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I saw one of these at a Japanese tool event and omg they are adorable. They are sooooo tiny but incredibly versatile. Need to move this random thing like 20 feet ? Pop it on the low bed and drive over in no time flat. Need to cram it into some tiny place at the worksite? This thing can comfortably park gosh dang anywhere. Wanna look like a cool mother fucker? Pull in with your tiny adorable keitruck and pick up a load with a couple chicks. Instant pussymobile.
kei truck my beloved
That is brilliant,
But i like this
I have never needed to haul something before and I’d probably need the backseats more than a pickup.
But I really want that now.
Subaru Baja?
Like the other poster said, Proton Jumbuck/Arena. It’s crazy because it still have high resell value for a 20 years old car, the demand is there yet there’s no one to fill the supply.
The Ford Maverick. It’s a 4-seater small truck with a short bed and a standard hybrid engine that starts at $24,000.
Thats the issue. It’s still absolutely massive, the same size as Mitsubishi Triton, while Arena is sedan sized. It’s easier to navigate and park.
Screenshot from Ford showing it’s relative size to other trucks on the market. It’s significantly smaller, and making it any smaller would get it killed by CAFE. This is the rare case where regulation really, truly is the enemy of progress.
The automakers fucked around classifying everything as trucks to get around CAFE, and the well-meaning regulation designed to fix that loophole accidentally outlawed small cargo-haulers and encouraged automakers to just keep making things bigger instead of improving efficiency.
What’s a CAFE? I don’t remember any such rule in my country.
Corporate Average Fuel Economy. It’s the US Federal Regulation that establishes required fuel economy standards for vehicle fleets in the US. For instance, by 2026 the average fuel economy for a vehicle fleet, based on number of vehicles sold, must be 49 miles per gallon.
For manufacturers that sell a lot of trucks, that’s a problem. The #1 selling vehicle in the US for 50+ years has been the Ford F-150. So they split consumer vehicles into 2 major categories: passenger vehicles and light trucks, which had less-strict standards and an adjusted mpg-rating. After all, a truck designed for low-end torque for hauling gear and pulling trailers isn’t gonna be able to compete with a Civic for fuel economy.
To game the system, the manufacturers started pushing vehicles they could classify as light trucks. The classification was supposed to be reserved for cargo vehicles, vehicles rated for 12 or more passengers, or off-road vehicles. So the manufacturers started making everything “off-road.” Remember how the minivan disappeared and suddenly all the manufacturers had SUVs instead? Light Truck classification is the reason.
The final straw was the Chrysler PT Cruiser being classified as a light truck.
So in 2008 the feds announced that, starting in 2012, more weight would be given to a vehicle’s footprint in calculating an adjusted mpg to discourage the manufacturers simply raising a car a few inches and calling it an off-road vehicle to game the numbers. But the unintended consequence was a system where they just have to make trucks a little bigger every few years to stay ahead of the increasingly-strict mileage standards.
It’s about to get worse, too. Starting soon, manufacturers won’t be able to use the improved mileage of Hybrids to improve their CAFE numbers (it’ll only use traditional ICE for calculations), so I expect a lot of hybrids and plug-in hybrid models to be discontinued, including the Maverick.
The Maverick is the cheapest truck on the market AND it comes standard with a hybrid. That’s not because Ford is generous.
It exists almost exclusively to sell enough fuel-efficient vehicles to improve the CAFE numbers for the rest of the truck fleet to avoid fines, and when the hybrid engine no longer gives Ford a bonus in the numbers I doubt they’ll keep making it, or at least not as cheaply with the hybrid engine as the standard.
Proton Jumbuck/Arena
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_ArenaSort of a CC Mitsubishi Lancer Coupe with a tray rather than a rear seat and boot.
Always remember, these people waited for years and* paid 100k to look like colossal douchebags. They had every opportunity to avoid their situation.
Not all Tesla owners are awful, but all cyberdorks deserve the product they got.
I’ve decided I want one, just because NO ONE will question whatever mods I choose to make to it. The questions about why I bought it in the first place will never cease, but why make it as close to a DeLorean time machine as a fucking “truck” can look? Not a peep.
… having come up with the BTF thing just for this comment, I’ve realized: Backwards, its actually a good fit. Shame about what it would do to road visibility.
The little truck isn’t legal to build and sell in the US. Truck sizes have exploded since 2012 because that’s when the CAFE standards changed to be based on vehicle footprint instead of vehicle classification.
Suddenly small trucks were required to have the same fuel economy as a hybrid sedan. So small trucks are out and instead of making them more fuel efficient they just make them bigger every refresh to keep up with increasing fuel economy standards.
That’s also why think the Dakota, Ranger, and S10 all suddenly disappeared at that time. The Ranger came back, but it’s larger than the F150 used to be.
It’s also why small cargo vans just stopped being a thing. Ib the last 3 years the Transit Connect, ProMaster City, and NV200 were all discontinued because they couldn’t keep that size and meet CAFE standards.
Of course, none of this applies to the Cybertruck. Fuck that thing.
there’s a few mini-truck dealerships (somewhat) near me and they’re supposedly street legal, even on highways around here. i reeeaaallly wanna get one just to move shit around town.
I test drove one recently. I have very little need for it; don’t haul much that frequently, but it drove way better than I expected, and I really wanted it for no good reason.
Let me introduce you to the Ape Poker
thats a baby
Why is it a crime to have a femboi gobble my cock in a keitruck? This is the future your grandma was scared of.
That Honda is amazing and I want one!
I have no use for it but I WANT THE BABY 🥺
I have a 1997 Subaru Sambar kei truck and love it. I get so much done with it! But I would never take it on the interstate.
Honda 100%. Even if Elon Musk wasn’t a colossal douche, I wouldn’t want to drive a truck that looks like it was ripped verbatim from a SNES game.
I always do a double take whenever I see any car made before the 2000s.
I’m going the opposite extreme. I have been looking at and day dreaming about getting an Isuzu N series 14Ft box truck. Just below the DOT limit. Maximum bed minimal cab.
