The ‘kei’ cars and trucks are growing in popularity in the U.S. But many states have explicitly banned them in recent years. A bill at the statehouse would allow them on Colorado roads.
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?
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.
Kei trucks have basically no crumple zone or front bumper. They are cab over designs, so if you hit something, you’re basically the first thing that takes the impact.
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…
Reminds me of an old NES game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoadBlasters
Yessss, what a blast from the past!
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.
the good, the bad, and the dodge ram.
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?
I don’t understand how states can ban an otherwise legal vehicle
They don’t make inflated profits for US companies. That’s what this is about
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
The Mini, Yaris, and many other modern cars pass crash -test standards. I do not consider them big.
Kei trucks have basically no crumple zone or front bumper. They are cab over designs, so if you hit something, you’re basically the first thing that takes the impact.
The newer ones have all the modern safety features (crumple zone, bumper, ABS, etc). But of course we aren’t allowed to import the modern ones.
If something goes max 5 kph, shouldn’t it do fine on all the crash tests?
You don’t have to make something bigger. Sometimes just making it slower works too.
Maybe they could tweak the design a little. Make it like a Chevy Spark with a rear bed.
A compact car ute