I wonder if the state is also demanding that owners turn in registrations for ‘65 Mustangs, or ’30s and ’40s hot rods. Given that those cars were also never built to meet FMVSS, it’s only fair that they also be removed from Rhode Island’s roads posthaste. Maybe DiPalma would sponsor that bill too.
Good point, my guess is no. This ban is probably due to some fragile white males feeling threatened by the utility of these actually useful vehicles.
F250 pedestrian killer are fine however.
Had to google Kei Trucks but that’s exactly what I want in a vehicle. Small, efficient, utilitarian wheels with the bare minimum in bells and whistles.
Wow, I read the article, that law is some b*******. Those trucks are definitely safer than half of US vehicles on the road, and obviously much more practical
While this policy is bullshit, I’d firmly disagree that kei cars are safer than half of vehicles in the US.
- They’re all right hand drive, which makes it harder to see other traffic and pedestrians. Their headlights are also aimed to illuminate the left shoulder in Japan. In the US, those headlights will blind oncoming drivers.
- In order to be imported into the US, these kei cars are all 25 years old at least. Crash safety has improved a lot in that time. The slab fronts of these cars provide no crumple zone for occupants. Like many modern pickup trucks, a pedestrian will be crushed, rather than scooped onto the hood and windshield of a shorter car like a sedan.
- Because of their age, many of these vehicles might not have ABS or airbags. Additionally, their age also will make them more likely to have a technical problem, which will be harder to solve since they’re JDM only vehicles.
I drive a kei car and I just want to point out that their size makes it less of a burden to see incoming traffic than full size rhd vehicule.
As for the security concerns this would be valid if we were applying the same restrictions on other 25+ years old cars as well as motorcycles.
In Quebec we had the same type of witch hunt against JDM back in 2009 and what came out of it is that we’re the only Canadian province where rhd cars must be 25 years old minimum. So because they said they were not secure enough, they stopped allowing more secure/recent versions of the cars people wanted.
So yeah, I doubt it’s really just a security thing in the end.
So what’re ya gonna do, ban my 25-year-old US-market car next? 'Cause aside from the RHD headlight thing (which is a non-issue you can fix in 5 minutes with a screwdriver), they have all the same alleged problems.
But motorcycles are safe
I understand where you’re coming from, but
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American vehicles are so tall and poorly designed they are traffic hazards just by existing. The danger of a less “robust” chassis on American roads comes from the outside threat of poor manufacturing and disproportionate inefficiencies of American auto manufacturing.
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The build, visibility and reduced weight of kei trucks makes them safer than American vehicles.
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American headlights are obscenely bright and kei truck headlights are not going to outshine bubbas ford firebeams any time soon.
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25 year old cars are generally easier and cheaper to work on because they were made to swap accessible, standard parts out easily. Not that these trucks quit easily in the first place. The American auto model looking down its nose at Japanese auto reliability is absurd.
American vehicles are so tall and poorly designed they are traffic hazards just by existing.
Asshole in my neighborhood sometimes parks his pedestrian killer right by my exit from my parking lot. So when I am trying to get on the road I can’t see incoming traffic.
You inspired me, next time it happens I will see if I can get it towed.
Awesome, do it.
Their reduced visibility means they can’t see where they park either, so you can get them partially blocking some access point or hoped up on the curb.
Best of luck
“The build, visibility and reduced weight of kei trucks makes them safer than American vehicles.”
Not for the occupant when in a collision with a vehicle made for the American market and not for pedestrians who, as mentioned before, are getting hit by what is basically a wall coming at them and it just so happens that said wall is a foot above the ground which changes the dynamic because the pedestrian will tend to end up under the vehicle.
“25 year old cars are generally easier and cheaper to work on because they were made to swap accessible, standard parts out easily.”
You’re talking about 25 years old vehicles never sold in North America to begin with, parts aren’t available at your local parts store unless you find an equivalent by looking on the web and then you’re relying on people having tried to come up with a solution before you.
Which market a vehicle is made for doesn’t affect its physical properties by location, the truck isn’t going to shape shift stateside because it’s from a different country.
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A slimmer vehicle with better visibility and reduced weight has an easier time detecting threats or victims and brakes more effectively. It is a safer vehicle on the road.
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Any threat of driving a kei truck is a result of irresponsible American auto manufacturing, the same way bulky American vehicles disproportionately threaten pedestrians and sedans.
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Lot of incorrect assumptions on your part here; luckily, your misjudgments are irrelevant and we can address the salient fact that there are any number of reliable import shops for old-schoolers and countless websites where you can order these parts easily.
Which market a vehicle is made for doesn’t affect its physical properties
At affects the physical properties of the vehicles around it as they weren’t built with the same standards in mind.
brakes more effectively
Wrong, brakes are proportional as well and it also vastly depends on contact patch, by your logic a motorcycle would outbrake a car, it doesn’t. A Bugatti Veyron weights 2200kg and goes 100 to 0 in 31.4 meters, a Toyota Corolla GR does the same in 34 meters even if it weights 285kg less.
A kei car without airbags and no crumple zone at all isn’t safer than a regular car from the same era, let alone a modern car. A cab over wheel is more dangerous to pedestrians than anything else because it tends to draw them under the car. Modern cars are built with pedestrian safety regulations in mind, Kei cars weren’t.
Lots of incorrect assumptions on your part here, but it’s always the same with people who don’t actually know anything about cars except that they just want to see them off the road.
No it doesn’t. Haha, why are you- whatever, it’s funny.
Anecdotes are fun and similarly irrelevant to general auto standards.
And no, for regulatory, logical, and statistical sake, a cab over wheel in a properly manufactured vehicle is not more dangerous than a poorly manufactured American truck or SUV you literally cannot see the pedestrians in front of.
I do appreciate your desperation in parroting my exact wording at the end here to try to pretend you aren’t playing make-believe with your anecdotes and errors, but throwing a nonsense tantrum and fabricating straw-men to rail against isn’t helping your argument.
Anecdotes? I gave you numbers. Hell, need a more drastic example? Toyota Yaris, 100kph to 0, 32m and it weights… 1090kg! That’s half the weight of a Veyron yet it takes a longer distance to slow it down! Hell, you love Kei trucks so much, they do a freaking stoppie if you apply the brakes too hard!
Safe as fuck, right?
How is a truck with a tall grill unsafe but a truck with a flat nose safe for pedestrians during an impact? It’s the same kind of impact, one where the passenger isn’t thrown on the hood!
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A lot of the kei trucks and cars have a Suzuki F6A or K6A engine that was also used in some artic cat snowmobile. That kind of commonality makes it easy enough to find parts. Worst case scenario it is a 2 weeks wait time to get the part delivered from Japan. You know what took me more than 2 weeks to get some parts? A 2015 VW golf.
That covers your Suzuki Alto Works’ engine but how much trouble was it to figure out where to get brakes for it?
😬
Easy enough that I could get the car to pass the provincial inspection roughly a month after I got it. How long did it took you to get that Audi S2 road legal?
Call the dealer, order part VS spend hours figuring out what to order from where and hope that it’s actually legit…
Never had an S2 but it wasn’t for a lack of parts that I didn’t get my S4 road legal
🖕
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The article is defending Kei Trucks.
Ah, I see your confusion.
I added a couple words to make it more clear that I am also damning the new law and defending kei trucks.
I love me some b-stars
Have you actually been in one of those Kei trucks? It’s basically a tin can on skateboard wheels. It is extremely power limited due to engine size and handles poorly due to the wheel size. I’m not saying that they should or should not be banned, but they certainly are not safer than any US vehicle made in the last 35 years.
Driven them. I disagree, but understand how driving a kei truck would feel startling to someone used to the heavy handling of something like a buck.
Have you actually been in one of those Kei trucks
Yes.
It’s basically a tin can on skateboard wheels
Incredibly exaggerated. Also, I’ve ridden in worse vehicles that were perfectly legal here.
It is extremely power limited due to engine size
That’s why they’re not allowed on freeways / highways in places they’re allowed, thus it’s not a problem.
handles poorly due to the wheel size
Better than a lot of what’s steeet-legal, still.
they certainly are not safer than any US vehicle made in the last 35 years.
They certainly are, you’re just pretending that their use-case is identical to say a sedan when that’s not the case. When used for their purpose (Shirt-Medium distances on Slow-Medium speed roads) they are fantastic vehicles. There’s a reason they’re still made and sell like hotcakes elsewhere in the world.
You’re telling me that they’re not literally a tin can on skateboard wheels? /s Yes, of course that was hyperbole.
There are no passenger vehicles produced in the states with wheels that size. Smaller wheel size means reduced traction, which we both know these trucks suffer from, leading yo poor handling. You can say that they handle better and are safer than some US vehicles and I can say they are not. Neither of us have a way to objectively prove it, but apparently Maine and Rhode Island are of the opinion that they are not up to standard. I don’t disagree that they have their uses. They make fine farm/utility vehicles. But don’t pretend that they are in the same class as other vehicles on the roads in the US. Again, I’m not saying they should be illegal. I’m saying that there are valid concerns about them, and apparently some DMVs are finding them not to be up to snuff.
There are no passenger vehicles produced in the states with wheels that size
First: wheel size is not the only variable for handling, not even close. Second: produced in the US is different than legal to drive on our roads.
But don’t pretend that they are in the same class as other vehicles on the roads in the US
You’re right, quite a few of the shitboxes I see out there with valid tags are quite a bit WORSE than a Kei truck.
I’m saying that there are valid concerns about them
And I’m saying that’s blatantly false when we let far more unsafe vehicles exist and Kei trucks do just fine in other countries. The amount of Keis I’ve seen when visiting Japan is staggering, if they were truly a death trap worth regulating then there’d be some statistics backing that up from Japan and they’d likely be way less popular for being stupidly unsafe.
I’ve driven in multiple Kei trucks and they’re about on par with what a LOT of rural farms and even state/federal park services will use. If modern ones were even legal to import in the first place they’d be even better on the safety front.
some DMVs are finding them not to be up to snuff.
Nice appeal to authority. A DMV finding something to be unsafe means jack shit in a world where there’s lobbying incentive for governments to make rules so companies can make money. You know, the original reason Kei trucks are banned?
This article is even less informative than the same conversation last week.
To sum up, even a small car can have a dangerous design prohibited in the USA.
Plus, and this is sort of a big one not mentioned in this article, these folks were exploiting a loophole for antique vehicles to get around regulations.
We’ve had enough time now jalopnik.com should have discovered new information such as why they don’t meet federal safety standards.
