So many conspiracy theories in these comments about why American manufacturers don’t build smaller cars.
It’s very simple, American Auto Companies are loan companies, not auto manufacturers.
Why would they produce a $10k go-kart with a useable bed when they can get people to finance a $110k SUV at 18% APR?
It’s not about oil, or other resources, or even labor and tooling.
It’s just much more profitable to put you into debt.
Especially because we are a captive market. Public transport is essentially non existent in most areas. You have to get a car, and you have to take a loan on it. Without a car, a lot of places won’t even hire you.
you have to take a loan on it.
Can’t you buy cheaper or 2nd hand cars?
It’s still going to be at least $10k or so, unless you scour Facebook marketplace or know how not to get scammed.
My stepfather’s job was to negotiate deals between the car dealerships and the banks. They were all fucking sharks. Used car salesmen are terrible people as a rule.
Yes. It is quite straightforward. First you figure out the kind of car you want - eg, Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic. Peruse fb marketplace / Craigslist / etc to look at your options, note typical price for what you want based on model year and condition. Check your market once per day for a few weeks or months, and eventually a deal will come up - or else you can search in other areas you’d be willing to travel to. When you find a good (or at least reasonable) deal, you message the seller, and tell them the following things:
- You are very interested.
- The earliest time you are available to meet - ideally “right now or any time today”. Also ideally, this would occur during normal business hours for mechanics and banks.
- You can pay in cash.
- You want it inspected by a mechanic before you buy.
When you agree on a time / place to meet, start looking up mechanics nearby. Getting a pre-sale inspection is a service offered by most shops for a small fee. Call ahead and ask if they can do an inspection around the time you are meeting the seller.
Before you meet with the seller, look up a checklist of things to inspect yourself. These are basic things that are easy to check - do the lights work? The blinkers? The AC/heat/defroster? You can find inspection lists pretty easily online.
Meet with the seller. Ask them about the car, its history, maintenance records, and why they are selling it. Take it for a test drive on neighborhood roads and on the highway. Drive to the mechanic and have them inspect the car.
After all this, it is time to negotiate. If you or the mechanic found anything concerning, you can use this to haggle with the seller, who is likely ready to take a few hundred less in order to be done dealing with the headache of selling their car. With an agreed upon price, head to your bank.
Most banks provide members with free notary services. You can have them notarize a bill of sale or the car’s title if necessary. Once the title is signed over to your name, go to the teller, withdrawal cash, and hand that fat stack to the seller.
Drive away with your new car.
Also make sure the shop knows its a pre-sale inspection
I’ve noticed that Americans do not consider using an armed rebellion against evil corporate practices but talk about 2A rights all the time.
but talk about 2A rights all the time.
Most of the 2A talks come from people who want to start evil corporations.
Not disagreeing with you, but Kei trucks lack a lot of standard safety features, so it’s not a black and white issue
They don’t have standard safety features because it’s illegal to import the ones that do.
So the reason is because it’s unsafe, unlike, oh, idk, the sharp-edged Cybertruck?
…both things can be true?
For the record I’d love to get a Kei truck. But they like… don’t have airbags lol
My point is that the Cybertruck is unsafe, and it’s on the market. So the American car market clearly doesn’t require safety, it’s just a marketing point.
I think we can all agree that Cybertrucks are a bit of an outlier here. I mean we used to ridicule vehicles with safety this poor. But yeah I wouldn’t want to be on the freeway in either a cybertruck or a kei truck. But moving stuff downtown would be perfect for them - basically give them moped permissions.
But yeah I wouldn’t want to be on the freeway in either a cybertruck or a kei truck.
Why not? Because everyone else is in a truck so large they wouldn’t be able to see you?
Not a problem here in Europe. Wiki says they can do 120 ungoverned. Seems fine enough. Large commercial trucks, as in “semis” to Americans, but even the smaller Large Heavy Goods vehicles, as in lorries in Britain, aren’t allowed to do more than 80km/h on the freeway. I’m sure the Kei trucks can do that even when encumbered.
The other huge vehicles are a factor, but you’re fine doing 120 without airbags?
Didn’t Trump start messing around with all that? Like our safety standards? Because his boy, Elon, wanted to be looked at as… The CEO that doesn’t create unsafe cars.
It never ceases to amaze me how often I still learn about how much stuff is illegal in the US. All I ever heard growing up was how it’s the freedomest country in the world and that the entire concept of its government was built on personal freedoms, and yet it doesn’t even seem to be true on its own terms.
This is an echo back to the 70s, when gas prices were high and there were strict controls over Japanese economy cars. Why didn’t American manufacturers make smaller cars? Well, “no one wanted them” was the line. Miraculously almost as soon as those same Japanese cars started to be allowed on our streets, suddenly Detroit figured out how to make them and dragged them kicking and screaming into the next eras.
Good companies innovate to keep their customers. Bad companies legislate to keep their customers.
Which one do you think is happening more today?
For three years we’ve used this GEM[global electric motors] LSV[low speed vehicle] as our primary vehicle.
Legally I’m restricted to roads with 35mph speed limits or less, my maximum legal speed is 25mph, I never bothered to modify the top speed. I’m registered & insured in Reno. Driving the GEM is like towing a trailer, if the line of cars forms behind me, I pull over & let them pass Maybe 4 times a year someone rage passes me & generally ends up waiting next to me at the next light
With the lumber rack, beacon & safety triangle, I probably appear to be a city or university worker.The notion that everyone must drive at or above the speed limit isn’t true in my experience. Every trip does not require getting on a limited access highway & blasting along at 70 mph. The time saved is minimal, Small mistakes become serious accidents at higher speeds Every vehicle forum I’ve ever been on has a large contingent of Boys who want their toys to go fast.
The older model Kei mini trucks is too short & narrow to go faster than 40 mph or so safely. Making it wider reduces the ability to lane split :DI used to ride my bicycle in a medium sized city and I’d get to the destination sooner because I burned the lights. I know it’s wrong but I did and I would get there before them. It’s funny, people just don’t think about anything really, they just accept society as it is. Clearly we don’t need all these big giant fucking trucks, and I fucking hate it. I think to myself, a lot of these motherfuckers are running their trucks like Halliburton with the beds empty, with a nice coat of wax. They call themselves cowboys, but they’re just goofballs and they look so beta. I mean, unless they’re at like a left-wing protest and they want to drive people over. People get these trucks because they’re fucking scared anti-social fucks. Anybody that drives a monster truck is a douchebag. We are a servile people in America. I look at Europe and I’m envious. The way they protest against things and the government has to listen and the cops are not like full-blown military. I just love it. I just love Europe. It’s just so much better than here. Now, I do understand that the same influences are polluting Europe and Europe is not a perfect place. But I’ve been there and it feels so much better being there. When I went, I specifically set my mind up to look at infrastructure, the health of the people, and all things other than being a tourist, just even how people communicate with each other, looking at families, the food. I didn’t go to fancy restaurants. I went to hole-in-walls. It’s just so much better. It’s so much better of a place. And don’t get me wrong. Europe is suffering because the Yankee was trying to separate Russia and its cheap energy from Europe. And really the leaders of Europe have screwed themselves because now America is turning their backs on them. The Ukraine War was started in 2014 when they… The United States supported a coup and overthrew the democratically elected president of that time. And then the nationalist or fascist ended up gaining more power. And so I guess now the Yankee is supporting the fascist in Ukraine. And we, in the United States, are living under a fascist regime. Biden is an example of the old Neo-liberal order nato fascist and Trump is something new. He is a response to populism. He is a response to capitalism in crisis.He is a fascist, a full-blown fascist. people in America thinking that they’re western civilization, that’s ridiculous. This place is a casino of stupidity. They think the decisions that they make about life are theirs, but in reality, it’s the choices you’ve been given. You have no say in your community, your society, at the end of the day. I don’t need to be hostile. I’m just looking for my opportunity to jet and get the fuck out of this empty vessel of lesser things. If I left, I would never, never, never, ever, ever, ever, never return to America for anything. I would just leave it all. The guilt I feel for America and its choices. Also, I do view this place as.a trap of debt slavery. And this place rewards antisocial behavior. It is truly an abysmal place and it is not just Trump. This is a continuation and Trump is just like, straw that broke the camel’s back for me. I can’t do it anymore. Life ain’t worth living if I gotta stay.i’m sick of the good-caught bad cop scenario. I’m sick of the left and right paradigm. I’m sick of American exceptionalism …i am sick of American imperialism. Either neoliberal soft power or full-blown fucking fascist.
I mean, it’s probably not safe in a crash at highway speeds (if it can even reach those speeds), but then neither are motorbikes and we allow those…
It’s got to be better for the environment and wallet than those stupid Ford monster trucks. Especially since these would only attract people who actually need to carry large amounts of stuff about, rather than those who once needed to transport a fridge four years ago.
They do ok against regular sized cars, just yours are insanely big.
At lower speeds perhaps. But at highway speeds probably not. Remember: You are the crumple zone in those Kei trucks. As an old and now retired Medic and Firefighter, I’m glad I will never need to cut a dead body out of one those things-- I bet it would be a messy and bloody affair. Because while cutting the first one or two wreaks is sort of fun and exciting, it quickly becomes depressing after that and leaves mark that ain’t ever growing back. And I carry enough marks to take to the grave with me.
The acceleration is also poor due to the small low and powered engines. I would not want to try and merge onto a freeway in a metropolitan area in one. And you can bet long money that some suburban weekend warrior Bob Villa wanna be is going to try to do exactly that with the back end loaded with 10 sheets of plywood, 2 dozen 2x4’s, a roll of outdoor carpeting and 8 bags of concrete. And then be super surprised when he becomes a hood ornament for a semi truck rolling along at 60mph or some SUV.
That said, I do think thing such small delivery vehicles have a place in the urban environment. Hell, even a Tuk Tuk, a cheap and popular 3rd world motorcycle taxi/cargo hauler hybrid would be even better yet. They would be excellent for operating on side streets and residential neighborhoods making small deliveries. Just keep them off of high speed roadways. And I’m not sure that’s a solvable problem. Humans being what they are.
As a five foot tall person, I’ve been in love with Kei trucks since I frist saw one. I don’t have one (I don’t have any car), but I would if I could.
It’s taller than my old mk4, and similar size to a standard 4 door sedan. I think I saw a video comparing the bed of a Kei truck to the bed of a new monster drive.tough.mydickisbig.I can’t see children ahead of my bumber so they become projectiles, type trucks… and the Kei truck holds more cargo.
Isn’t there a sin against vanity? These giant trucks are more dangerous than these smaller ones, and they dont serve a purpose outside of vanity.
Oh, those big pickup trucks do serve a purpose beyond vanity for a lot of us. My big 4-wheel drive Dodge Hemi has to do things no Kei can possibly do. I’ve got a couple of trailers that your Kei couldn’t even begin to move just half loaded. And one that it couldn’t even move empty. So your blind blanket statement shows a serious lack of critical thought on the subject.
If you had seen me in town earlier this week at the clinic with my what you refer to as a “monster drive.tough.mydickisbig” truck, you wouldn’t have seen the oils, greases, and other sundry items that I need to live in the middle of a very rural forest. And they were all things I do not want to haul in the “family” vehicle.
Now while I do sort of agree that many people that don’t need a large pickup, there is no way to tell if they do or don’t unless you know them personally. Perhaps they are a trades person who needs to pull and enclosed trailer filled with tools and supplies or maybe it’s a family that has a fishing boat or pontoon boat they use when the weather is nice, maybe a couple of jet skis or a camper/ice fishing house. (Unless you want to outright ban the existence of such things) If you can tell the difference between someone who owns one for sheer vanity vs a need at a mere glance, then scientists really need to study you in a lab somewhere.
Kei trucks have a niche and reason to exist. And they are a great idea and can solve some issues in dense urban areas most definitely. But my big Hemi also fills a niche and has a reason to exist that no Kei type truck or Tuk Tuk can even start to fill. They both fill two very different types of needs and uses. They are both dangerous in their own ways, (what tool isn’t dangerous). And they can both exist in the same space.
Have you heard of Land Rover?
Why yes I have. Not available within 800 mile of me. But a Suburban is bigger. Still, a bumper hitch is not as good as a 5th wheel hitch for my 24,000lbs tandem tilt bed trailer…
You can fit a fifth wheel hitch on a Land Rover, and tow more.
Stop trying to justify stupidly over sized vehicles.
An SUV Land Rover, (with all it’s mechanical unreliability), isn’t suitable for long heavy tow loads at high speeds. Nor have I ever seen a Land Rover with a 5th wheel hitch in my life. And there is no dealer within 300+ miles of me.
So Stop trying to get me to buy a Land Rover.
We citizens need to change the laws to highly tax those oversized vehicles. And we should make them commercial use only. Average people don’t need huge trucks. K-cars are quite cool.
Unfortunately taxes are kinda the reason why we see so many oversized trucks on the market and the reason you don’t see any small trucks anymore. It’s a result of manufacturers and lobbyists gamifying the EPA regulations that came out like 10-15 years ago.
Basically trucks under a certain weight have to meet a certain mpg standard otherwise they’d be taxed at a higher rate. However, there was a bypass for heavier “super-duty” trucks, so now most every truck being sold is classified as a super-duty which were originally meant to encompass “working” trucks meant to haul things like equipment.
It’s really just another symptom of our government being a joke and the result of regulatory capture.
I feel like the gas and the monthly cost of the loan they took out against their mortgage is probably tax enough.
I genuinely believe most of these super-truck owners already have one foot in the financial grave and are just in denial about it.
Should’ve been okay from the start.
why aren’t they allowed now?
us auto industry has reletively higher crash saftey requirements. part of the reason why everythings so damn big.
the kei trucks are basically rear end death traps if you hit US sized vehicles.
its why the only ones you can legally drive in some states are the ones that pass the 25 year car import law.
some areas explicitly ban it (e.g NYC i believe)
EU: Your truck is unsafe because it is unusually large and has razor sharp edges at head height.
US: Your truck is unsafe because it is too small to withstand a direct hit from one of our super safe giant axe head shaped cars.
“The only way to protect yourself from a giant truck is to have your own giant truck”
Now where have I heard of this logic before? 🤔
No pre installed firearms… Very unsafe…
the good, the bad, and the dodge ram.
Yeah, I swapped the third cupholders for the pistol holster on my dodge.
I’m thinking of buying a ford F1-9001 for my next truck. They have quick-access assault rifle holsters.
Maybe they could tweak the design a little. Make it like a Chevy Spark with a rear bed.
A compact car ute
I understand now allowing them on the freeways, but they’re perfect for cities with their smaller footprint and lower driving speeds. These aren’t allowed in NYC, but Escalades are?
Yeah, I wonder how many NYC traffic deaths involve pedestrians, and how many are just between drivers. This truck would be much safer for pedestrians.
I don’t understand how states can ban an otherwise legal vehicle
Cause they’re not really safe to drive. Older US made cars are technically grandfathered in because as time progresses, there will naturally be less and less of them to the point where they won’t be much of an issue on public roads (when was the last time you saw a model t driving down your road other than for a parade or something?). However, a lot of kei trucks were really meant to just be farm vehicles with more utility, so safety wasn’t ever a real hallmark of their design. I considered buying one a while ago, but came to the conclusion that they might actually be less safe than an old S10 which wasn’t really that much bigger.
Safety standards for family vehicles: ok, sure
Safety standards for non-family vehicles: fascist overreach
