For the past several years, fans of cute little cars imported from Japan have been under threat. States across the nation have decided to ban their legally imported cars, effectively turning them into paperweights. Now, the wave of car bans has hit home as my state of Illinois is revoking the license plates of cars it previously registered. I live here and I’m not going to let the state do this without a fight. Here’s how I plan to save the Keis in Illinois.
This news comes to us from David McChristian, the founder of Lone Star Kei. David led the charge that resulted in Texas being the first state to overturn an imported car ban since the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators recommended a nationwide Kei ban in 2021. Since then, David has been helping enthusiasts across America keep their Keis legal.
A few days ago, David sent me a message that has haunted me ever since. In it, he warned me that my home state of Illinois has seemingly decided to crack down on the registration of Kei vehicles. I’ve since confirmed that, unfortunately, this is very real and my home state has decided to join the ban-wagon. Illinois is also clamping down on Keis harder than some other states. Kei owners aren’t just having their license plates revoked, but their titles are also being branded as “Not Eligible For Registration,” which could cause more nightmares for those wanting to sell their cars.
I have not received a letter from Illinois yet, but there are now at least a few recorded instances of the state revoking registration over the past week. Understandably, enthusiasts in Illinois are concerned. I am, too. I currently own a 1989 Suzuki Every van and a 1991 Honda Beat. Plus, I have a 1997 Honda Life sitting at a Japanese port and ready to get onto a boat for America. I would love to be able to keep driving these vehicles with Illinois license plates.
However, it appears that my state has other ideas, and the terrifying thing is that the state had effectively “shadow-banned” Kei cars some time ago, and few people noticed until now.
Illinois Revokes Kei Registrations
Let’s start by discussing the legality of mini-trucks and Kei trucks as they were until recently.
A Kei truck like the one above is a small truck within Japan’s smallest class of road-legal vehicle, the kei-jidōsha. Japan imposes strict limits on the size and performance of Keis. A modern Kei will often have a top speed of about 83 mph, while vintage Kei vehicles may not even be able to surpass 70 mph. However, these were designed as road vehicles, just tiny ones.
The “mini-truck,” as American authorities identify them, is different. A mini-truck may have the body of a Kei vehicle, but it is modified. A mini-truck is limited to speeds no faster than 25 mph and is imported specifically for off-road use. Mini-trucks like the one below are popular on farms and are used as off-road toys.
Back in the 2000s, Americans began importing enough mini-trucks that states didn’t really know how to handle them. Many states reacted by passing laws or policies to ban these mini-trucks from the road. Illinois was one of them. On December 31, 2009, then Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White issued a memo:
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White is reminding owners of low speed vehicles that a new law effective January 1, 2010 will require such vehicles, if they are to be driven on the road, to be titled and registered with the Secretary of State’s office.
Uniquely designed low speed vehicle license plates will contain the suffix LS on the plates. The cost to title a low speed vehicle is $30.00. The registration cost is $19. Public Act 96-653 permits low speed vehicles to be driven on roads with posted speed limits of 30 miles per hour or less. Prior to this law, municipalities were required to enact a local ordinance allowing such low speed vehicles to travel on their local roads. The new law does allow municipalities to enact a local ordinance prohibiting low speed vehicles on their roads.
In order to be considered road worthy, low-speed vehicles must be certified by the U.S. Department of Transportation. USDOT defines a low speed vehicle as: “Any 4-wheeled motor vehicle or a self-propelled gasoline powered 4-wheeled motor vehicle with an engine displacement under 1200cc which is capable of more than 20 miles per hour but not more than 25 miles per hour and which conforms to federal regulations under title 49 Code of Federal Regulations part 571.500.”
While this law did legalize the use of a low-speed vehicle on some streets in Illinois, it had the impact of banning 25 mph speed-limited mini-trucks. Under federal law, a mini-truck that is younger than 25 years old can be imported for off-road use only. When done so, the mini-truck doesn’t need to comply with federal safety regulations. The “catch-22” here is that if you have a mini-truck that doesn’t have any DOT-compliant equipment, then it cannot be classified as a low-speed vehicle in Illinois.
However, there has long been a solution to this. If you import a Kei truck that’s over 25 years old, then you don’t have to worry about complying with federal regulations. But, even better, a Kei truck is not limited in speed, rides on regular street tires, and can be used just like a normal car, provided you’re okay with getting to places slowly.
For years, Illinois has largely treated Kei cars, vans, and trucks like any other car, issuing regular, unrestricted license plates to these vehicles. I’ve been able to register Kei cars like a normal car, as have a few of my friends. But even then, I say “largely” because Illinois hasn’t been clear on its stance about Kei vehicles.
Some people have reported registering their vehicles and getting license plates, but also getting a title marked as “Not Eligible For Registration.” Weirdly, some of these people are able to continue renewing their registration stickers as normal, but they were otherwise stuck with a title that branded their vehicles as off-road-only. This is similar to how other states like Pennsylvania have handled Kei trucks. But this isn’t universal. Some folks get regular titles.
At any rate, it appears that Illinois might be ramping up efforts to remove Kei vehicles from its roads. Last year, someone on Reddit reported having their license plates revoked. Now, as of about a week ago, more reports are flooding in. One of those people is Johnathan, and he published the letter he received from the state of Illinois:
In the letter, the state fully acknowledges that an imported vehicle that’s over 25 years old is legal to import into the country without restriction. However, the state follows it up by saying it controls whether you can drive your imported vehicle on a public road. Unfortunately, this is true. Federal law only determines that the vehicle can be legally in the country, not where you can drive it.
At any rate, Illinois has deemed Kei vehicles unworthy of driving on public roads of any kind, so it’s sending out these letters. But worse than that, Illinois is also sending out corrected titles with off-road-only brands on them and then commanding the owners of those vehicles to surrender their license plates.
Several Illinois Kei owners are just like me, and they live either in a city or in the suburbs. We live hours away from any off-road park. By doing this, Illinois is just giving us pretty paperweights. The title brand could also complicate selling our vehicles to people living in more Kei-friendly states.
No Official Statements
All of this is enough to bring a person to tears, but there’s still more bad news. Many of the states that have banned Keis thus far have published some sort of official statement or something along those lines. Illinois has not. If you crawl through the Illinois Secretary of State website (our equivalent of the DMV) you will find no mention of mini-trucks or Kei trucks, yet the state clearly doesn’t approve of these vehicles.
Likewise, you will not find any mention of mini-trucks or Keis in the Illinois Compiled Statutes. After hours of digging, the best I’ve been able to come up with is 625 ILCS 5/3-401(c-1)(1), which states:
(c-1) A vehicle may not be registered by the Secretary of State unless that vehicle:
(1) was originally manufactured for operation on highways;
(2) is a modification of a vehicle that was originally manufactured for operation on highways; or
(3) was assembled from component parts designed for use in vehicles to be operated on highways.
If you go through the Illinois Vehicle Code (you can click here if you want to read it), you’ll note that Illinois says that the equipment installed in a road-going vehicle has to comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. States have argued that since Kei vehicles were not originally designed to comply with FMVSS, they were not manufactured for operation on public highways.
However, as I said before, Illinois has not given anyone any firm interpretation. Instead, enthusiasts may find that they successfully register their cars and then, some indeterminate amount of time later, the state sends them a branded title and demands the surrender of license plates.
I have reached out to the Illinois Secretary of State for any sort of statement. At first, I was put on hold, and then I was told I would get a call back. As of publishing, this has not happened. I reached out a second time, and as of publishing, my contact has not been returned.
Why This Is Happening
Now it’s time for my least favorite part about these articles. These bans did not come out of nowhere. Instead, they were the recommendation of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, or AAMVA. If you’ve read my previous coverage, please skip ahead. If you’re new here, click here to read my previous stories. Otherwise, here’s a short version:
Back in the summer of 2021, the state of Maine launched what is currently the worst car ban in America. The state passed a law to change the classification of what can be considered to be a road vehicle. As of that summer, the state of Maine now says that any vehicle not built to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) will be barred from public roads.
Maine passing this as a law has thus far prevented enthusiasts from overturning the ban. As I have reported in the past, Maine did this based on guidance issued by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). The organization is a non-governmental, non-profit lobbying organization composed of motor vehicle and law enforcement administrators and executives from all 50 states, Washington D.C., Canada, Mexico, and the Virgin Islands. Its core goal is to motivate the states to standardize driving laws across America.
AAMVA does not have the power to create policy, but the people who run it do. The organization first recommended the banning of mini-trucks speed-limited to 25 mph back in 2011, based partly on crash testing conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Somewhere along the way, AAMVA decided to attack all gray-market imported cars. Many of those vehicles were Kei vehicles, which are just as small as off-road-only mini trucks, but built for road use. In 2021, AAMVA decided to come down on anything not built to FMVSS specs, but specifically targeted Keis.
Maine’s Director of Vehicle Services co-authored the 2021 guidance that has led to bans that have spread across the nation. In the time since summer 2021, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Massachusetts, Texas, and Michigan have each imposed their own restrictions on imported vehicles. Colorado has also banned Keis, but is doing so quietly, sort of how Illinois is doing right now.
Most of these states have made DMV policy changes that reinterpreted existing laws, and these policies can be implemented quickly. Confusingly, most of these states have targeted only Kei cars from Japan. Technically, you can buy a Suzuki Jimny from Europe, and most of these states wouldn’t care. But the same vehicle from Japan would be a problem.
Even more confusing is that enforcement of these bans has been shoddy at best. In 2021, Rhode Island and Maine banned a bunch of cars, then, as some readers have pointed out to me, both states have sort of just forgotten about their bans. Rhode Island suddenly reignited its Kei ban enforcement last year, while I’ve been told that you can still find all sorts of imports driving around Maine.
This is infuriating because it means registering your import in any of these states is a dice roll. Either it’ll go through just fine, or you’ll find yourself with a cool car that can’t be driven on a road.
It’s Time To Fight Back
Sadly, all of this means that enthusiasts are sort of just out of luck right now. As it currently stands, I likely cannot register my 1997 Honda Life in Illinois when it arrives. Some enthusiasts have gotten around bans by registering their vehicles in friendlier states, but this is not a good long-term solution.
Several enthusiasts have already reached out to me. One of them is Robert, who says he submitted a request for a formal hearing regarding the legality of Keis. He hopes to walk into the hearing and to be able to educate the state on why Keis should be legal and to illustrate how many people the state would be hurting if it continues to revoke registrations.
Other Illinois Kei owners, including myself, have even bigger plans. Through all of these struggles, enthusiasts have learned that their states don’t really know the difference between a mini-truck and a Kei truck, though the AAMVA’s handbooks and recommendations certainly have not helped.
The folks of Lone Star Kei have proven that grassroots organizing can work. The enthusiast-run organization contacted at least 180 Texas state representatives and officials and educated them on what Kei vehicles are and why they should be legal. I’m thinking that all of us here in Illinois should do the same. I will be collaborating with our Texas friends on the next steps here, but it looks like I’m going to be spending the indefinite future trying to cozy up to any politician I can, even if I did not vote for them.
Some may wonder why I am not choosing to sue the state. After all, I am married to an attorney with lots of experience suing the state. Since Illinois was very late to the ban cars party, we have some idea of what does and doesn’t work. Enthusiasts in Georgia went in kicking down doors with a lawsuit, and the state has thus far not shown them any mercy. Yet, enthusiasts in North Carolina, Texas, and Massachusetts were able to get bans reversed without lawsuits. Enthusiasts in Michigan did file a suit, but it was a companion to the same kind of educational work inspired by the Texas effort.
So, for now, I want a lawsuit to be closer to our last resort rather than the default option. States do not like being sued, and you cannot predict how the state would react to litigation. Some states may just dig in their heels and force you into a courtroom war. If you’re as unlucky as the enthusiasts in Georgia, you end up burning through cash, and you still get stuck.
If you’re in Illinois and want to help your fellow enthusiasts win this fight, join the Illinois Kei TRUCK/VAN/CAR Facebook group, where we will be discussing our plans. I may also be starting a nonprofit organization called Prairie State Kei. But for now, it seems all of us are just trying to get a plan together. Either way, all of us are determined not to let Illinois just ban our vehicles, at least not without a huge fight.
The AAMVA must be destroyed.
In my (admittedly little) experience, this is the right approach. Once a lawsuit gets involved both sides stop talking and often times even if the outcome is in your favor it can be a bit of a pyrrhic victory. I say this as someone who has a family member who got lawyers involved in what arguably should have been a family dispute and now has court-ordered requirements on both involved parties. Congrats, I guess?
Keep us updated on the nonprofit! I would be glad to chip in. I’m not in the market for a Kei car, but I think they’re cute, and the people who drive them seem to really enjoy them. It’s really disturbing to me that the language used to justify keeping Keis off the road wouldn’t need to be tweaked much to ban classic cars, or even my nearly 28-year-old Jeep.
After reading both of Mercedes’ articles about this, I’m a little surprised that some folks are clutching their pearls that the vehicles- that they electively purchased sometimes knowing that their state probably has some form of a ban on them… but “hasn’t been enforcing it” all of a sudden starts enforcing it. To those- I have little sympathy.
For the owners that live in states where there wasn’t originally a ban and now there is such a thing- I get it. I’d be pissed, too.
I’m also conflicted on the potential outcomes of this. For those states that have had “bans” on these but weren’t enforcing them, I think making noise will likely only increase the amount of attention paid to the existing laws and thus make it more likely that registrations will be revoked or at least not able to be renewed for those in areas that have more lax enforcement.
I’ll go ahead and admit that I am not a fan of Kei vehicles at all. I’ve driven lots of them (fleet use little Daihatsu vans and trucks mostly) and the only redeeming characteristic I can see with them is that they’re quirky. Yeah, they fit just about anywhere, but when a Corolla seems like a hazard when I’m still surrounded by metal, I’m good. Keep it. I feel safer on both of my motorcycles because they’re incredibly nimble and I’m more in control of them than I ever felt behind the wheel of a HiJet. In those, beyond that very little threshold of grip and high center of gravity, you’re along for the ride. I’ll also admit that I don’t think that any 4 wheeled vehicle with less than 85hp (factory rated) should be allowed on interstate highways or roads with 55+mph speed limits as a safety and courtesy for other motorists.
At the end of the day, this is about personal choice and nobody likes having their ability to choose taken away. I wish y’all the best of luck with overturning some of these restrictions.
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
I don’t really see how driving around in a Kei is much different than me driving around in my 68 Bug. They’re both light weight, dangerous in a collision, and really have no business going over 75mph or on the interstate. My dad has a Model T, which is infinitely more sketchy on the road than any Kei that has ever existed. Yet our two classic cars are more than welcome on any and every road we want to take them on.
This just isn’t a common-sense stance to take.
Oh wait… It isn’t common sense. It’s just f^@&*!g lobbyists. Screw the AAMVA and their scumbag dealer interests.
The lobbying isn’t coming from car companies. It’s coming from SxS companies. Thsoe things are very profitable. In fact, Honda stopped making lawn mowers in order to make room for more SxS production.
Good luck Mercedes. If this fails, you’ll just have to move to Canada.
🙂
One of many reasons one might want to move to Canada.
Tell Pritzker he can personally sit on a kei car and crush it if he doesn’t like it 😛
In IL and while I don’t want a Kei car this shit infuriates me. If people can legally ride motorcycles without helmets the concern is OBVIOUSLY not safety.
Growing up, my mom worked within my states highway safety, and so each summer we would typically attend the AMMVA conference. It was primarily as my young brain recalls, focused on things like consistency across states and best practices. I really am intrigued that they have taken such a firm stance on this.
As always with lobbying, the answer is money. Lobbyists spend a little money on the corrupt politicians (oxymoron) so they pass laws that would make them lots of money later, while screwing the regular people who voted them in and supposedly they ‘represent’
God go with you Mercedes… you’re doing His Work.
I wish someone younger, smarter, and more ambitious than I, would attempt to accomplish something like this on a federal level: revise (lower) the 25-year-rule, standardize kei (and other overseas-sourced) vehicle rules so all states’ rules work the same, etc…
There’s no good reason to have such restrictive rules in place for so long, or to have them be so inconsistent from place to place, unless maybe you own a dealership (or are paid by someone who does) and are convinced that you’ll sell a few more new crossovers each year if it’s difficult-to-impossible for Americans to import and drive weird cars (even though it’s surely less than 1% of us who’d bother to do so).
I’d literally cash in a CD and buy a Toyota Hilux Champ shortbed (diesel/manual) in green or blue THIS AFTERNOON if I could do so, and register/insure it w/o unusual hassle. And I don’t even need a new car. Yes, it’s probably not quite as safe as a Tacoma or Tundra is since it wasn’t designed for the US market, but its WAY safer than my motorcycle or bicycle is and those are perfectly legal.
Most boring, likely-unwanted comment: modern cars are on the whole are very very safe and the more older vehicles, Kei cars, and other loophole vehicles we have on the road, the higher the insurance rates can go…
That’s more a function of it being older than being kei.
Also, the AAMVA anti-kei shit is widely known to be driven more by the off-road UTV/SxS lobby than Deroit truck companies.
And, at least around here, they allow the SxS to drive on regular roads.
You are very wrong! The main thing driving up car insurance rates is the repair costs on modern car electronics, particularly the many vulnerable sensors in bumpers and outer body panels. If anything, more older vehicles would push down insurance rates.
Citation for this?
This whole thing is crazy. If safety is the issue then don’t allow Kei vehicles on the highway. Seems like a compromise everyone could agree on.
If safety was really the issue, they wouldn’t allow motorcycles, trikes, golf carts, UTVs, tractors (which in Missouri can be driven on the interstate), vehicles older than 1970, and vehicles smaller than 2800 lbs on the road. This is lobbying by corporate interests, plain and simple.
The safety issue I was thinking about was a Kei truck not being able to keep up with traffic on a highway or safely merge, potentially causing accidents. They weren’t built for highways speeds. Motorcycles are. As far as golf carts, UTVs and tractors on the highway, I assume that’s just for the breakdown lane in Missouri but it’s still crazy. The highways around Boston allow you to drive the breakdown lane during rush hour – also crazy.
Missouri has some kooky laws around what can and can’t go on the road, and there’s really no distinction here between travels lanes and the shoulder (what I assume you’re calling the breakdown lane?) There’s plenty of cars and motorcycles that can’t hit highway speeds (honda navi, Ural motorcycles, the Citicar, etc) but I think we should just trust the driver to not put themselves in that kind of position in the first place like we currently do. Because Keis are niche (which I will admit cars in my list also are) I think the risks are pretty low. Road safety in the US is definitely a huge issue, I just think that trying to blame it for banning kei cars seems fishy.
Chicken tax 2.0, but seriously they do need to respond on what is the reason for revoking as it did set a precedent by allowing them to be registered. And a mistake by accepting all vehicles that fit the bill is not something they can then just oops we missed that conversation. By the way driving Kei firetrucks is a hoot. Usually they will have small pumps in the back and the weight balance is wonderful.
All these trucks running around that are so tall you can’t see a person standing in front of them, with compromised handling from wheels that don’t fit which, themselves, are equipped with tires that don’t fit and this is what they have a problem with?
Hey, if you’re not from Carolina, you don’t know Squat!
Amazingly, they did actually ban those (in NC, SC and Virginia), while it looks like the Carolinas explicitly allow Kei cars, with some conditions.
Close enough. Kentucky. I almost don’t want to admit it. Here your vehicle doesn’t even have to be structurally sound and if a truck is squatting it’s probably because the frame is rusted in half.
Please keep an eye on all of the states and keep writing the playbook we would need to defeat these restrictions.
Good luck, Mercedes.
If all else fails, we will welcome you in the lovely state of Connecticut.
I’m wondering if there isn’t another option. AAMVA receives funding from “cost reimbursable and cost-sharing grants and contracts with US government agencies” (page 12, AAMVA Audited Financial Statement Reports 2023). What if DOGE was encouraged to defund them as a waste of government resources? The auto industry and heavy manufacturing are poised to take major financial hits from the tariffs, so ongoing donations by auto and offroad equipment manufacturers to AAMVA might be at risk. There are Autopians who are a lot smarter than I might have fun reviewing AAMVA’s financial statements for clues. https://www.aamva.org/getmedia/dbd0d805-2402-4d7f-b55b-8fe948c03e41/AAMVA-Audited-Financial-Statement-Reports-2023.pdf
Well, since the people who run DOGE don’t consider Mercedes a human, that might be tricky.
God, isn’t that sad but true…what a bunch of fucking assholes.
Meanwhile in Indiana along those same lines, our Atty General had the World’s Shittiest April Fool’s Joke yesterday:
(1) The Left wins… They have finally… – Attorney General Todd Rokita | Facebook
FUCK!!
They are all truly vile people.
Toxicity has spread from social media into every nook and cranny of society.
They have always been vile; social media makes them comfortable being vile in public.
And they found out they aren’t the only ones who think their way, emboldening them.
People want to emulate successful people/leaders, so, because the ‘people’ at the top have made being toxic d.bags acceptable behavior….
Sorta now miss the old days when a hint of public scandal cancelled politicians.
On the bright side, the comments on that post are absolutely excoriating him. In the 100 or so I scrolled through, literally only one was praising the dickhead. That one blew up in his face quite badly.
Yeah, that one got a bit more visibility. The comments on anything similar in something like our small city chat group or local newspaper are disgusting and depressing.
That’s unfortunate. For a few minutes I had a modicum of hope in people.
Facebook? With all sincerity, I wish you good luck with that.
Facebook, lol
Illinoisan here: GRRRRRRR! Fucking morons. SoS is an elected position here so I’m going to call the office as a voter and whine my ass off about the next primaries and to whom I will donate (it’s virtually a lock for Dems).
Keis are no threat to public safety beyond the imaginations of extreme, pearl clutching, nanny state bureaucrats who need to snap the fuck out of it. Christ, Model A’s don’t confirm to federal safety standards, but you can register them as daily drivers no sweat. It just defies all sanity and logic.
I can totally understand why some cars should not be imported. You can’t just allow everything everyone wants all Willy nilly. However, banning kei-cars/trucks is just stoopid
In your view, what kind of cars should NOT be allowed?
You do realize there are rules that cover that topic already, right? I’m not saying they are perfect, but there are many that are more than reasonable.
Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be an asshole, I really would like others opinions on this.
Fair.
For me, I don’t think there are any absolutes. Massive tractors, tanks, go-karts, semis with those stupid spiked wheel lugs, cars without functional brakes, etc. are very clear examples. Each has occasional exceptions, but those exceptions should be made for good reasons. There are rules for farm equipment when it is moving down the road. Tractors are also used for vital commercial purposes with no other practical option. Neither is true for kei-cars. In certain municipalities, you can drive ATVs on the road if meeting specific requirements, but it isn’t true as a default.
We live in a messy and imperfect world that rarely provides clear definitions or formulaic answers that never change. Kei cars exist in a border area that gets fuzzy. Personally, I would love to see kei-cars legal for streets/roads with speed limits of 45-55ish or less. I think it is reasonable to ensure cars have some surplus performance accounted for in their designs and some kei-cars top out at 65 on a good day.
Do you think we should regulate road access of older domestic/previously imported cars? If we demand a minimum level of performance wouldn’t that rule out stuff like old VW’s and pretty much anything made in early era of cars?
Good. This is such a stupid issue.
I can legally own and operate a motorcycle. I can own and operate a motorcycle with a sidecar. I can even own and operate a cabin motorcycle like the Owosso Pulse, which is basically a kei car that looks like a fighter jet.
But I can’t own and operate a car that’s slightly larger and more visible than a motorcycle because reasons.
Just dumb.
This is what I don’t understand. You can operate a bicycle on a public road, a scooter, a small motorcycle, some golf carts (depending on state), weirdos like a Slingshot, Jeeps without doors, extremely old cars like a Model T, but somehow these Kei cars are a problem? Not sure what problem they’re causing that any of the other things here that likely exist in larger numbers don’t already.
The only thing I can think of is that there is some unknown profit motivation here. Someone who sees Kei cars as competition for their own product wants to smother them out. What I can’t figure out is what might fill a void left behind by the tiny amount of Kei cars that would come off the road? Are they going to try and make Polaris side-by-sides road legal? Is big golf cart looking at making a move into low-priced cars? Is BYD planning a lineup of tiny electric cars?
Why would states take up the time and money to move pointless legislation like this along?
To me, rather than spending time trying to “educate” lawmakers, it seems like the same resources would be more effectively spent by trying to umask the people behind all this.
Lookit those teeth! Congrats Mercedes!!
Same! Saw then right away.