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How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

danwilkerson.com

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Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#261

Post by asdff »

gonzo41 wrote: post #139
waiseristy wrote: post #24

These HN threads about trucks are amazing. It’s like watching the same movie over and over again * Kei trucks are the coolest. Big gubment is making it so we can’t register them due to protectionism! * Chicken tax chicken tax chicken tax * Big trucks cause more crashes because reasons! * Trucks are just lifestyle vehicles and nobody actually needs or uses them Over and over and over again

Well, the Chicken tax chicken tax chicken tax point is worth complaining about. I feel like there'd be a titanic shift in US pickup market if they could get a Hilux.

They already sell the Tacoma here, its basically a Hilux. F150 sales still lap it.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#262

Post by xsmasher »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #225
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 feel like this sort of thing is a fantastic illustration of the irresponsible level Motorcycles are much less safe when compared to this truck. Would you also ban them, or do they receive an arbitrary exception?

I had a similar thought today about e-bikes and other micro vehicles; why do we allow e-bikes to ride on the road, but ban small trucks and tuk-tuks like this one?

https://electrek.co/2021/10/25/i-actually-bought-a-cheap-ele...

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#263

Post by skhr0680 »

nateberkopec wrote: post #188
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…

All your points about 25-year-old safety standards is perfectly valid. However, re: "crumple zones": The streets of the USA are basically an arms race. Bigger and bigger and bigger because "it's safer". Safer for you, maybe. This is how we ended up with pickup trucks that have hoods as high as your shoulders. Kei trucks and cars are great, and in Japan they're quite safe ( https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24499113/ )…

I can remember at least one instance this year where an entire family died from when their Kei car got rolled over in what would have been a survivable accident in a vehicle built to full size safety standards.

Kei cars are popular because they’re cheap to run and small, but they are a tin can on wheels.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#264

Post by asdff »

ryandrake wrote: post #144
jeromegv wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of those trucks are quite high and will kill pedestrians and even destroy other cars more in higher number. It’s just physics. If you need it, fine, but seeing how much they are selling of those, a lot of us are starting to doubt how much of it is need vs want.

The ability to destroy other cars in an accident is a selling point in some… cultures. I remember sitting at the bar back in my very red state home town listening to a guy go on and on about how his new Dodge Ram would absolutely obliterate a “liberal’s Prius” if he crashed into it. He was not talking about the relative occupant safety difference between the two cars. He was specifically boasting about how he believe…

These must be the sort of people that put testicles on their trucks

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#265

Post by defrost »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #259
defrost wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You could get the same benefit just by adding the class to the high school curriculum. This doesn't contribute to the upkeep of roads in the same manner as a yearly tax on those that use them. So no, not the same benefit at all.

You're thinking of car tax and fuel tax. But also, the value of roads scales poorly with any of these things. The ability to have a package delivered to your front door is valuable regardless of whether or not you even have a car, and the value of it depends on what's in it rather than how much the truck cost. The most sensible way to fund any kind of basic infrastructure is from general revenues.

Is it telepathy that allows you to claim that you know what I'm thinking?

I'm stating that a number of charges go towards the upkeep of roads and related services (at least in the country I'm present in) these charges include driver and vehicle licences, fuel taxes, etc.

> So the most sensible way to ..

Proposing an alternative doesn't negate the present practices, moreover it makes sense that as much of the public cost associated with roads should come from those that use the roads the most.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#266

Post by oblio »

rootusrootus wrote: post #116
oblio wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, what so you do for a living? Or what's your hobby? Isn't the F250 a huge vehicle and that trailer seems huge, is it a boat?

Software, just like so many others on HN. The trailer is an RV we take out every couple weeks during the nice weather season. It takes over 1300 pounds of payload capacity just for the trailer itself, which doesn't leave much for anything else (hitch, cargo, humans, canine). That's how I ended up trading the F150 we had for an F250. And yes, the F250 is pretty big. It's actually not a lot bigger dimensionally than an…

I'm slightly confused.

In Europe Volkswagen Passat, which is a regular sedan, can tow up to 2000kg braked (I think that's 4400 pounds) and 750 kg unbraked (1600 pounds):

https://www.carsguide.com.au/volkswagen/passat/towing-capaci...

Unless these sites use different measurement systems for towing (could be, I have no idea about these things), wouldn't a much smaller but more powerful car do?

In Europe people regularly tow RV trailers with Volvo V60 wagons...

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#268

Post by randunel »

CorrectHorseBat wrote: post #243
Swizec wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am not aware of any comparable headline figure for how pedestrians fare against them but I would put money on their pedestrian safety performance USA is world no1 at killing pedestrians. Most pedestrian deaths per mile driven of any country . 7000 pedestrians die in traffic collisions annually. Freakonomics just started a 3-part series on this. https://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-is-the-u-s-so-good-at-k...

If I look at the numbers [1] I highly doubt the US is even in the top 50. It's probably just the most pedestrian deaths per mile driven of any country that reports pedestrian deaths per mile driven. Edit: look good at the deaths per mile driven, most countries with horrible numbers in other columns don't have any data in that column which is why the USA ends up as 4th. Look at any other statistic and you'll see the U…

The comment you replied to claimed

> Most pedestrian deaths per mile driven of any country

You said

> If I look at the numbers [1] I highly doubt the US is even in the top 50

The table in the link [1] you shared, when sorted by deaths per mile driven, ranks the USA (2021 data) 5th in the world, with Mexico (2013 data) being 1st.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#269

Post by hakfoo »

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…

As I understand it, there was a time when people would buy expensive luxury European cars in their countries of manufacture, and import them for their own use, which cut out the local wing of the manufacturer, local dealers, etc. This probably offered a broader range of models and options and may also have saved money.

They could care less about the 25-year-old cars-- it's the new ones, the ones that probably meet or exceed the spirit of US safety standards but have some marginal differences from US norms or lack a formal certification, that they're after.

They probably offered the 25 year carveout to make sure they could get the restriction on the important commercial market without creating a dispute with a niche community (the vintage-car enthusiasts) that could derail the whole regulatory process.

To me, the equally weird part is the car-of-Thesus situation. We have a regulatory environment that says basically "here's a block of rust that was demolished in an accident and sat for 25 years in the rain in a scrapyard, but because it has the VIN plate from an ancient Mustang/Defender/Porsche/etc. on it, you can build basically an entirely new car around it and not have to honour modern rules about safety or emissions." There isn't an obvious way to incentivize the classic-car people to think in terms of those standards when they retrofit.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#270

Post by AnthonyMouse »

defrost wrote: post #265
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're thinking of car tax and fuel tax. But also, the value of roads scales poorly with any of these things. The ability to have a package delivered to your front door is valuable regardless of whether or not you even have a car, and the value of it depends on what's in it rather than how much the truck cost. The most sensible way to fund any kind of basic infrastructure is from general revenues.

Is it telepathy that allows you to claim that you know what I'm thinking? I'm stating that a number of charges go towards the upkeep of roads and related services (at least in the country I'm present in) these charges include driver and vehicle licences, fuel taxes, etc. > So the most sensible way to .. Proposing an alternative doesn't negate the present practices, moreover it makes sense that as much of the public c…

> Is it telepathy that allows you to claim that you know what I'm thinking?

It's the fact that the driver license fee is paid at renewal, which isn't yearly in any US state for anyone under the age of 79. Moreover, the amount of the fee is such that it's essentially paying for the licensing bureaucracy, which you wouldn't need if you didn't have licensing.

> Proposing an alternative doesn't negate the present practices

Present practices have to be meritorious to justify preserving them.

> it makes sense that as much of the public cost associated with roads should come from those that use the roads the most.

But what does that mean?

If it's contribution to the cost of road maintenance then the cost should be paid almost entirely by a per-mile tax on large trucks, because road damage is proportional to axle weight to the fourth power and passenger vehicles are a rounding error.

If it's value of the roads then we're back to general revenues because the value is proportional to economic activity enabled by basic infrastructure which has no real relationship to number of miles traveled. One truckload of electronics is worth more than ten truckloads of scrap iron. One life-saving ride in an ambulance is worth more than a thousand days of commuting.

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