Small Kei Cars are Becoming a Big Deal

MY FIRST INTRODUCTION to understanding engine displacement was the way my grandfather would display the cars in his garage — with a single piston from the engine of the car on display in front — giving each passersby a dramatic visual glimpse of what was under the hood.

Picture a large, 4-cylinder, chain-driven Thomas-Flyer with a massive 4.2 inch can of a piston displayed next to a Model T Ford with a relatively smaller piston of only 3.75 inches. You immediately knew who was boss, aside from the design and legendary history of each car.

Oftentimes, bigger-displacement cars get all the attention in car culture, leaving small-displacement cars out.

But there is one set of small displacement cars that are not to be counted out. Rapidly gaining popularity are 660cc-displacement cars, or Kei cars, as they’re known in Japan. Kei cars are looming large in the minds of young collectors — even with a not-so-large engine within them. “Kei” comes from “Keijidosha,” or “light automobile.”

These delightful cars were born out of necessity, not just because Japan knows how to generally make function look cute. In Japan, smaller cars with smaller engines qualify for lower tax and insurance rates — a designation created in post-World War II Japan to kickstart the auto manufacturing industry.

Kei cars are almost always viewed as commuter cars — they received special parking privileges in many Japanese cities. In early cars, they even chimed an alarm when drivers went above Japanese speed limits. But Kei cars basically stayed in Japan until recently, so what accounts for the sudden interest from American collectors in Kei cars?

JDM fever

It’s fair to say that the rise of Kei cars comes from collectors’ increasing interest in the vintage Japanese Domestic Market (JDM). Once we start to uncover Japanese auto manufacturing history, Kei cars are an essential part of the story. Furthermore, they fit into a fascinating debate among young collectors about what purposes cars can serve in our imagined urban futures.

It doesn’t hurt that an interested young collector can buy a Kei car at auction for around $10k, sometimes even less, with an entire cottage industry of importers to the U.S. who specialize in handling shipping and customs, such as Mitsui Co, Ltd. and Duncan Imports and Classics.

For the research purposes of this article, I took a deep dive into the abundant Reddit forums on Kei cars, where young car enthusiasts coach each other on the intricacies of filling out import forms from states from Hawaii to New Jersey.

Among the cars listed on these sites are various mid-90’s Daihatsu HiJet Dump Bed and Honda Acty trucks as well as Subaru. Sambars, which are genius mini trucks and vans perfect for small business owners commuting with goods to display or sell, as I’ve seen in lower Manhattan. Some are even surf vans, as I’ve heard they are used in Oahu.

Little data exists on the exact number of Kei cars imported to the United States, but the growing popularity of importers and the impressive number of Kei cars roving the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn seem to indicate that the hipsters are catching on. But it’s not just where the cool urbanites live that Kei cars loom large in the culture — in more rural areas, they are used for hunting and for off-roading, often with higher-tread tires.

In contemporary Japan, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association reports that Kei car vehicle registrations increased by 6.5% in 2023, with the top make being Daihatsu, a subsidiary of Toyota. If the Kei market continues to grow in Japan, perhaps the same trend will occur in the U.S. if importing gets streamlined.

A new view of cars

Given the low barrier to entry for these adorable and functional cars, it’s exciting to imagine them gaining the same popularity that a Mercedes-Benz 450SL has today. But most crucially, the prevalence of these
cars in the U.S. indicates a radically new imagining of what a car is for, exactly.

The philosophy is especially true for the Kei trucks. In the American market, we are just starting to see the pickup truck market prioritize affordability and light-duty transportation rather than gas-guzzling, high-durability vehicles. There’s a reason we all still talk about the Ford Model T a bit more than the Thomas Flyer. It was affordable AND reliable to boot.

This shift reminds us that intra-city cars do matter, especially for young people in urban centers. The majority of Kei car collectors are not doing Alpine climbs in far-off places or driving cross country. Instead, they drive their cars to local meetups, run errands — and show off joyful, purpose-built cars that meet basic transportation needs.

So, if anyone has a Kei car in the New York Metro Area, I’d love to go for a spin!

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