The Coolest Car You Can Import From Japan Is Just $3,000 At A Junkyard Right Now

The Honda Beat is not just the coolest car you can import from Japan right now, but it’s a car deserving to be on a list of Honda’s greatest cars ever built. I say that from experience as my own little Beat is arguably the best car I’ve ever owned. Beats deliver nearly the same thrill of the Acura NSX, but for a fraction of the price and with a lot more character. So, I bet you can imagine both my excitement and horror that one of these great cars has ended up in a wrecking yard in Washington. You can save this car for just $3,000, but we need to solve the mystery of how it got here.

I stand by what I said up there in the lede. My fleet currently sits at 25 vehicles; a list that includes a Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI, a Saturn Sky Red Line, a Triumph Rocket III, and a massive bus. Yet, out of all of those cars, the Beat stands proud as easily some of the most fun you can have on four wheels. I’d rate driving the Honda Beat as being on par with the incredible 700 HP Ford F-150 FP700 and the original Acura NSX. I am not at all surprised to see American enthusiasts scooping up as many Honda Beats as they could from Japan.

What I do wonder is how one ended up at a wrecking yard. Thankfully, Binford Auto Wrecking of Kent, Washington, is selling this car whole for $3,000. The wrecking yard won’t be parting the car out, so if you want to rescue it, you won’t be presented with a car missing its hood and engine. The asking price of this car is so low that it’s cheaper than any titled kei car I’ve seen in the United States in over three years. I don’t want to say it’s the cheapest JDM import in America right now, but it might be pretty close.

Why The Beat Is Oh So Good

For many, the Honda Beat is the ultimate kei car, if they don’t consider it the car to import from Japan.

The Honda Beat’s lineage can be said to trace back to some of Honda’s first cars. Honda began developing cars in the 1950s as an answer to the Japanese government’s demand for a sort of people’s car. Honda’s automotive development was going well until 1961, when Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry decided to do something about the fact that Japanese companies weren’t as competitive as they could have been. That year, The Temporary Measures Bill for the Promotion of Specified Industries identified Japan’s automotive sector as lagging behind, and a plan was developed to put Japan’s automakers on the world stage:

MITI was ready to propose the deregulation of automobile imports by the spring of 1963, and in order to increase the industry’s ability to compete on the global stage, Japan’s auto manufacturers were classified into three groups. This, it was believed, would ensure effective guidance according to the characteristics of each group. The first group would comprise passenger cars from two companies; the second would include special products such as luxury models and sportscars, including two or three companies; and the third would be Japanese micro-cars, or mini automobiles, with two or three companies. Moreover, the bill set rules concerning mergers and acquisitions within the industry, thus limiting the entry of new companies.

Honda, which was hitting strides with motorcycles but not cars, found itself in a position to make cars or possibly get locked out of the market. In 1962, Honda sent an order to Honda R&D to develop two mini trucks and have them ready for the 11th National Honda Meeting General Assembly that same year. The S360 mini sports car was later shown Suzuka Circuit. Later that year, the S360 joined the T360 mini truck and S500 mini sports car at the 9th Tokyo Motor Show. The T360 went into production as Honda’s first car, and the S500 followed close behind.

As Victoria Scott writes, it would take Honda until 1964 to build its first global mass-market vehicle. The aforementioned mini cars and mini trucks were production vehicles, but they didn’t leave their home market in Japan. The S600 was going to change that.

For decades, Honda’s cars had something a bit different about them, and it’s the fact that Soichiro Honda, a former racer, centered sports cars around the driver. The S600 was the chance for many people to experience this for the first time. Under its hood was a 606cc four capable of hitting 9,500 RPM and pumping out a respectable 57 HP. A four-speed manual with chain final drive sent power to the independently suspended rear wheels, and this was all bolted to a vehicle that weighed a mere 1,576 pounds, give or take. The S600 was the first Honda to be sold in Europe and examples eventually trickled into Canada and even the United States through individual importations.

When Honda introduced the Beat in 1991, the brand was on top of the world. Its motorcycles were famous around the world and Honda was dominating the Formula 1 stage. Meanwhile, the exotic sports car-beating NSX captured hearts all over. As I wrote in my review of the Acura NSX, Honda’s engineers spent the 1980s experimenting with both frame design and drivetrain layouts. Honda’s engineers felt they could build a better chassis if they weren’t saddled with a front engine, front-wheel-drive layout.

Eventually, those engineers cut up a Honda City subcompact (above) and stuffed its engine in the back, driving the rear wheels. The simple change made the car exponentially more fun to drive.

These efforts would eventually lead to the NSX, but that wouldn’t be the only rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicle of the era. Sold just in Japan and slotted into the adorable kei class was the Beat, a pint-sized wonder of a roadster – a wonder that was the last car that Soichiro Honda himself gave his blessing to.

Design work was carried out by Pininfarina and under a little trunk in the rear sat a 656cc triple, which made 63 HP. Something special about this engine is the fact that while the tachometer wants you to slow your roll at 8,500 RPM, a Beat will exceed 9,000 RPM. While there are debates about what is the best kei sports car of the 1990s, the Beat always stands out as being a great car to drive. Beats were produced between 1991 and 1996, selling about 33,600 units along the way. All Beats are legal for importation and they’re trickling into America.

When I bought my Beat in 2021, I was blown away by how fun these cars are to drive. The transmission delivers satisfying to click into gear with short throws and that engine wants to be revved out. You may be going 60 mph, but the Beat is so low and so small that you feel like the next gear shift will have you breaking the sound barrier. These cars have sharp, precise steering, a comfortable driving position, and an unforgettable soundtrack. Driving a Beat is a delightful assault on all senses but taste. Sure, the windshield frame wobbles when you hit a bump and you’ll probably regret crashing into a squirrel, but the Beat offers a blast of a drive that not even a Miata can match. Yeah, I said it.

The Reality Of Importation

Something I learned a few years ago is that old used cars in Japan will often have far fewer miles than a car for sale here in America.

However, that doesn’t automatically mean your import will be clean. Cars in Japan live a hard life. Remember that Japan is an island nation and there’s salt everywhere. A car in Japan will corrode just as badly as something in Chicago. Worse, sometimes you can’t see the rust just from looking at blurry photos on an auction website. And a 25-year-old JDM import can be a pile of crap just like the Dodge Caravan on your local Craigslist.

Sadly, we do not know the story about this Beat. I’ve reached out to Binford Auto Wrecking and have yet to hear back. Hopefully, the yard can fill in the blanks.

Until then, the pictures do give us a clue or a few. The body of the car isn’t too bad. The paint still shines on most panels and it has less rust than my own Beat. There’s some aggressive paint fade on the rear quarters, but that’s not too bad.

The same can’t be said for the convertible top, which is shrunken and a bit worse for wear. The rear window, which is plastic, has a sizable hole in it. So far, things aren’t great, but not ruinous, either. A good detail would bring out what’s left in the paint and a canvas shop could redo that roof.

Inside, the car’s factory zebra pattern seats have been replaced by vinyl seats with tears in them. This car also had the optional Gathers stereo upgrade, but the head unit has been switched out for an aftermarket unit. Thankfully, whoever installed the radio found one the same size as the factory radio, so the dash wasn’t hacked up to install it. Other aftermarket parts include the steering wheel and the alloy wheels.

The odometer shows the equivalent of 116,243 miles. I’ve seen Beats with far fewer miles, but also Beats with far higher miles.

Things start going downhill once you view the trunk photo. Parts in a trunk are rarely a good sign. If this car has a mechanical issue, that could explain why it is now living in a wrecking yard. Unfortunately, the reality of owning an imported car involves being ok with the fact that you’ll have to import parts from other countries. You’re also unlikely to be able to get the vehicle repaired at your local mechanic and sometimes, you just may not find the part you need.

To be fair to this car, we do not know if that’s what happened. Maybe the engine or transmission blew up or something. Maybe the car was donated. Binford Auto Wrecking offers no clues, only saying that the vehicle is a “stationary unit” and that it’s “not tested.” Hopefully, we can get some clarity from the yard.

Until then, this car might be the cheapest JDM car for sale in America. Even if something is broken, maybe $3,000 will make it worth it. Whatever you do, you should buy this car before I concoct a plan to do so, myself. If you’re lucky, you can get Honda’s best car for a killer bargain.

(Images: Binford Auto Wrecking, unless otherwise noted.)