After a nearly two-year-long battle, car enthusiasts in Georgia have claimed a large victory. The state just passed a bill that, if signed by Governor Brian Kemp, will officially legalize imported cars in Georgia and lift the state’s long ban. However, before you celebrate, you should know that the bill has so many caveats that, to many enthusiasts, it’s not really a win at all.
Since the summer of 2021, several states across America have changed their rules regarding the legality of car imports driving on their roads. Maine kicked it off that summer with a new law designed to ban all vehicles not built to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Then, like a wildfire, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Massachusetts, Texas, Michigan, Colorado, and most recently, Illinois.
All of these states have followed direct recommendations issued by the infamous American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA), but each state found different ways to enforce their bans. Most states have targeted only Kei vehicles, Japan’s smallest class of road-legal car. While AAMVA recommends that every state in the nation bans any and all vehicles not built to FMVSS, it also specifically targets Kei trucks as being particularly unsafe.
It’s unsurprising to see AAMVA’s members — which are DMV administrators or law enforcement in every state, plus Washington D.C., Canada, Mexico, and the Virgin Islands — follow its recommendation. Sadly, as Colorado Public Radio has recently reported, at least two entities that might back these bans are car dealer associations and state police.
Enthusiasts have been swift in fighting these bans. In 2024, enthusiasts in Texas became the first to beat AAMVA’s 2021 recommendations. Then, enthusiasts following the example set by Texas scored huge wins in Massachusetts and Michigan. Enthusiasts also got a win in Colorado, though it appears that state kept its ban around and just stopped advertising it. Now, as my state of Illinois digs into the trenches, there’s a new win coming out of Georgia.
Georgia’s Fight
Our import-loving friends in Georgia have been through a lot. Their state followed AAMVA guidance and banned Kei vehicles in 2021. However, tag offices weren’t following the rules and were still issuing plates, anyway. In September 2023, this resulted in the state reminding its offices in no uncertain terms that Keis aren’t cool to the state.
The state began revoking titles and registrations of imported vehicles, officially making many imported cars, and not just Keis, illegal to drive.
Enthusiasts in Georgia were quick to react. Many contacted their representatives, while Tatsu Kazuya, an importer running Jora Imports, decided to take a more extreme action. Kazuya hired firm Lefkoff Law and crowdfunded a lawsuit to fight the state. Some 86 enthusiasts managed to chip in $8,040, enough to get the ball rolling.
Since then, our Kei car friends have been in limbo. Litigation takes forever, and there’s no guarantee that you’ll win. During all of this, enthusiasts in Georgia weren’t able to drive their cars, at least not legally, anyway.
Now, you might think that Kei bans impact only a handful of enthusiasts, but the consequences can reach far. A lot of small businesses buy Kei trucks and Kei vans as delivery vehicles and advertising vehicles. Some people even convert Keis into tiny food stands. Then there are businesses like Kazuya’s, which can’t really operate if the vehicles they import are banned. In 2023, Kazuya told us:
“The crackdown has affected us in the sense of not just not being able to easily import or register kei cars but also even normal import cars. It’s caused a lot of fear in the enthusiast market in general where people are more unwilling to take an even bigger gamble of buying even a regular JDM car because they worry that anything unique will have it’s title revoked.”
“I am TIRED of constantly being downtrodden by arbitrary rule making that not only affects me personally but everyone else I share this passion with. It’s time to hold accountable public servants who should be focused on more important matters rather than stomping out every harmless thing that we participate in!”
The Georgia General Assembly Responds
The quick action of the enthusiasts did result in a promising outcome. In February 2024, HB1239 was introduced into the Georgia House. The bill was pretty problematic.
On one hand, the bill called for the legal recognition of Kei vehicles:
‘Miniature on-road vehicle’ means any motorized vehicle designed and manufactured for use upon roadways in another country that has been imported into the United States with a valid certificate of title or registration from the exporting country and in compliance with all federal importation requirements and which has the following characteristics:
(A) Has the capability to transport persons;
(B) Operates between 25 miles per hour (40.2 kilometers per hour) and 65 miles per 31 hour (104.6 kilometers per hour);
(C) Has an overall width of 80 inches (2,030 millimeters) or less, exclusive of accessories or attachments;
(D) Is designed to travel on four or more wheels;
(E) Uses a steering wheel for steering control;
(F) Contains a nonstraddle seat;
(G) Has a gross vehicle weight rating of less than 4,000 pounds (1,814 kilograms); and
(H) Is not designed or manufactured as a golf cart, all-terrain vehicle, or multipurpose off-highway vehicle.
The speeds quoted above are weird. While many very old Kei trucks and vans may not be able to exceed 65 mph (and many are even slower than that), a more modern Kei vehicle can easily attain and maintain 83 mph.
Regardless, this seems great, right? The bill recognizes Keis as road vehicles! From here, the bill notes a bunch of wording changes to existing laws. None of these are specific to Kei vehicles, nor would they negatively impact the owners of Kei vehicles. But the next relevant part is about issuing titles:
Said title is further amended in Code Section 40-2-27, relating to registration of motor vehicles not manufactured to comply with federal emission and safety standards, certificate of registration for an assembled motor vehicle or motorcycle or a converted motor vehicle, and former military motor vehicles, by revising subsection (e) as follows:
(e) The provisions of subsection (a) of this Code section shall not apply to applications for certificates of registration for former military motor vehicles that are less than 25 years old and manufactured for the United States military, or multipurpose off-highway vehicles manufactured after January 1, 2000, or miniature on-road vehicles manufactured more than 25 years prior to application; provided, however, that the exception provided by this subsection shall be applicable to miniature on-road vehicles manufactured less than 25 years prior to application that have been modified by an importer registered with the United States Department of Transportation to comply with applicable federal motor vehicle safety standards issued pursuant to 49 U.S.C.A. Section 30101, et seq., and certified by such importer as such.”
Don’t worry, I have Code Section 40-2-27 subsection (a) right here:
(a) No application shall be accepted and no certificate of registration shall be issued to any motor vehicle which was not manufactured to comply with applicable federal emission standards issued pursuant to 42 U.S.C.A. Section 7401 through Section 7642, known as the Clean Air Act, as amended, and applicable federal motor vehicle safety standards issued pursuant to 49 U.S.C.A. Section 30101, et seq., unless and until the United States Customs Service or the United States Department of Transportation has certified that the motor vehicle complies with such applicable federal standards and unless all documents required by the commissioner for processing an application for a certificate of registration or title are printed and filled out in the English language or are accompanied by an English translation.
So that’s the state saying that it would register Keis. Great! The bill also went on to say that “unconventional vehicles” like Keis will be registered. Awesome! But wait, what’s this:
Miniature on-road vehicles shall be operated only on highways that are part of a municipal street system or county road system, provided that such operation has not been prohibited through ordinance or resolution within a local jurisdiction, and shall be authorized to cross highways that are part of the state highway system.”
If passed, this bill would have legalized Keis, yes, but also treated them like low-speed vehicles and side-by-sides. Keep in mind that a state highway doesn’t mean just limited-access freeways, but any signed state road.
Take Two
HB1239 passed Georgia’s House and then died in the Senate. But then, in a surprise move, a new bill was introduced in February 2025. This bill, HB308, is pretty much just a copy-and-paste of HB1239. Once again, this bill went through the House, and then last night, it was voted on by the Senate. HB308 passed with 46 Senators voting Yea and only 6 Senators voting Nay. What’s great to see here is that the bill got bipartisan support from Republicans and Democrats alike.
Now, HB308 is ready to fly. It just needs to be signed into law by the governor. If Gov. Kemp signs the bill, the law will go into effect on July 1, officially legalizing Keis in the state of Georgia.
However, not everyone is happy about this. I’m a member of a private group of organizers for Georgia’s Kei efforts, and several people think that this might be a loss overall. While everyone is happy that they’ll likely be able to register their cars without issue, some voice concerns about being banned from state roads. Georgia, like most states, is full of signed state highways.
One organizer, whom I will not name, said that if this bill were to become law, they would not be legally able to leave their home in their Kei vehicle because every road surrounding their property is a state road. A few others shared their own problems with how that part of the bill is written.
Still A Win?
Others in this group say they’re just going to drive their Keis, anyway, noting that the cars will have regular or antique license plates. However, a lot of enthusiasts are still disappointed because if the Governor signs this bill, Keis will more or less be on the level of mopeds. One organizer in the group noted that this is actually a step back because until 2023, enthusiasts in Georgia were able to drive their cars anywhere.
From my view, this is also bad because if Georgia’s Kei owners want to have access to state roads one day, they’ll have to fight a law to get that access. The enthusiasts in Maine can tell you how hard it is to overturn a law once it’s been passed.
So, enthusiasts in Georgia might have just scored a huge win, but that win also comes with a nearly as huge asterisk. At the very least, I think this is a step in the right direction.
Until motorcycles and antique cars are banned as “too dangerous”, banning anything else for that is BS. You can take a Model A Ford on the road but not a Kei truck? Ridiculous.
Riding my 200mph sportbike with no helmet and flip flops is CLEARLY safer!
/s
Gotta be honest, I’ve skipped the text because I’m not in the US so none of this apply to me. I just come for the nice pictures, and thanks Mercedes for putting them here.
just bought a 97 subaru sambar for dump runs and odd jobs around the house. only problem licensing it was the value for taxes. not in the book, so the clerk used a subaru brat as equal. i like the rig, basic doesn’t begin to describe it, the ride on back roads is,,,interesting. but the cool looks when you park next to a fully optioned out pickup is worth it. half the size with a bigger and lower box! first truck i ever got over 35 miles to a gallon of fuel too. definitely not a highway truck but fun on the back roads.
Americans are odd, American politicians are very odd. American non-elected pressure groups are really really very odd.
It seems odd to type this as I am English and drive cars(ish) that are on average about 98 years old, to my name I have indulged in Morris dancing, Dwile floncking and incest (the latter was accidental and a bit odd when we discovered how closely we were related), there is more, but I have never thought that odd tiny cars are a threat to my way of life. Funny, I suppose, land of the free and the treaties of Paris and other stuff.
Recycling a comment from a previous anti-kei article
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Here’s a secret: buy something small from Europe. Many kei cars were/are sold in Europe, including the Subaru Vivio. The Daihatsu Hijet was license-built in Italy as the Piaggio Porter.
Euro-market kei cars (and other Japanese cars) have a standard 17-character VIN number.
And of course, there are other non-Japanese mini cars in Europe such as the Fiat 600/Seicento, Ford Ka, Renault Clio/Twingo, etc.
Small Asian cars in other Asian countries also use the standard 17-character VIN number format, so those can also sneak by. There are also tiny cars in Latin America.
Shit, if I lived in Illinois or one of the other kei-ban states, and I had the money, I’d buy someone a Vivio from Europe just to give the AAMVA the finger!
Maybe Mercedes Streeter herself should import a Vivio from Europe (perhaps Tracy can help her, since he’s already imported a Euro car and has the experience).
Here is a nice Vivio for sale in Italy:
https://www.autoscout24.it/annunci/subaru-vivio-660-cat-5-porte-4wd-gpl-benzina-blu-azzurro-b6609062-05bf-4e36-ac69-55d294d244d0
See also:
https://opposite-lock.com/topic/118754/miss-mercedes-needs-to-buy-a-subaru-vivio-kei-car/1
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Also remember, most of the anti-jkei lobbying is from the SxS industry.
It’s a lot harder to import from Europe though. Japan has a whole infrastructure in place for slinging their used cars across the globe. Italy not so much.
shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh don’t hate! 😛
There’s plenty of euro importers. Orchid Euro for one, in the East Coast.
I haven’t messed with Italy, but there are many importers out there grabbing cars from Europe, and speaking from experience, importing from the UK was super easy.
Sure you can buy a European car from an importer, but that’s not the same as importing a European car. Japan has an exporter ecosystem that makes shopping for cars that are still in Japan much easier than from EU.
There are plenty of Euro based exporters too. Again my experience is UK centric, but in 30 seconds of looking when I was doing it, I found 3 exporters.
And buying a car from an importer is very different than using an importer to get a car. Most Euro centric importers do not maintain a stock of vehicles, and instead help you find the car you want, then handle all the legwork to get it here. While there might be a bigger system of exporters in Japan, it is not hard at all to get one from Europe.
I’m conflicted to know this…I was thinking the best alternative was to just buy and rehab a 1 Euro house in Italy and finally have a parking spot for the forbidden fruit. As a plus, some seriously amazing roads and no tangerine Mussolini.
Haha I have been looking at those cheap houses for years. I hope to do something about it next year. Probably not a 1 Euro one, but definitely something under 10k.
The big problem with importing from Europe right now is that everything works against you in terms of cost. The yen is weaker than the dollar, but the euro is stronger than the dollar. The last time I priced a car in Europe in February, it was substantially more expensive to bring over than a similar car from Japan.
That Subaru Vivio is currently worth $2,088 whereas the same car in Japan is worth just $700. Don’t think you’ll make up the gap in other costs, either. The last shipping quote I got was $500 for land shipping in Europe and then another $2,250 for ocean shipping.
On the other hand, I paid just $135 for land shipping in Japan and then another $1,700 for ocean shipping from Japan. Ocean shipping from Japan actually used to be half that price, too.
Oh, and since there isn’t a super-easy auction system in Europe, you’ll probably end up paying a guy $1,500 just to find you a car. Then you’ll have to pay a bunch of fees on top of that. On the other hand, I paid just $900 to have my Japanese exporter handle the entire process in Japan. Now I just wait for the car to arrive and deal with Customs.
You can save on that finder’s fee by flying out to Europe yourself to facilitate the transaction, but you still have to pay for international travel, so you can’t be saving much money.
That Subaru will cost you about $6,400 in just the finder’s fee, the purchase price, and shipping. Then you have to pay all of the other fees and the import duty on top of it.
But the same Subaru from Japan would cost you almost half that. Also, keep in mind that a 17-digit VIN isn’t a guarantee. The reason I got an imported Smart entirely for free was that Colorado didn’t want to register it anymore. The 17-digit VIN didn’t matter one bit.
TL;DR – There is always a risk in owning an imported car. There’s less risk in one with a 17-digit VIN, but there’s always some risk. Paying more for a Japanese car from Europe does expose you to less risk. Though, the next question is how much you’re willing to spend on a car worth only $700.
For future Kei fights maybe the enthusiasts should give a bill template to avoid bad bills like this.
Maybe start with Illinois.
Yeah these groups need lobbyists (remember, they’re only bad when they’re doing things you don’t like of course) and model legislation.
I am all for legalized kei cars for import and driving on the road for collectors and enthusiasts these rules seem to be legalizing specialty vehicles for everyday transportation and business use. I am against this. First all regular use vehicles should be able to attain the speed limit easily if driven daily. Also what is the point of increasing safety requirements in vehicles if people can import death traps that are basically motorized Amish Buggies? In my area there are more than enough deaths from cars hitting Amish Buggies we don’t need to increase them by having slow moving tin cans as daily drivers. TOO FAR.
Most kei vehicles have no problem reaching the speed limit on regular roads. My Honda Beat is way faster than my 40 HP diesel Smart Fortwo. That Smart takes a whopping 20 seconds to reach 60 mph. I used to own a Mercedes-Benz 240D that took a whole 23 seconds to hit the same speed
Yet, these states aren’t banning Smarts, Ford Model Ts (which can’t even hit 60), or classic Mercedes-Benz products. They aren’t banning motorcycles, either, and lots of riders find themselves converted into road pizza every year. That’s what makes these bans so infuriating.
If it were actually about safety, maybe you’d see something like “we’re banning every car not built to ____ safety standard” or “we’re banning every car incapable of reaching X speed within X time.” Instead, it’s “you can’t drive a tiny truck imported from Japan. But a tiny car from Germany is cool.”
And because the wheels won’t balance well, my ’64 F100 coach-built crewcab maxes out at 55 mph else it starts shaking. So there are otherwise fully legal vehicles that are not really highway ready.
Exactly. How many of these states do annual or semiannual safety inspections? PA does, but I know a lot of southern states don’t.
In NC, a vehicle is exempt from inspections after 30 years. If you can’t even import a kei car until it is 25 years old, it will only ever get inspected a handful of times at most.
lol the real death traps are full size trucks that should require a CDL to drive
The highest speed limit in the US is 85 mph, and modern kei cars are capable of 87 mph.
The Mirage has 74 hp, just 10 more than kei cars have, and kei cars also weigh less. The Geo/Chevy Metro actually has *less* power than kei cars, (55 hp vs 63),
The safety issue isn’t kei vs full-size, but rather new vs old. A 25 year old kei car isn’t really less safe than any other 25 year old small car.
It’s really lobbying by the SxS industry. In fact, they’re so profitable that Honda stopped making lawn mowers in order to make room for more SxS production. While Detroit is insecure and jealous that Japan actually makes high quality cars and trucks that are easy on the wallet, the bulk of the anti-kei shit is from the SxS mfrs, some of which make cars, and some that don’t.
The kei trucks are also good for small business use. Cute lil dump trucks, cargo vans, and other similar professional-use vehicles.
A 1998 Subaru Vivio is no less safe than a 1998 Renault Twingo or a 1998 Chevy Metro
And the US auto manufacturers have abandoned small business use vehicles. Just got done in Torch’s VW cargo van article saying that the only new small van you can buy in the US now is the Nissan NV200. Ford, Chevy, and Dodge have all stopped selling non-full sized body on frame cargo vans.
I am all for legal kei cars, but saying things like a Metro build to FMVSS standards has the same safety as a Vivio is not helpful. They are not the same. You’re much better off in the Metro. However, you certainly are better off in the Vivo than a Honda Rebel or any Harley!
I think what is insane is that, especially now in the era of the “free” and “smaller gub’ment” and such BS that they are selling this as protecting citizens against themselves. In many of these states you can ride a motorcycle without a friggin’ helmet, so you damn well better be able to drive a kei car.