The question remains, are even they street legal in Nevada? In most states they are not, although there are some exceptions; in some states they're classified as ATVs and can be driven in limited areas, usually only on the shoulder of secondary roads. The only other way would be to find one of the old Subaru mini pickups that were imported back in the early 1970s before the current EPA/DOT restrictions went into place.
There was a guy who had a Subaru 360 kei van in Arizona, think I saw it on petrolicious. It was legal there, so I imagine it'd be legal in NV. I saw a guy driving one near my place in CA. He looked VERY happy! :)
In reply to stuart in mn :
So long as it is more than 25 years old it gets a federal waiver for EPA/DOT. With historic plates I do not know of a state that would forbid it, but I do not know every state's specific rules. It would be OK in NJ. PA, VA.MT, etc.
Well, I sure see alot of them zipping around Tokyo city and freeways every time I go there on a work trip. Never seen one tipped over in 25 years of making that trip, to be honest.
I'd take Adrian's experience to heart, but I'll also say that it also depends on your commute. I live in Texas where a commute often means the toll roads with a 75 mph speed limit and most folks cruise around 85. A kei van on that commute would be suicide. My commute right now (if I stay off the tolls) tops out at about 45 and is about 10 miles. A kei van might not be bad in that situation. If I lived near downtown and commuted to downtown where speed limits are under 30 the whole way, the van would probably be fun and easy to park!
I assume you'd DD her Nissan (or have), so you're not inexperienced with the joys of driving a Kei car in general (RHD, low power, tiny, etc).
All from someone who's never seen one up close and probably wouldn't even fit in one. So, basically, worthless advice. :)
-Rob
In reply to TurnerX19 :
True, if you import a 25 year old car it will be exempt, but I doubt there are many 25 year old kei vans available to be imported. The ones I've seen are all in the range of 10 years old (or however old they get in Japan before it gets too expensive to keep them on the road over there.)
One thing I've thought about is if anyone is importing them from Taiwan - they use left hand drive vehicles there, so they would be more compatible with our roads.
stuart in mn said:I doubt there are many 25 year old kei vans available to be imported.
You'd be surprised, from what I've found there are a crapload of them available. Every importer seems to have 5-10 of them on hand at a time, just like the trucks:
https://www.duncanimports.com/used/Honda/1987-Honda-ACTY+Street-fba321d50a0e08ba7f86cdee868d618a.htm
https://www.duncanimports.com/used/Nissan/1989-Nissan-S-Cargo-3349a6a10a0e08bc45715acba0f208c0.htm
https://www.duncanimports.com/used/Subaru/1991-Subaru-Sambar-124159fa0a0e08bd0eec562f9e54ac85.htm
That Subaru and Mitsubishi are REAL nice! I am going to keep this option open, but going to drive one before I pull the trigger on buying it. While I wait I will work on my 510.
I never found one to buy or to test drive local. I am still keeping this option for when I look for a car in about 7 months.
Sometimes when I'm heading to the beer store up the street I'll see a guy with a Honda Acty. It's absolutely adorable and I always go nuts over the thing but he's got some balls to drive it in Baltimore traffic. The "crumple zone" is basically your legs. If there were some way to squeeze a bit of a roll cage in there to strengthen it some I would feel more comfortable about it. I 100% believe it would be a blast to drive but the safety aspect would concern me, even just using it to putt down the road and pick up a few errands. I think after I move down to small town Florida I would feel better about one. Personally I love the Kei vans.
I think I'd just get a Mitsubishi RVR, Minica Dangan ZZ, Suzuki Swift, Autozam AZ-1, Suzuki Cappuccino, or the like over a Kei van/truck. A lot easier to live with compared to the spartan van/trucks in my opinion.
In reply to Mazdax605 :
I'm quite fond of the Suzuki Alto Works myself. Love the AZ-1 but they are sadly not for humans over 6 feet, let alone those of us with size 13 shoes.
ebonyandivory said:I drove a Samurai for years: no doors, no top, no tailgate, no carpet, plastic bucket seats, barely any heat, a factory AM/FM stereo that would vibrate the bottom of the barrel speakers, Super Swamper tires that would howl and vibrate. 89hp, manual.
I LOVED that thing. Do it
I have never driven a US spec samurai, but when in Costa Rica a few years back I rented a Jimny for a week, and I fell in love (basically the same thing, right?). They come up for sale every so often, and you can get them manual everything with a turbo 3cyl. As long as you don't need to do any freeway driving, they make any excursion feel like an adventure. Kinda like if you explained the Wrangler to the team who built the NA Miata and had them try and replicate it.
stuart in mn said:The question remains, are even they street legal in Nevada?
If they fall under the 25 year exemption, it shouldn't be an issue registering them in NV. Clark county might be somewhat different though as they have emissions testing down there, which complicates matters.
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