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Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

economist.com

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Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#331

Post by chrisco255 »

porphyra wrote: post #202
echelon wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The /r/fuckcars folks are being a little dishonest here. As another commenter mentioned, this is like asking a vegan for steak recommendations at a restaurant. Subaru Sambar (kei truck) towing capacity: 1,300 lbs Ford F-150 towing capacity: 5,000 to 11,300 lbs Ford F-250 Shelby edition towing capacity: 24,200 pounds And that's just one additional dimension where these vehicles significantly differ. These vehicles are…

The point isn't that the smaller truck is an equally capable vehicle. The point is to make fun of people who don't need a truck but are getting an overkill vehicle as a status symbol, all the while people who actually need to transport goods can still get a lot done with a tiny kei truck.

If everyone has one, it's not a status symbol.

The article talks about using the Kei truck as a replacement for a UTV/Side-by-Side, not for a daily truck. These /r/fuckcars people have never done real work in their lives and are just larping. 1100 pound tow capacity couldn't even tow most empty trailers.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#332

Post by everdrive »

iancmceachern wrote: post #144
asciimov wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You can get the Ford Maverick

I wish you could! They’re impossible to find.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#333

Post by derefr »

nostromo wrote: post #216
civilized wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can import cars all you want, they just need to be safe and not pollute. These cars do not meet those requirements, so you can't import them. I don't understand. If this were the case, it seems like the rule wouldn't make an exception for 25+ year old cars.

That exemption exists for car collectors, who generally have a different set of safety expectations of their cars than you would buying a used car at a corner lot.

Kind of weird that car collectors in the US can't collect modern foreign cars, though. Why not instead just have "accredited collectors" like there are "accredited investors"? Wouldn't that be simpler? "Get the piece of paper waiving your right to car safety, and then you can buy whatever stupid cars you like, as long as you don't drive them very often."

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#334

Post by pookah »

paxys wrote: post #36

Kinda ironic that big city dwellers are buying larger and larger trucks every year just to take them on grocery shopping runs while rural farm workers are moving in the opposite direction for actual hauling.

My truck has a supercharger and a performance chip. It is a "city dwelling" truck...And I haul thousands of pounds of shit in the city just like I would anywhere else (hence why I have a truck). There's no rule saying trucks have to be for towing bovine.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#335

Post by ricardobeat »

asciimov wrote: post #128
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…

The brazilian Ford Courier model was an amazing pickup. Its 1.6 engine was a beast for the weight (~1000kg if I remember correctly, you’d lose traction on launch very easily).

I’ts kinda crazy that cars like that are not even made anymore. You can barely load a couple boxes into most of the currently popular extended-cabin abominations.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#336

Post by chrisco255 »

wpm wrote: post #280
echelon wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The /r/fuckcars folks are being a little dishonest here. As another commenter mentioned, this is like asking a vegan for steak recommendations at a restaurant. Subaru Sambar (kei truck) towing capacity: 1,300 lbs Ford F-150 towing capacity: 5,000 to 11,300 lbs Ford F-250 Shelby edition towing capacity: 24,200 pounds And that's just one additional dimension where these vehicles significantly differ. These vehicles are…

The vast majority of big-ass truck owners never haul anything , let alone something heavier than 1,300lbs.

The vast majority of large truck owners definitely do. 1300 pounds is nothing, and your ignorance is telling.

Most people doing real work with trucks are hauling heavy duty construction trailers, or otherwise, but even if you wanted to move furniture you'd quickly exceed 1300 pounds.

Even a tiny 4'x 8' U-Haul is 850 pounds empty: https://www.uhaul.com/Trailers/4x8-Cargo-Trailer-Rental/UV/

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#337

Post by pookah »

thebooktocome wrote: post #88
boredumb wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Japan is famously mountainous. I can’t imagine they don’t road test them on “real hills”.

Japan doesn't have rural American dirt roads.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#338

Post by akiselev »

derefr wrote: post #323
nyx wrote: post #29

The 25-year import rule here, which bans Americans from importing vehicles from other countries unless they're 25+ years old, is just awful for those of us who would be interested in driving small, efficient foreign cars. It would be great to live completely car-free, but absent major changes to how we plan our cities, it's just a sad reality that cars are a necessary ingredient to life in the vast majority of Americ…

What counts as "importing a car", anyway? What's stopping someone from e.g. having the car disassembled, imported as parts, and reassembled?

Nothing. If you're only going to use it non-commercially on private property, there's almost nothing stopping you. You can even have an entire tank shipped in as long as it doesn't have any shells [1] or secondary guns, and you don't have to take it apart or anything.

The question is: is it street legal and can you legally get it registered to drive afterwards? Once you ask that question, tons of regulations come into play ranging from axle weight to emissions standards to safety requirements.

[1] you gotta have an ATF destructive devices license and follow state specific laws if you want to fire the main cannon

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#339

Post by iancmceachern »

hytdstd wrote: post #329
iancmceachern wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you live in a tent? Would you make the same comparison about your house? We live in our RV for 3-6 months a year, in weather from -10 in Colorado blizzards and 120 degree California summers. In rain snow and sleet. I work remotely from it. A tent is not a home. An RV It is for many of us. Before you throw more stones, it's far more eco friendly and lower carbon Footprint to own an rv and travel and stay in it in v…

> it's far more eco friendly and lower carbon Footprint to own an rv and travel and stay in it in various places than to own several properties and fly between them. It's considered worse to drive (vs fly) unless you have more than 2 people-- and that's for a normal car. With a truck+trailer the break-even point would need more passengers. https://terrapass.com/blog/carbon-footprint-of-driving-vs-fl... https://yalecl…

The info you posted doesn't include the property and accommodations, it's only the travel, which of course is higher, the savings overall is in the stay, so you have to compare it to flying AND accommodations, not just flying.

https://www.trianglerv.com/blog/post/how-an-rving-vacation-a...

Tiny homes and RVs have about 7% of the energy Footprint of traditional dwellings: https://beginrv.com/tiny-house-vs-rv/

So if you add all that up, its more eco friendly, affordable, and what we've chosen to do.

For context the typical RV has a 20-50 amp service, most common is 30. Houses have 200amp service or more typically.

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