Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

danwilkerson.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 409 posts

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#211

Post by fragmede »

KRAKRISMOTT wrote: post #166
nabilhat wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In Oregon, Kei cars are specifically illegal... That's what the OR DMV suggests, but this is their own made-up policy, not law. They didn't even bother putting it in writing until relatively recently. So far they've failed to put their actively enforced kei policy into Oregon law [0]. They simply decided to stonewall a subset of 80's and 90's Japanese cars. It's not about safety, or emissions, or top speed, or size…

Any bored billionaires here or NGOs willing to finance a suit?

Bill Gates already did, for his Porsche 959, which was made illegal by the 1988 Imported Vehicle Safety Compliance Act. His lobbying resulted in the 1999 Show or Display law, which allows such vehicles, though they are limited to 2,500 miles per year.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#212

Post by Swizec »

willcipriano wrote: post #207
neuronerdgirl wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You not wearing a seatbelt puts other people in the vehicle at risk because your body becomes a massive flying object in the cabin when you are hit that can injure or kill others in the vehicle with you.

You the sort of person who will tie down a bag of dog food or bag of soup cans when you load them into a vehicle without a trunk?

Yes. I always put seatbelts on big stuff in the rear seats

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#213

Post by p1necone »

dragonwriter wrote: post #186
p1necone wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but the point is that the vast majority of people buying full sized pickup trucks aren't actually using them for practical purposes, and it turns out that when something becomes a status symbol like that for so long the capabilities diverge from what people that aren't just buying it as a status symbol want.

> Yeah but the point is that the vast majority of people buying full sized pickup trucks aren't actually using them for practical purposes, If they aren't, you can replace them with a cheaper, safer, more fuel efficient vehicle that meets US safety standards and is easier to maintain and register than a Kei, and probably at a comparable or far cheaper initial price than the Kei. If they are using it for a practical p…

> a Kei is probably the wrong choice for most US buyers.

> There are newer import-legal minitrucks that don't have the registration hassles, like Nissan Clipper

I'm confused - the Nissan Clipper is a Kei truck/van. Kei isn't a brand, it's just a description of a specific style of car (low weight, engine size etc incentivized by the Japanese government).

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#214

Post by defrost »

willcipriano wrote: post #207
neuronerdgirl wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You not wearing a seatbelt puts other people in the vehicle at risk because your body becomes a massive flying object in the cabin when you are hit that can injure or kill others in the vehicle with you.

You the sort of person who will tie down a bag of dog food or bag of soup cans when you load them into a vehicle without a trunk?

Absolutely.

Also the person that ties down loads with multiple ropes | straps truckies hitches and stoppers. Not to mention stopping every few hundred miles to check tensions and reset as required.

Loose loads are a pain in the arse and often dangerous.

A soup can rolling loose and jamming up under a brake or accelerator pedal is something that really happens .. and it's no fun when it does.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#215

Post by fragmede »

SoftTalker wrote: post #195
criddell wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that’s why big shared fleets will never really take off. People don’t seem to mind spending a lot more on their vehicle than what they really need to. People spend $50k because they want that truck, not because they need it.

Same reason many people buy Teslas

To be fair, the first gen Nissan Leaf was a piece of crap though.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#216

Post by menus »

tshaddox wrote: post #81
markdown wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what the average person uses their $50k pickup for, you most certainly can. Do you really imagine most pickup trucks in the US are hauling bricks on a dirt road up the side of mountains?

No, I imagine the average person in the U.S. is using their truck to drive to and from their office job and taking their kids to and from school. And for that these tiny trucks obviously would not work.

I'm glad the truck bed is coming handy when dropping the kids to school. Sure makes up for all the kids getting crushed by big cars (1)

(1) https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/americas-cars-trucks-ar...

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#217

Post by bobthepanda »

walrus01 wrote: post #98
brigade wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

States are not required to register cars just because the federal government allows them to be imported or sold. They can add requirements consistent with their own laws, as California infamously does causing 49-state cars and parts. Whether categorically blocking kei car registrations is consistent with the laws of some of the states doing it is a question in some ongoing lawsuits, though.

Different US states' very unique interpretation of laws on certain things is something I have seen that needs explanation to foreign visitors and people who immigrate, from countries where there is one consistent legal code and regulation system of various products at the national level... Marijuana regulations and firearms (and limitations of different types of firearms) are two obvious examples. Other things like p…

This is mainly a federal distinction though.

IIRC some federal countries like Canada or India have even greater variance between states.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#218

Post by fragmede »

markdown wrote: post #36
waiseristy wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can do the job of a $50,000 pickup using a machine that is half the size of a Honda Civic No you can’t

For what the average person uses their $50k pickup for, you most certainly can. Do you really imagine most pickup trucks in the US are hauling bricks on a dirt road up the side of mountains?

You think a Kei truck can't make it up a mountain with a load of bricks? It may not be the fastest, and the biggest load of bricks it can haul is gonna be smaller, but let's not pretend a Kei truck can't go to Home Depot and back again with a decent amount of stuff. Like smaller trucks in the US, like the Ford Ranger or Chevy S10, they do just fine if you don't abuse them. If you do, giant 2-ton trucks don't last either.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#219

Post by metalcrow »

willcipriano wrote: post #159
kelnos wrote: post #158

I went back and forth on the idea of sharing such a negative take here, but... here goes. > You'll need to find a truck that is at least 25 years old. In the US, cars more youthful than that must comply with FMVSS (safety standards). > No air bags, [...] power steering, or crumple zones. I feel like this sort of thing is a fantastic illustration of the irresponsible level which most drivers (in the US at least; can't…

I don't understand the anger and disdain from people about others potentially hurting themselves. The only thing I can think of is they are jealous of someone who doesn't have these sort of intrusive thoughts about safety all the time and how they get to do something cool like the OP every now and then.

Technically it's a drain on society's safety nets. If people hurt themselves it requires investments of health care workers and tax dollars. Now this isn't a really strong argument in the US, since we don't have socialized healthcare, but it's not nonexistent either.

Also, the other argument goes that "people don't know how to actually get what they want for themselves, and will act against their own true self-interests". Which is definitely true to an extend but the devil is in how far you're willing to stretch that.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#220

Post by chipsa »

kelnos wrote: post #158

I went back and forth on the idea of sharing such a negative take here, but... here goes. > You'll need to find a truck that is at least 25 years old. In the US, cars more youthful than that must comply with FMVSS (safety standards). > No air bags, [...] power steering, or crumple zones. I feel like this sort of thing is a fantastic illustration of the irresponsible level which most drivers (in the US at least; can't…

Even if it did largely comply with FMVSS, it wouldn't be importable if less than 25 years old, because it doesn't meet US specific regs, including US crash testing. I couldn't buy a brand new Skoda and bring it over, even though it met all the Euro crash testing and safety regs, because it doesn't have everything done to be sold over here. The only exceptions are stuff that's 25 years old, and stuff that's so limited production that it doesn't have to meet it (like a Koenigsegg, I think).
Post reply on HN