. Brand new vehicle but absolute death trap.
> The Chicken tax is a 25 percent tariff on light trucks (and originally on potato starch, dextrin, and brandy) imposed in 1964 by the United States under President Lyndon B. Johnson in response to tariffs placed by France and West Germany on importation of U.S. chicken.
> Eventually, the tariffs on potato starch, dextrin, and brandy were lifted,[4] but since 1964 this form of protectionism has remained in place to give US domestic automakers an advantage over imported competitors.
https://www.vox.com/climate/2024/3/4/24087919/biden-tariff-c...
Small trucks = not safe
Massive modern trucks killing cyclists and pedestrians = very safe! (For the driver)
While I’m all for reducing the size of cars in USA, pretending that ”massive modern trucks” are the only ones that kill is just wrong.
>But Massachusetts is now pointing out that kei trucks and vans don’t meet federal safety standards and recently included them on a list of vehicles that can’t be registered in the state. The state is now reconsidering that decision, leaving kei truck owners wondering whether they’ll be able to keep driving these vehicles.
>All existing unexpired registrations for Kei trucks and vans will remain active as the RMV works to review and assess industry standards related to Kei mini trucks and develop an updated policy addressing the registration of these vehicles. From: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/vehicles-that-cannot-be-re....
So depending on how registrations in MA work and if they expire, they will be pulling the rug out from under the owners.
Related, if we are worried about crash safety(ostentatiously of the operator and passengers) why does MA still allow motorcycles?
- Their top speed limit even on highways is 100kmh / 60mph
- K-cars have yellow license plates and yellow license plates are not allowed on highways
I have a memory of seeing one of the infamous white K-trucks on an interstate in Nashville and was gobsmacked. These cars are not rated for highway / interstates in Japan, let alone the U.S.
I'm not sure if the U.S. has a similar visible markings for farm vehicles to allow K-cars city road travel and deny interstate travel. If not, I agree they should be banned until some sort of classification is made and driver culture / knowledge is propagated.
> Their top speed limit even on highways is 100kmh
That's an old standard. They're allowed to go up to 120km/h on some roads.
Low-speed vehicles are coming to Rhode Island streets https://turnto10.com/news/local/low-speed-vehicles-are-comin...
