Massachusetts may ban small but beloved Japanese Kei trucks

Jason Aller bought his first Kei truck — or keijidōsha , Japanese for light vehicle — about four years before he started operating his own dealership dedicated to the diminutive Japanese imports.

Earlier this summer, Aller opened Rajikaru Imports at 185 West State St. in Granby. But then, the phone calls changed. They stopped coming from potential customers, and now the calls are from frustrated customers who can’t register their Kei cars and drive them on Massachusetts roads.

“The guy said he went to the RMV and the Registry turned him away,” Aller, a Belchertown resident with decades of experience with Honda vehicles. “Then another guy called and said he couldn’t get a car registered. Then another.”

At about half the length and a tenth the cost of an American pickup, the Kei trucks and vans are gaining in popularity, both as show cars and as carryalls. They are limited by Japanese law to engines of only 660 cc — typically with three cylinders — generating 64 horsepower versus 100 horsepower for a Honda Civic or similar car, Aller said.

The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, citing unspecified concerns, stopped processing new registrations for Kei cars, vans and trucks. Sometimes owners are given reasons like that vehicle identification numbers are too short. Sometimes, the Registry offices gave no explanation at all.

Owners with valid registrations are OK, for now.

“They just haven’t made up their mind if they are going to pull all the registrations on these vehicles,” said Arty Chados of Randolph, Massachusetts, a leader on a Facebook group of Kei car enthusiasts fighting what they describe as a stealth ban. “If you wait around and they revoke everyone’s registration, then your title will be absolutely worthless. You won’t be able to sell the vehicle.”

It’s extremely frustrating for Aller, who said he’s invested $100,000 or more in the business and his vehicles, five here and five more on the way from Japan.

“We want to pay our registration fee. We want to pay our taxes,” he said. “Just let us keep our cars.”

Massachusetts appears to be on the verge of joining 19 other U.S. States ― including Maine and Rhode Island — in banning or restricting some or all Kei-class Japanese imports.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation isn’t saying much, even after Kei truck enthusiasts spoke out at a state hearing last month in their car’s defense.

“The RMV is working to review and assess industry standards related to Kei-class mini trucks. Public comment received at last month’s MassDOT Board of Directors meeting will be taken into consideration in the discussions the Registry is having regarding the laws pertaining to the registration of such vehicles,” according to a written statement from a RMV spokesman. “The RMV will continue to focus on ensuring the safety of all road users in Massachusetts.”

The Registry webpage also said the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration does not endorse the use of these vehicles on public highways because they do not meet federal motor vehicle safety standards. These vehicles typically do not have critical safety components like airbags, bumpers, roll bars and tempered glass.

One safety sticking point, Aller surmises, could be the design of some Kei trucks and vans that places the front seat forward over the front axle.

State Rep. Orlando Ramos, D-Springfield — himself a classic car collector — said he and state Rep. Shirley Arriaga, D-Chicopee, met with Registry officials recently seeking to have the ban reversed or at least explained.

He has sponsored two bills, as yet unpassed, that would make Massachusetts rules for safety equipment easier for classic car owners to navigate. But this is the first time he’s run into the issue of Kei trucks.

The current situation is unfair to owners, he said.

“Some of them have made significant investments,” Ramos said. “Dealers have inventory they can’t move.”

The Kei cars are built by familiar names: Honda, Subaru, Mitsubishi and Daihatsu, which is part of Toyota. For some of its enthusiasts, Kei trucks fit under the wider umbrella of Japanese domestic market (JDM) car collecting inspired by the “Fast and Furious” movies and general interest in Japanese culture.

U.S. sales of Kei trucks tripled in the last five years, with around 7,500 total imported just last year, CNN reported last month citing Japanese used vehicle data.

Under U.S. law, they can only be imported as classic cars and cannot come into this county until they are 25 years old or older.

They are small, typically with 13-inch tires. But because of their design, a pickup truck bed or van body can take a full sheet of plywood or drywall home from the lumberyard.

Aller knows an owner who converted his Kei truck for his power washing business. Another owner uses it to run a greenhouse business and deliver flowering plants.

That mirrors the truck’s use in Japan and in much of the world where they are common farm and business vehicles — standard work trucks.

Enthusiast Raymond Moy of Quincy said a person can have a Kei car imported themselves, working with a Japanese exporter, for $3,000 to $4,000 or buy one from a dealer here in the states for $6,000 or so.

“The appeal of these is because they are so cheap,” Moy said.

He contrasts them with popular all-terrain side-by-side vehicles with dump beds.

“One of these little Kei trucks are way better value for what you get than one of those $20,000 golf cart things,” Moy said.

Aller goes one further.

“If these could be imported new from Japan, no one would ever buy an American pickup truck,” he said.

The build quality is excellent. “You are getting the workmanship of a ‘90s Honda,” he said.

And as time goes on, the 25-year limit allows Kei cars with seat belts and airbags into the country — safety features that became common in Japan in the 1990s.

There are drawbacks: Most are stick shifts and their small size can make it difficult for other drivers to notice them, which makes interstate highways nerve wracking.

“The fear is the guy in the F-250 heading down the highway at 80 mph, changing lanes and not looking,” Aller said.

Their radios typically only get one or two AM stations, and those stations are in Japan.

But for Chados, the enthusiast in Randolph, Kei cars are a blast.

He’s got a 1966 Ford Thunderbird as well. At car shows, only a few people will stop and check it out.

“But when I bring the (Subaru) Sambar van, there is a crowd around it the whole show,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

So much fun that Chados said he’s establishing a limited liability company in Montana and plans to register his cars there.

It’s a step some classic car owners take to avoid taxes.

Story by Jim Kinney, masslive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.