Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks • Hacker News Board

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#121

Post by Syonyk » Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 9:28 PM UTC

kylehotchkiss wrote: post #43

Syonyk wrote: post #17

The local Mahindra dealer also seems to be doing a brisk business with their Roxors - they're almost literally a 1950s Jeep with a modern diesel engine in them. It's the same market niche - small, off highway use, utility vehicles. And at least out here, you're allowed to run around on the roads at least some with them to get between fields.

I presume you're not in USA - I can't imagine being allowed to import the Mahindra copy-paste Jeep into USA. Those clones are so blatant... Wish they added some more Indian flair to them. I can't believe jeep still bothered to enter the Indian market with that on the roads!

I'm very much in the rural mountain west USA.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#122

Post by glitcher » Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 9:29 PM UTC

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #53

porphyra wrote: post #37

One of the most highly upvoted Reddit posts on /r/fuckcars mocks large pickups compared to the utility of a kei truck. https://reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/sdrgv3/japanese_truck... A kei truck has about 90% the bed length of a pickup while being a lot more nimble. The lower bed is more ergonomic to load and unload too.

Missing the point. Many people buying inefficient oversized pickup trucks don't care that there's smaller and more efficient options out there, but they do it for the status simbol and ego lifting, not to be utilitarian and efficient. I see these monster pick-up trucks more and more in European cities nowadays too, F-150s, Dodge Rams, with some fancy paintjob and big wheels but who's bed hasn't seen any actual use ca…

Another factor is safety. I don't share this point of view, but I have seen others purposely choose large, heavy vehicles for family members so they stand a better chance surviving a bad collision.

If you've ever sat in traffic driving a small car surrounded by large vehicles it definitely starts to sink in that you are at a distinct disadvantage if anything goes wrong. So this trend is also at least partially about this weird arms race of wanting to feel safer in the presence of ever larger vehicles.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#123

Post by anonymouskimmer » Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 9:30 PM UTC

shawabawa3 wrote: post #97

nostromo wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be the point of safety and emissions regulations if we let everyone bypass them by importing vehicles from abroad? The vehicles meeting the requirements wouldn't be competitive on price because they'd be playing by a different set of rules.

Why would foreign vehicles be exempt from safety and emissions regulations?

Because vehicles over a certain age are grandfather-exempted.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#124

Post by themodelplumber » Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 9:30 PM UTC

boredumb wrote: post #59

porphyra wrote: post #37

One of the most highly upvoted Reddit posts on /r/fuckcars mocks large pickups compared to the utility of a kei truck. https://reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/sdrgv3/japanese_truck... A kei truck has about 90% the bed length of a pickup while being a lot more nimble. The lower bed is more ergonomic to load and unload too.

Where I live the hills would stall that kei out before you got to any real hills, with nothing at all added to the bed.

I rode in kei-trucks and kei-vans with an adult in every seat, up some very steep and long hills in Japan. We weren't exactly in the fast lane, but there was not any mention of the van not being up to the task. It felt just fine.

In fact my friend was SO excited about his new van (for 1998) that for a while, he was bragging about every last little aspect up and down those hills, every time we rode with him. He lived in a gigantic danchi at the top of one of the steepest hills around, and still loved that thing.

(He worked as a furnace-jumper-inner / furnace-insides-scraper at an auto recycling place all day, and had molten aluminum burns on his arms and sometimes face...I respected the heck out of that guy for what he did to support his family. I think he runs an IT business in Brazil now.)

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#125

Post by twalla » Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 9:30 PM UTC

These vehicles (mostly their van equivalents like the Delica and Hi Ace) are also popular with rural mail carriers since they use their own vehicles and right hand drive enables them to deposit mail without leaving the car.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#126

Post by Our_Benefactors » Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 9:32 PM UTC

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #120

deelowe wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That rule ain't changing unfortunately. Regulatory capture is STRONG with automotive and the US sees it as a matter of national security (car makers would be pivoted to other ares in times of war).

How easily could they retool for an event like that? I think I've just hatched a conspiracy theory for why all our vehicles are absurdly sized...

More easily than if the factory doesn’t exist at all.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#127

Post by themaninthedark » Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 9:35 PM UTC

sgath92 wrote: post #90

SoftTalker wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They drove big station wagons.

And the station wagons got killed off by CAFE standards because they were treated as cars instead of as their own category. Taking a sedan and turning it into a station wagon is going to inherently make it heavier and less fuel efficient. So if the auto makers are already struggling to make their sedans hit MPG goals, suddenly those station wagons have to be phased out. Though to be fair, minivans start in the mid 80…

But interestingly enough, a lot of new vehicles are SUVs that look like lifted station wagons...

So we like the form factor of station wagon

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#128

Post by asciimov » Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 9:36 PM UTC

LinuxBender wrote: post #4

I've seriously contemplated getting one of these. Street legal, fuel efficient, simple, but when I started researching them I started to see a pattern. It's hard to find anyone in rural areas willing to work on them and not all mini trucks are equal. Some are not shipped correctly and have frame rust issues. There are YouTuber's that cover some of the models and the gotchas and things to inspect. I would never buy on…

I seriously miss compact trucks, like the Mazda B-series, Ford Courier, Ford Ranger (before it became a mid-size in 2019).

These kinds of trucks might more to your liking. Sure they aren't as small and cute as the imports, but your local auto store can still get you parts for them.

They are fun to drive, fairly fuel efficient, and are capable of hauling material from the home center. I learned to drive stick, and how to pop the clutch when you have a dead battery, in a Ford Courier on the high plains of west Texas.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#129

Post by LucasBrandt » Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 9:37 PM UTC

lastofthemojito wrote: post #24

ryukafalz wrote: post #9

New minitrucks should be legal here! If you don't need a huge truck, you should be able to buy something smaller.

You do see new minitrucks in certain non-road settings in the US, but yeah, they aren't street legal. Some folks import them for use as UTVs: https://usminitrucksales.com It's the same somewhat bizarre logic that makes it fine to register say, a 1969 VW Beetle in the US, but not a 2004 Mexican Beetle that's no less clean or safe. The older stuff gets grandfathered in because at that age there's hardly anyone willing…

I'll take the theoretical chance of an "epidemic of minitruck highway deaths" over the current reality of an epidemic of traffic fatalities made worse by cars and trucks getting heavier, taller, and deadlier.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#130

Post by LinuxBender » Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 9:38 PM UTC

fundad wrote: post #78

LinuxBender wrote: post #4

I've seriously contemplated getting one of these. Street legal, fuel efficient, simple, but when I started researching them I started to see a pattern. It's hard to find anyone in rural areas willing to work on them and not all mini trucks are equal. Some are not shipped correctly and have frame rust issues. There are YouTuber's that cover some of the models and the gotchas and things to inspect. I would never buy on…

I guess if there's a dealer that's something but isn't it getting hard to get any kind of car worked on in rural areas?

isn't it getting hard to get any kind of car worked on in rural areas?

It is. I can do some mechanical work but I have no idea what special tools and tricks are required knowledge with these trucks. At least with side-by-sides there are a myriad of dealers and mechanics near me as so many people use them around their ranches, to go into town and to go into the mountains. There is probably some little shop that would say they could work on the mini-trucks but my experience with the small businesses here as that most of them fake it until they make it, but they never make it. So I would be taking a bit of a gamble. If I found one that was cheap enough it might be worth the gamble as I could just write off the loss if it has some obscure problem. That is why I am still on the fence.