What is the too small for road safety thing? That’s pure bullshit, right? Smart cars are legal, how can these not be?
Give us cheap EVs and small trucks god damnit!!!
They don’t pass US federal crash tests, probably because of the lack of crumple zone, so they can’t be imported until they’re 25 years old. Which doesn’t make them any safer, but I guess rules are rules:
Because the trucks don’t meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, they’re legal to import only 25 years after having been manufactured. Then, it’s up to each state to decide whether to allow them on public roads.
I have one. No crumple zone. No airbags. Slow acceleration. Can’t reach highway speeds. No headrest.
But it’s my favorite car ever. I just treat it like I’m riding a motorcycle. I’m dead in an accident, so I try to be hyper-aware.
Sounds like some lack basic safety equipment like seat-belts.
I guess it’s just the lack of any crumple zone, similar to the VW van your legs are essentially the crumple zone.
Yeah, I’d imagine it’s fine down gridlocked Tokyo streets where you might be doing 20mph.
Probably not so good in a 70mph highway collision though.
IIRC, these things exist to exploit a legal loophole around vehicle registration in Japan as well. Safety is not the highest concern lol
It might be more about what vehicles share the road. SUVs and pickups tend to cause the majority of fatalities in crashes because their bumper height basically being non compatible with cars and vans and their larger blindspots… That design might not play particularly well with the Keis in crash situations.
But that being said SUVs and raised pickups are menaces to road safety across the board and we should be looking at phasing them out.
Mazda B series ready for a come back!
Okay I want a broke down one of these, an crate electric motor, and a lifepo4 battery pack
Nah I’m good.
I currently drive on a daily basis a Toyota Corolla… I purchased it for the sake of saving as much money as possible overall with said vehicle. I’m 6’0 245lbs - not obese mind you… and I’m genuinely tired of getting in and out of that car. Absofkinlutely NO way am I buying another sedan. Next vehicle is a big boy full sized SUV or pickup truck. I want to climb into my vehicle not damn near tear my knee just trying to get into my vehicle.
idk, I’m 6’6 and I despise having to drive full size pickups and SUVs. they’re made for short people to feel tall. A decent proportion I can’t even see street lights in lol.
The cars that have been good for me have been weird, like my s10 fits me better than any full size truck, outbacks and other cuv aren’t bad either, especially newer ones. I’ve heard there are sedans that are better fit for taller/bigger people, but I haven’t looked much there
Damn that’s crazy. I also own a Honda Odyssey (Mini-van) and that has a lot of room. I’ve driven in Yukons, Suburbans, Tahoes, Sierras, and Escalades, all of these vehicles feel incredibly roomy. However, I’d rather stick to Toyota, just haven’t gotten into a Tundra or Sequoia.
I’m 6’4" and 250 lbs and I drive either a small Volvo station wagon or a VW GTI. I fit in them just fine and my knees aren’t a problem. Hell, the seats in my Volvo are so good I sit in them when my back hurts.
I want to climb into my vehicle and not damn near tear my knee
More evidence for my theory that the prevalence of SUVs and trucks is because old people can’t handle low cars, and old people are the only ones buying new cars at the moment.
Damn son, I’m not old haha
You’re buying a bigger car because your knees hurt, which is pretty old.
Well for a few reasons. Bulk groceries (Sam’s club / Costco), we use the van for that. Same thing when I need to purchase large items from hardware stores. Or even transport large items. But yeah, the way I get into my car, I have to bend my left knee in such a way that it sometimes produces a sharp pain in the inside of my knee. If I try to get into the driver seat like a woman, which is butt in first rather than right leg in first, I end up hitting the top/back part of my head on the top door frame.
If it was an integrity issue with my knee(s), I wouldn’t be squatting 500lbs+.
All of that is a pretty boomer mentality, my dude. I can fit tons of stuff in my two small cars and if there’s something huge I get it delivered or rent a truck.
Okay, I’m a boomer. A boomer that in hopefully a couple years (when the market gets back to normal) will finally own a truck <3
Your knees sound 65+
I’m 6’0 245lbs - not obese mind you…
Technically obese. You’d have to lose 25 lbs to not be obese.
Of course Obesity is defined by BMI, and BMI is probably not as good as BRI and you might be closer to healthy by waist circumference. However your weight is probably not as healthy as you might think it is.
I’m assuming he is some kind of weight training person, and given the squat from another post, strength athlete. Dude is most likely pretty jacked, not fat
Strong is not mutually exclusive with fat.
I have a friend who made ability to lift heavy stuff basically his whole identity. Correlated with that was at any gathering he made a big show of eating just way more than everyone else because he’s a “big guy” and his muscles demand that much. So long as he could lift, obviously he must be fit, he works out after all. Basically his concept of masculinity is lift the heaviest stuff and eat the most stuff.
Now he’s struggling with diabetes and liver problems, despite being crazy strong. Never did cardio, and ate way more than he needed.
Yes, BMI can be misleading and being a bit muscular can have a higher BMI and be healthier than BMI says, but odds are if you are up in the obese territory, you probably are packing a lot of visceral fat screwing up your gut.
So I’m not strictly a powerlifter. My first 15 years of gym training was for the sake of size (bodybuilding), once I reached a certain size I decided to move onto powerlifting for the sake of strength. However, in order to maintain my size I mix both powerlifting with bodybuilding, or what we call, “powerbuilding”. After two years of strict powerlifting, I noticed smaller muscle groups were getting outshined by other muscle groups and it was causing not just visual imbalances / asymmetry but also strength and stability imbalances (the heavier the weight the more strength you need in all working muscles and these muscles also need to keep me stabilized throughout the movement) which was impacting my bench press for example.
So at best, I can promise you, I’m not obese. Obese for me would be entering about 25% BF, which would push my weight to around 270lbs if not a little more than that.
LOL.
Haha, as I mentioned elsewhere, my assumption was you are jacked, not fat?
I sit at about 13% bodyfat at this weight, per DEXA scan. At 230lbs, I sit at the lower end of 9% bodyfat. Or at least that’s what it was last year. Once a year I lean out then get a DEXA scan done to compare percentages of bodyfat vs muscle mass, this gives me an idea, on paper, if my muscle mass has increased or not.
Sounds less like your car hurting you and more likely your lack of mobility. Try stretching?
I do mobility work for sure. In the realm of powerlifting, it’s necessary. Otherwise injuries will definitely occur sooner or later, regardless of the weight.
How often do you sit cross legged on the floor? A lot of stretching routines are basic maintenance but getting to actual comfort is a different thing entirely. Getting up regularly and relaxing into floor sitting while watching tv has done me wonders personally. The first while is rough though.
Don’t get an SUV or Raised truck. They might be comfortable but they are dangerous to other vehicles on the road.
I’m about your size- I was comfortable in a Mini Cooper. I still regret trading it in.
Yeah shrug, I’m decently taller and heavier than you are, and my daily is a recent ford focus, and serves me well. Perhaps that Carolla is just a bad fit rather than the whole class of car?
How the hell do you get into your car? If I get into my Corolla without bending my other knee like I’m trying to tear ligaments and tendons, opposing knee will smash into my steering wheel.
I sit butt first into the driver’s seat, then rotate legs under the wheel, and then I’m in, no crazy knee positions etc
Because there’s a market for functional, minimalist vehicles that do a job and don’t require 8 or more years of payments. Trucks have become status symbols more often than not.
I just want a Kei car in Germany
We have these trucks in Taiwan. It’s quite literally the majority of the trucks on the road. These things are not allowed on the highways because a crash in them will result in likely death.
Instead they are only allowed on local roads where our speeds don’t reach anything more than 40km/hr. Even then, the crashes I have seen in them, the driver is always hurt.
I know Lemmy likes to dream about owning a kei truck. But keep in mind that these trucks are not safe in crashes. They were never designed with the speeds that Americans see on a daily basis.
How long until these are banned ?
Already are banned in a few states, relegated to being registered as off road vehicles only.
I saw in the article that they are legal in 19 states. I did not see the off road vehicle bit. Interesting, and thanks.
It’s already happening in some states
We are the party of free market capitalism! We won’t allow rules to stop us from polluting the shit out of everything, we won’t allow rules that will make the world better! We only allow rules that block the competitors of our biggest bribers
Free market for me, not for thee.
This is it basically. People think free markets are bad for humanity, but all the problems are for when people just reach out and stop the free market from happening.
That’s government’s job: maintain an actually free market, where new people can come in and give people what they want, when the existing guys fail to do so.
It takes active input of energy to maintain that state of affairs. There will always be people who want to take control of it in unfair ways and get profit without providing the best value to the people, and it’s in our collective best interests to stop those people. So it’s legit to spend taxes on things like breaking up monopolies or maintaining infrastructure.
Free market doesn’t mean it happens naturally. It used to happen more naturally, because the total amount of power a person could wield over others was limited. But ever since we’ve had armies and ultra wealthy families and huge companies, all of which can exert power over individuals, a free market is a thing which requires government enforcement to maintain.
I think our problem might be that our government isn’t financially dominant. It is militarily dominant, and so it’s able to maintain the relative safety that comes from having a monopoly on violence. But the government doesn’t have a monopoly on financial power and so it can be overpowered by money.
Regardless of bans, I’ve heard these cars are INCREDIBLY hard to import. Not only is getting permits for them difficult, but many places selling them domestically have gone around the laws regarding them, resulting in people’s Kei trucks being taken by the government and shipped back to Japan on their dime.
It’s not an easy thing to get into.
How’s my /keitruck subreddit doing? I got banned from reddit as a different username at the IP level so I have no clue. I was thinking about starting it again here on our own instance but it’s been a struggle with de-googlelizing my life at the moment. But maybe someone else has one already? Time to leave that rotten place behind.
Been to Japan lately. There are even Kei Fire Trucks, for the many small roads with wooden houses and shrines etc.
And then there are hundreds of different kei truck and van types for all purposes, even concrete mixers.
Also, private houses in cities are often small and space-saving and so are the cars. A sensible use of public space – and cars only park on private property or rented parking spaces.
WHAT IS THE WHITE HONDA?
I’ve wanted an upgrade to my element but this looks adorbs and 4 door.
Looks like an N-Box. The rear doors are sliding.
TYVM
The fire truck’s not a kei-- keis have yellow plates
These are rad. Weird they’re not more popular internationally.
Ok that black van model goes way harder than it has any right to
Neither the fire truck nor the concrete truck are Kei class vehicles.
They are small diesel trucks, yes, but Kei literally means ‘light’ and have strict weight limits on both the weight of the vehicle and how much load they can carry.
Well, those are also not vehicles that the average citizen buys. In a certain way they follow the same design philosophy.
That much is certainly true. It’s such a shame that small trucks are not available to buy new in the US.
I will promise you that those two are not even close to the size of traditional versions you’ll see in Germany.
I guess the size has something to do with the size of Japanese roads and back alley space?
Yes in some neighborhoods and villages the roads are so narrow that they can practically only be driven on by Kei cars.
Japan as an Island has limited space available for natural reasons, plus large parts of the country are mountain area. So the old cities have been built in plains and reached high density. Building is strictly regulated.
And that has also grown into the culture. The Japanese sense for efficiency is legendary and so you simply don’t waste space. And in general, you don’t show off with oversized cars. Understatement is part of the general habitus. Shintoism and Buddhism have deep roots and that certainly plays a role too.
This is just freaking adorable!
Used commonly in railway maintenance in Japan! This budget friendly truck is favoured by JR which want to cut budget on everything.
That’s nowhere in the same size class as OPs. It’s just the same style with a cab-forward design. It’s probably a 3-ton.
How about this?
That’s the same model. Its a much heavier duty truck than these little flitter trucks referred to in the OP.
I’m not sure what you’re not understanding here.
Should be correct now? Not really good at identifying car.
That’s more like it.
Any idea what that MOW truck is for? The second cab in the rear is really throwing me off.
For towing ?
If it was just for towing it wouldnt have a cab in the rear like that.
The 2nd cab is just so they can drive forward in either direction on the rail.
As much as overpaying sucks, that thing is just asking to get obliterated on an American road.
Or just use them in cities or rural areas. Not everyone goes onto the freeway everyday.
Are American roads like one of those bumper car thingies of the amusement parks?
So people are tired of paying 60 to 90k for an f150 or a Dodge ram? You don’t say!
Here’s where they’re legal, and exactly how legal they are in the US
Many of the “legal” states aren’t all that legal, really.
We desperately need smaller vehicles to counter the behemoth light trucks that are in the road today. Everything about these kei truck bans just scream corruption and incompetence from politicians to domestic auto manufacturers.
“Light” trucks. A real light truck is something like the Toyota Hilux up through the 5th or 6th generation.
My S10 is a “light truck.” A Silverado 3500 is not.
They stopped making Honda Fits (in North America) because there was no demand.
Do you consider a Honda Fit a light duty truck?
The topic of oversized vehicles is not limited to trucks.
In a post about small light duty trucks, and a comment about small light duty trucks, you’re pointing out that compact sedans are not popular. Would you like to point out some other true but off topic things? Vanilla is the most popular ice cream flavor.
“No one is allowed to deviate at all in the slightest bit ever, to the obvious bigger topic!!!”
It’s entirely irrelevant to bring up one specific type of vehicle being cancelled because people didn’t like it, which can be for a shitload of different reasons beyond just size
This is true, yet I see a lot of them on the road and speaking for my circle of people I know plenty of people who want them. It’s a shame really as I was only left with the civic and that’s the same size as my old accord.
Americans just love being the biggest on the road. Bigger is better in their minds. Maybe we put an extra tax on very large vehicles.
The other day an edible and an aliexpress misadventure really got me wondering “Why shouldn’t I have an electric cargo trike”?
It’s the biggest tricycle I can find!
Haha because it’s from aliexpress. I think it’s a great idea though. You can haul things. Don’t need roads. Looks cool. Good for the environment
I know. If one were made by a known entity and not the price of an actual vehicle, I would be very tempted.
Aliexpress with the bangers:
It’s not only Americans though. French car makers also sell big SUVs to everyone because it’s very important to have the biggest car ever when you bring back a small bag of groceries, or when you desperately need to be on top of the world in the traffic jams. I see those morons every day and it saddens me.
damn, i would have expected the french to have better taste in their vehicles
Nope, it’s over since the invention of SUVs and leasing cars. Nowadays everyone has a big car or an expensive car.
Does Citroen make SUV’s now? They must be smoooooooth
Or stop making fuel artificially inexpensive?
Tell me more
We need to require special licenses for those behemoths.
I’d prefer they get banned entirely because there’s really no practical use for them that isn’t solved by some other commercial vehicle.
i’ve thought about that for high performance vehicles, but probably more important for very large vehicles. like a B/C license.
I’d love to see a comeback of vehicles like 1980s Toyota and Mazda pickups. Just a bit taller than sedans, good sized bed. I never understood the popularity of trucks that almost need a mini ladder to get into when they’re being used strictly in an urban or suburban setting.
What ban?
Many US states have laws preventing people from registering these kei class trucks.
For example, https://dmv.ny.gov/registration/how-register-imported-vehicle
On that page
KEI-Class vehicles cannot be registered or titled in New York State. (Authority: Section 400-a of NYS VTL)
Is there a reason for the ban related to how the car is built or designed, or is it politics?
I think any person who has a hand in making those laws would say it’s for safety. Though I also think many people looking at it and comparing it to other vehicles that are allowed would call it politics/corruption/stupidity. I personally think it’s politics
Politics. If you can register a motorcycle or atv, there’s zero excuses for not being able to register a light truck like a kei truck. Honestly they’re basically industrial grade golf carts.
