Owners of imported vehicles are once again finding themselves on familiar, unstable ground. Georgia is among a growing list of states with rules telling officials to stop titling and registering legally imported, over 25-year-old Japanese vehicles. Owners are being left with pretty paperweights that cannot be driven on Georgia roads. Here is how and why Georgia is doing it.
For more than two years, many owners of Japanese Domestic Market cars in America have been facing an uphill battle with numerous states. Back in the summer of 2021, Maine and Rhode Island began revoking the registrations of vehicles that were legally imported into America and registered in those respective states. Later, Maine and Rhode Island were joined by New York, Georgia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, each imparting upon JDM vehicle owners varying levels of registration difficulties.
For example, New York, Georgia, Maine, and Rhode Island all started recalling the titles and registrations of JDM vehicles while Pennsylvania allowed some already registered vehicles to be grandfathered in. Pennsylvania also allows Kei car owners to register their vehicles as antiques, which at least allows the vehicles to be driven occasionally.
Georgia Department of Revenue “Motor Vehicle Division Policy Bulletin MVD-2023-05″ has surfaced on Facebook and JDM enthusiast sites. It reminds Georgia county tag offices that Kei-class vehicles cannot be registered in the state. Apparently, as the letter notes, Kei-class vehicles have been improperly titled and registered by Georgia tag offices, and the state seems to want to crack down on that. This spells bad news for enthusiasts who might have been able to register their imports in Georgia over the past two years.
Despite appearances, Georgia is not the latest state to join the fray. Back when I was still schlepping Smart Fortwo posts over at the German Lighting Site, I received emails from concerned JDM vehicle owners in Georgia. That was back in 2021 almost immediately following the original debacle in Maine and Rhode Island. Based on that, it would appear that Georgia also started denying titles and registrations over two years ago. The letter suggests that not all county tag offices were following the rules.
What Started This Nightmare?
Each state that has imposed rules against the registration and titling of imported vehicles has its own way of doing things. Maine decided to change its laws to effectively ban all imported vehicles from being able to be registered. The state modified 29-A MRSA 354 on June 15, 2021, which defines what the state considers to be an off-road vehicle:
“‘Off-road vehicle’ means a motor vehicle that, because of the vehicle’s design and, configuration, original manufacture or original intended use, does not meet the inspection standards of chapter 15, the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s pollutant requirements or the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration’s crash testing standards and that is not a moped or motorcycle.”
You read that right. Under Maine’s definition of ‘off-road vehicle,’ anything you import into America that doesn’t have EPA or NHTSA certification, including a sweet 25-year-old Nissan Skyline, is on the same level as a Can-Am Maverick side-by-side. If you were to take Maine’s approach by the letter, vehicles built before 1967 and therefore predating the original application of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards should also be removed from the road.
Rhode Island took a different approach, deciding to reinterpret existing laws on its books. General Laws § 31-3-5 says that a vehicle can be denied registration because it is “mechanically unfit or unsafe” for highways. General Laws § 31-38-1 state that no person should operate a vehicle on a highway unless it is in good working order and in safe mechanical condition.
Those laws have been on Rhode Island’s books for years, and owners of imported vehicles were able to register vehicles despite them. However, Rhode Island has since changed how it interprets these laws to prohibit JDM imports from operating on its roads. Vehicle owners in Maine and Rhode Island have sued the state in attempts to get their registrations valid again. It is unclear what happened in those suits, but as of today, the aforementioned laws still stand.
Over in Maine, Rep. Shelley Rudnicki introduced a bill that, if passed, would no longer class a vehicle that could be imported under the 25-year rule as an off-road vehicle. As of writing, the bill is still pending.
Georgia’s Shenanigans
So, that brings us to what’s happening in Georgia. As I noted before, the letter isn’t representing a new change in the state’s laws, but seemingly cracking down on tag offices not following current guidance. Let’s go through some lines and explain what’s going on.
Georgia opens with these lines, stating that county tag offices have been registering Kei-class vehicles due to the fact that Kei cars are legal in other states and they look like they should be legal in Georgia. Emphasis mine:
The purpose of this bulletin is to notify County Tag Offices of the Department’s policy that prohibits the titling and registering of Japanese kei vehicles, minitrucks and similar vehicles (collectively, Kei Vehicles) in Georgia. Kei Vehicles are imported (primarily from Japan) for use as farming vehicles and off-road recreational vehicles in the United States.Periodically customers attempt to title and register these vehicles. Kei Vehicles are not compliant with U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). Therefore, they are not “street legal.” Kei Vehicles are barred from titling and registration.
Kei Vehicles are street legal in Japan. They have many features also found on street legal vehicles in Georgia, including headlights, taillights, seat belts and other features seen in other vehicles that are permitted on Georgia roads. Additionally, some states do consider Kei Vehicles to be street legal. Due to the similarities between Kei Vehicles and other street legal vehicles, combined with the differing laws in various states, both customers and county tag offices have been confused by the title and registration laws relating to these vehicles. Due to this confusion, certain customers have successfully, albeit unlawfully, had their Kei Vehicles titled and registered in Georgia.
It is important for counties to avoid titling and registering Kei Vehicles. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety issued a report warning that Kei Vehicles cannot protect passengers from collisions with even the smallest, lightest FMVSS vehicles. Kei Vehicles are not safe to be driven on Georgia roads.
Georgia then tells county tag offices how to identify an imported Japanese vehicle. The state tells county officials to count VIN digit length, noting that JDM cars aren’t going to have the 17-digit VIN of an FMVSS-compliant vehicle. However, Georgia also notes that the rule there doesn’t apply to vehicles made before 1981. If that somehow fails to identify the JDM vehicle, the state tells officials to put the VIN into the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) VIN Decoder to see if the decoder spits out this message: “Error Text: 7 – Manufacturer is not registered with NHTSA for sale or importation in the U.S. for use on U.S roads; Please contact the manufacturer directly for more information.”
Lastly, Georgia tells officials to physically inspect the vehicle in search of the FMVSS sticker stating: “This vehicle conforms to all applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) in effect on the date of manufacture shown above.”
Georgia makes it clear a couple of times in the letter that it believes its county tag offices have dropped the ball on imported vehicle registration. However, the state notes that owners of these vehicles can expect to have their plates revoked for the mistake:
We are aware that some Kei Vehicles imported into Georgia have been improperly titled and registered. When the Department learns of such titles and registrations, we issue a letter (i) notifying the owner that the title and registration are invalid and (ii) requesting return of the title. We also cancel the title and revoke the registration.
The State’s Argument
So, on what grounds is Georgia revoking the titles and registrations of imported vehicles? The letter states:
The Department and the County Tag Offices cannot give legal advice, which should be made clear to customers. The County Tag Office is also not responsible for providing legal defenses of Department positions. However, you may share with customers who insist on a legal basis for excluding Kei Vehicles from titling and registration that O.C.G.A. § 40-3-30.1(f) prohibits titling or registering unconventional motor vehicles. Kei Vehicles are manufactured for the Japanese domestic vehicle market and are not manufactured to be compliant with FMVSS, so under Georgia law they are unconventional motor vehicles and cannot be titled and registered.
I decided to pull O.C.G.A. § 40-3-30.1(f). It states:
(A) “Unconventional motor vehicle or motorcycle” means any motor vehicle or motorcycle that is not manufactured in compliance with the following:
(i) Chapter 8 of Title 40, relating to equipment and inspection of motor vehicles;
(ii) Applicable federal motor vehicle safety standards issued pursuant to 49 U.S.C.A. Section 30101, et seq., unless and until the United States Customs and Border Protection Agency or the United States Department of Transportation has certified that the motor vehicle complies with such applicable federal standards; or
(iii) Applicable federal emission standards issued pursuant to 42 U.S.C.A. Section 7401 through Section 7642, the “Clean Air Act,” as amended.
(B) Such term shall not include former military motor vehicles.
The letter specifically points to section (f), which states:
(f) Unconventional motor vehicles or motorcycles shall not be titled or registered; provided, however, that a multipurpose off-highway vehicle manufactured after January 1, 2000, shall be registered upon proper application and payment of the required fee.
Ga. Code § 40-3-30.1 has contained the “unconventional motor vehicles” line for many years, going back to at least 2010. Oh, and the term “unconventional vehicles” comes straight from the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, and we’ll get to that organization in a moment.
However, it seems the state didn’t begin enforcing it until two years ago. Even weirder is the fact that according to a prior and still current section of code, Ga. Code § 40-3-30, the state does allow the titling of a vehicle that is 25 years or older:
a. In addition to the reasons set forth in Code Section 40-3-29, no application shall be accepted and no certificate of title shall be issued to any motor vehicle which was not manufactured to comply with applicable federal motor vehicle safety standards issued pursuant to 49 U.S.C.A. Section 30101, et seq., unless and until the United States Customs Service or the United States Department of Transportation has certified that the motor vehicle complies with such applicable federal standards and unless all documents required by the commissioner for processing an application for a certificate of registration or title are printed and filled out in the English language or are accompanied by an English translation.
b. The provisions of subsection (a) of this Code section shall not apply to applications for certificates of title for such motor vehicles first titled in Georgia that have a manufactured date that is 25 years or older at the time of application. Certification of compliance shall only be required at the time of application for the issuance of the initial Georgia certificate of title.
This has also been on the books for at least as long as the ‘unconventional vehicles’ section. So, one section of Georgia’s code states that vehicles have to meet FMVSS unless they’re 25 years or older. However, the very next section says too bad, no title or registration for you. What does the state say? No FMVSS sticker, no title or registration:
The Department has yet to see any importation paperwork confirming that a Kei Vehicle is FMVSS compliant and can be titled and registered in Georgia. O.C.G.A. § 40-3-30 does provide that if the U.S. Customs Service or the U.S. Department of Transportation certifies that a vehicle complies with FMVSS, then the vehicle can be titled. However, such a certification would be a special document separate from the standard importation paperwork, and we have yet to see an importer, dealer or owner present such a document.
Some owners believe that because the U.S. Customs Service permits a vehicle to be imported into the United States then the vehicle is street legal and can be titled and registered in Georgia. This is incorrect. If customs officials permit a Kei Vehicle or other non-FMVSS vehicle to be imported, that means the vehicle can legally enter Georgia but may be used for offroad uses only.
The customs documentation provided by an owner can provide clues that the vehicle cannot be titled and registered. For example, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Form HS-7, Declaration—Importation of Motor Vehicles and Motor Vehicle Equipment Subject to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety, Bumper and Theft Prevention Standards has two checkboxes that are commonly used to import Kei Vehicles.
The Organization Behind This Mess
As I’ve written a few times before, the states are actually following guidance from the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. From my previous piece on the matter:
In November 2021, I located the source of this madness, and it was the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). This is a non-governmental non-profit lobbying organization composed of motor vehicle and law enforcement administrators and executives from all 50 states. Canada, Mexico, the Virgin Islands, and Washington D.C. get representation in the AAMVA as well. Among other things, the organization seeks standardization of laws across the states regarding traffic safety, vehicle titling, and driver licensing. AAMVA does not have legislative power but it does urge all member states to follow its “best practices.”
Vehicles imported from Japan and China have been on AAMVA’s radar since the late 2000s. Back then, the organization noticed how tons of Kei trucks were flooding American shores and the states didn’t really know how to handle them. It should be noted that a lot of these trucks weren’t older vehicles imported under the Imported Vehicle Safety Compliance Act of 1988, but newer trucks with speed limiters meant for farm or utility work.
[…]
The recommendation for restrictions largely didn’t happen in the aforementioned states until 2021, when Maine’s BMV, with the help of the DMVs of Georgia, Colorado, and South Dakota published Regulation of Off-Road Vehicles: Best Practices.
I highly recommend giving my history on JDM car bans a read, but the important part to know is that the AAMVA urges state DMV administrators to classify any vehicle that doesn’t meet FMVSS as an off-road vehicle, barring them from road use. But, weirdly, it also specifically targets Kei trucks that are otherwise legal to import into America. The AAMVA recommends removing Kei vehicles from American roads because safety experts believe the vehicles are unsafe:
By allowing on-road operation of used mini-trucks, Canada and the U.S. are accepting another nation‘s cast-offs—vehicles that no longer meet the exporting country‘s vehicle safety or emissions standards. Increasing the supply of older model vehicles in North America undermines government and industry efforts to improve vehicle safety and reduce vehicle emissions, as these efforts are largely dependent on fleet turnover. This risk can be reduced by placing restrictions on the use of these non-conforming vehicles in Canadian and U.S. jurisdictions.
This statement followed an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety opinion that low-speed vehicles and mini trucks are unsafe and should be removed from the road. Georgia’s letter cites the aforementioned opinion.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requires that a vehicle either meet FMVSS or be at least 25 years old to be exempt. The EPA, on the other hand, either wants the vehicle to meet its emissions standards or be at least 21 years old. This is the infamous “25-Year Rule,” officially, the Imported Vehicle Safety Compliance Act of 1988 that governs when an enthusiast can finally bring their dream car into America. However, being able to get your car across the border doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to register it and drive it on the road. That is because vehicle registration is handled by the states. In fact, the state of Wisconsin says this, emphasis mine:
The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allows for vehicles to be imported into the country once the vehicle has reached a certain age. However, NHTSA and EPA are not responsible for regulating the operation of motor vehicles on public roads in the U.S. or for titling or registering motor vehicles for such operation:that is the responsibility of the individual states.
The most shocking part is that the AAMVA admits in its documentation above that its recommendations may clash with existing laws. When that happens, AAMVA recommends that a state just change its laws until the recommendations are legal. As I said before, some states are changing their laws, others are just reinterpreting or otherwise enforcing existing laws.
A Long Road Ahead
Unfortunately, I fear this is far from the end of the road for the owners of imported vehicles. The AAMVA issues recommendations for all states and it may be only a matter of time before imported car bans spread further westward. As it is, some states already make imported vehicle ownership difficult. Wisconsin says it does not register Kei-class vehicles. You can register a larger import, but it must not be modified and it cannot be your primary car. Those rules date back at least a decade.
I have reached out to AAMVA officials as well as top officials at the Georgia Department of Driver Services as well as the Georgia Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Division. The Department of Driver Services pointed me to the Department of Revenue. Should these individuals reply or return calls, I will update this article as well as write an update.
Are you someone impacted by the rules imposed by these states? If so, how are you coping with this situation? Have you found ways to keep your car on the road?
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So they’re banning motorcycles, right? Those are way more dangerous than kei cars. And pedestrians should absolutely be banned…no protection at all!
Politicians protecting your free-dumbs.
I’m not a US law expert, but if jaywalking is illegal, the pedestrians were banned a lot of time ago…
Except walking along the sides of the road is 100% legal, and there are plenteous places where it is 100% legal to cross.
You really aren’t a US law expert. Maybe you need to be.
Sorry, I meant banned from the road (pavement ? – the part of the road designed for the cars), not forbidden to walk (English is not my native language so it’s not easy).
Nope – in most States it is 100% illegal to walk along the side of the highway.
Jaywalking was re-legalised in California, at least
But as to the point about motorcycles, they only get by because politicians continuously forget they exist
I love how they care so much about this “issue”, but couldn’t care less about unsafe road design.
Or huge trucks. I guess we can’t deal with actual issues.
It’s by design. They WANT more huge cars and trucks, damn the consequences. (More $$$ to be made)
or all the toxins in our water
I would love to see a study on how many lives would be saved by simply requiring amber turn signals.
2 items,
As former Georgian, the heaps of shit you see on the road around Atlanta boggle the mind. There’s no state inspection for cars. If this is about safety then they should start cracking down on maintenance, too.
My fear is that the MT route itself will become problematic. I could see local cops beginning to pull over cars with those sorts of plates for special inspections, especially in California.
Yes, being from CA, they are deputizing their officers, excuse the pun, to be tax collectors and harass drivers with out of state plates. My car dealer neighbor’s wife was harassed by Highway Patrol for driving a car with dealer plates.
Not new, I guess – twenty years ago, they started ticketing my Jeep Wrangler for having NY plates from the day I first parked it in Los Angeles.
(ii) Applicable federal motor vehicle safety standards issued pursuant to 49 U.S.C.A. Section 30101, et seq., unless and until the United States Customs and Border Protection Agency or the United States Department of Transportation has certified that the motor vehicle complies with such applicable federal standards; or
(iii) Applicable federal emission standards issued pursuant to 42 U.S.C.A. Section 7401 through Section 7642, the “Clean Air Act,” as amended.
Isn’t the important word there “applicable”? If the vehicles are >25yr old then the cited statutes are not applicable, therefore those statutes cannot be used to designate the vehicles as unconventional under the provisions of this code.
But in the end the “The County Tag Office is also not responsible for providing legal defenses of Department positions.” is basically saying ‘It doesn’t matter what the law is, this is what we’re going to do.’ so the above reasoning is moot.
We’ll return to the part you missed about the State’s DMV can regulate what they title & register, because it’s the State’s right, not the Fed’s right…
Yes, State’s right, not DMV’s right, which was my point exactly. The DMV is acting independent of State law, and it expressly said so when it stated it doesn’t have to provide a legal basis for its actions.
The statues I quoted are the state’s statutes, not Fed’s.
The state’s statutes point to the Fed’s statutes as the basis for the definitions in the state statues, i.e ‘this state statue declares vehicles as “unconventional” if they don’t meet applicable Fed statutes X, Y, and Z.’
Since the vehicles in question are >25 yr old then there are no applicable Fed statues in X, Y, and Z. Therefore these vehicles to not meet the definition of “unconventional” according to the state’s statues.
So when the DMV declares vehicles as “unconventional” when the vehicles do not satisfy the conditions for unconventionality as set forth in their own state’s laws then they are acting in contravention of their own state’s laws. That their state’s laws cite Federal law chapter and verse as a shorthand for spelling everything out is incidental. It is not Fed law the DMV is acting in opposition of, it is their own laws.
As a wise person once said: Oh good, more bullshit
Okay yes kei vehicle little tin can. So are all old 2 seater convertibles, any old VW, any motorcycle or moped and you ride those without helmets. As far as PA the Amish buggies collapse in a strong wind. I am maybe no highway but if a golf cart can be legal on town roads why not a kei car?
Also my 1974 Jensen Healey had a 6 digit Vin. And it could over 100mph without you realizing it.
Yeah, choose to focus on this…and not the damn full size monster trucks (probably driving like assholes) on roads everywhere. So dumb.
You mean the tricks with such fucked up suspension geometry that the wheels fall off at highway speeds?
https://youtube.com/shorts/3-wk1CYv8JY
Perhaps of interest to you is the David Tracy engineering deep dive on that specific incident where he comes to the conclusion that the wheel separation is NOT caused by the aftermarket wheels and would have happened just the same with stock wheels.
I don’t think I’ve seen that deep dive, was it on this site?
We can agree to disagree, but the original article on this site by Thomas suggested that mis-torqued lug nuts and/or I’ll-fitted spacers may have played a role in the wheel coming off the truck. Since this isn’t the only time a brodozer has parted company with one or more of it’s wheels after having its track significantly altered, I think my original point is still valid.
I found David’s deep dive, he adds some interesting perspective but I don’t think he rules out wheel spacers as a factor.
Shhhhh Elon might not like your key car:
https://www.carscoops.com/2019/12/elon-musk-has-already-crashed-the-cybertruck/
And probably all other rich assholes driving monster trucks, just because “mine’s bigger”.
They dont want any slow going plebes on the road being in their way
I read this whole article and can’t understand why Georgia is only targeting Kei class vehicles. If the basis of an “off road vehicle” is the lack of a 17-digit VIN and lack of FMVSS compliance, that means *ANY* JDM import cannot be registered, whether that be a Delica van or an R32 Skyline, so why only target Kei? Or is this a case where the state is ignorant about the terminology and incorrectly using the term Kei to designate any Japanese import?
“Some owners believe that because the U.S. Customs Service permits a vehicle to be imported into the United States then the vehicle is street legal and can be titled and registered in Georgia.”
In online discussions I’ve actually had to remind some people that the opposite is also true. Just because AZ, FL, and TX will assign plates to anything with wheels doesn’t mean an imported car is federally legal and the feds could confiscate and crush one if they chose, even if it was legally registered within a state.
They are targeting them because a lot of Americans want cheaper smaller cars and they don’t want us to have them.
It’s funny because similar type mini cars from Europe have real VIN numbers.
non-kei JDM cars also have the same short VIN format as kei cars, and those are popular among mail carriers. Of course, since mail is federal, they may not have to comply with any state laws, especially if the JDM car in question is only used to deliver mail.
The smart car is a keicar.
Then there’s also those Chinese NEV low-speed Chinese cars. They are legal in Georgia and the other anti-kei states.I’d take a kei over an NEV
Amusingly, Smarts are a touch too thick and have engines too large to be considered as Kei cars. Smart did sell the Smart K in Japan and to meet Kei regulations the company had to make the Fortwo a touch narrower. Those models were fitted with the terrible 598cc Mercedes Suprex mills that need rebuilds every 60k miles or so.
The biggest problem with the Smart K was that it barely fit into Kei regulations and wasn’t really better than a homegrown Kei car.
I am always amazed at how foreign manufacturers always overlook Japanese legislation and then act all huffy about trade barriers. Like the Ford Cortina Mark III, which was 1702mm wide when Japan has a massive tax threshold at 1.7 metres – the importer put each Cortina in a big press on arrival and got the cars down to the required 1695mm.
Meanwhile, Japanese manufacturers will go to great lengths to meet local conditions – Daihatsu made a 796cc version of their 850cc engine to fit the 4CV tax category only in certain Swiss cantons, which must have affected like several hundred cars.
It’s a shame, Kei trucks are slow as molasses and great at hauling onions, would have been perfect for Georgia.
Get behind one doing 40 in a 55 on a 2 lane where you can’t pass for 17 miles and you quicky begin to loathe Kei Trucks. I hate them and they need to be off the public roads.
My 1974 Jeep is similarly slow, and so is every 2023 moped and scooter.
Only makes sense to ban kei cars if you ban every slow, small, or potentially unsafe vehicle from the roads.
You need to be off the public roads.
Where I live there are no two-lane roads like that, but I always move all the way into the verge if I am driving slower than others (I was moving a couch yesterday in a regular car and I did the same thing there.)
My Kei truck does 75mph topped out.
This kind of shit has the stink of a state dealers association wanting to shut something down. I could be wrong, but it appears that way to me. Even if it probably is only 0.5% of the vehicles that will ever be titled in GA or the rest of the U.S.
Do I want a Kei car? No, because they are all RHD… but I’ll defend others who want to bring these vehicles in under the 25 year import rule and use the incorrect steering wheel position. I highly doubt the real motivation here was based purely on safety, etc.
if it was based on safety they would also be barring people from driving classic cars, or golf carts/amish buggies/RVs.
If a 4×4 mitsubishi delica is so dangerous, what’s so different about a US market VW T3 van?
the absolute best motive I can attribute is administrative laziness.
It’s the correct shifting position though ????
But the 25 year rule is already an asinine restriction
RHD is easy as hell to drive here….makes no difference to me.
It is. I was mildly nervous the first time I got behind the wheel, but by the time I hit second gear it was already a non-issue. I have, however, never had to try to pass on a country road.
Maine half-asses this law so hard. Basically it’s up to however works the town office to catch it. If you have a US state title, they’re never going to catch it. Mainly because the vent diagram of people who work at the town office and the people really into the first Fast and Furious movie are separate circles. Supposedly, there is some computer program. But I’ve only heard of it flagging Delicas. Still, we have a few grey market cars. Like a Nissan Sentra that looks awfully like a R32 GTS sedan. It’s not like the police here actually do any traffic enforcement, so if you get a plate and don’t ripe 110 down 295, you’re fine.
Seriously I can’t imagine the nice lady at my town office taking a second glance at the type of car on the title. She just wants that sweet excise nectar.
This is some bullshit.
As long as it’s registered as what it is, insured accordingly, and passes testing (taillights, etc), a kei car poses no threat to anyone but the occupants. And just like with motorcycles, anyone who’s gone to the trouble of importing a kei car is aware of the risks.
This is about someone’s bottom line.
It is about the used car dealers bottom line trying to sell us cars with 250 thousand miles for 15k
This seems plausible. Used car dealerships can have crazy influence over local politics, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they could reach to state level, too.
This. Is. So. Dumb.
What a waste of time and money.
What could possibly be the percentage of Kei cars on US roads much less GA roads? Below 0.5%?
More like .005%. I can count on one hand the number of kei vehicles I’ve seen on the road this year.
Is there anything we can do or any lobbying organization we can support? This doesn’t seem like an issue SEMA would get involved in unless the business members spoke up and wanted to start selling/creating parts for these cars.
SEMA has been backing a proposed reversal of Maine’s law.
https://www.semasan.com/legislative-alerts/maine/maine-introduces-bill-allow-road-usage-imported-vehicles
Unfortunately, that bill has yet to go anywhere.
Not really, this issue is too esoteric for the general population to understand and doesn’t affect very many people, and its all being done by unelected career administrators who don’t really answer directly to politicians, regardless of what party’s in power, so everyone’s probably SOL.
So you can ride a bicycle on the road, but not a Kei car. Got it.
Dude, it’s even worse than that. You can ride a 1912 Harley board tracker made before the word “safety” was even invented. You can drive all manner of classic cars built when “pedestrian safety” meant “jump out of the way.” This safety argument holds zero water.
Its about these cars being a better deal then what used car dealers sell, they are getting scared.
As I’ve said, if my CJ5 is legal they have no excuse with these. A SxS blows the Jeep out of the water in nearly every way, and so does a Kei car.
Step 1: Form a private army.
Step 2: buy a bunch of kei cars
Step 3: sell cars as former military vehicles.
You said that, and this scene from Herbie Rides Again is what popped into my mind: https://youtu.be/LKyhP7dWGhE?feature=shared
I just want to point out that no 25 year old vehicle is going to properly protect its occupants against an impact with a new 2023 model FMVSS compliant vehicle, even if that 25 year old vehicle complied with FMVSS at the time it was built. Volkswagen Beetles and Yugo GVs passed FMVSS at one time
Also, JDM vehicles are completely outside the bounds of FMVSS, so it’s completely irrelevant to the discussion, USDOT has ruled 25+ year old foreign market vehicles as being exempt from FMVSS, so they’re no different legally from 1967 and older vehicles. Why insist they comply with standards when the agency responsible for writing and enforcing those standards says they don’t need to.
Does Georgia or any other state have a minimum size and horsepower requirement for vehicles to be driven on roads? I didn’t think that was ever a thing, but maybe they mandate that all vehicles must have at least a 2 liter engine, produce at least 100hp, and be at least 5 meters long? Because exterior dimensions, hp, and engine displacement are the only things that make kei cars different from any dozens of tinny econoboxes sold here in the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
I agree it’s completely stupid and reeks of government officials having no idea what they’re talking about and/or just wanting any excuse to get rid of imported vehicles.
At least in my state, there is a huge market for JDM vehicles and precedent for the state government taking pride in being the anti-California, to the point where we don’t even have inspections or emissions tests. I imagine (and hope) we’ll continue to be a safe haven for JDM vehicles.
At one point, Maine was trying to claim Mitsubishi Delicas were kei vehicles and therefor illegal, then, when they finally accepted that Delicas were too big to be kei vehicles, tried to say that they were illegal because they were RHD, then, when pressed on the issue of RHD vehicles not being illegal, fell back to them not meeting FMVSS, then stopped answering questions when it was pointed out that FMVSS didn’t apply to them, so, yeah, they have no idea what they’re talking about and are just all drunk on their own power and using it to mess with other people for their own entertainment, which is probably why a lot of people in government go into that line of work in the first place
I remember people joking that some government official in Maine must’ve gotten cut off in traffic by a Mitsubishi Delica and decided to punish all Delica owners in response…
Don’t know about Maine, but in neighboring New Hampshire there were plenty of officials petty enough to try to pull something like that. Pretty much the only thing standing in the way is overcoming the sheer inertia of the country’s largest state assembly (in one of the smallest states…) in order to pass any sort of legislation.
NH did have a pissing match over Kei trucks a number of years back. It sort of died down at some point… Long enough for the state’s Department of Safety to buy electrified current-production Chinese mini-trucks and crow about how green they were going.
Yeah, I think those are Chang’ans, they used to have a plant in Oklahoma where they did some of the minor final assembly/fitting out steps, which qualified them as domestic for government procurement purposes. The Navy bought some ICE ones as on-base runarounds
There are a lot of mail carriers that are in trouble if RHD vehicles are not legal. Not to mention jeep, for building them.
Your problem is Democrats.
They don’t even want to get rid of imports, they just want free lunches from AAMVA and other lobbyists.
I agree, but I mean, the 25 year rule is just as asinine and should also be fought. There’s countless cars worth importing but 25 years is just too old
Canada puts it at 14, I’d be OK with that.
Alternatively, we could also just make a list of foreign countries that have reasonably strict safety and environmental standards and call any car they approve “close enough” (even if they aren’t quite our standards) and allow them to be privately imported regardless of age (maybe cap the number any one individual or business could import per year to prevent them from undercutting dealer franchises)
The 25 Year Rule was written for legit reasons.
This is what gets me anxious whenever kei truck bans pop up in the news. I don’t have any imports, but I do have a 26-year-old vehicle I drive on a regular basis; I’m afraid some lobbyist organization or politician will get ideas about other older vehicles.
I recommend owners just declare their vehicles as handguns and then they can take them wherever they want.
I don’t see the point of a state not issuing registrations for certain vehicles. They’ll just lose out on the registration fees.
As long as there is at least one state that is willing to register these, owners can set up an LLC there and register their vehicles as company cars, then drive them as the LLC’s owner.
But this is bad for everyone: lost revenue for the state, more cost and hassle for the owners, and more people who will just ignore everything and slap on random plates.
Incorrect. Most States require you to register vehicle in state of your primary residence
Anti-kei vehicle regulation is the new chicken tax. Welcome to the kei coop.
As someone who has driven on Georgia roads, I don’t think it’s the kei trucks that are unsafe.
Driving thru Hiram, GA this morning I saw at least a dozen cars less safe than kei cars/trucks. Jeeps with no doors, bumpers, or roof. Pickup trucks with enough rust to either make David cringe or praise the rust gods. Oh, let’s not forget the old postal jeep that looks almost like Project Postal.
Also ain’t Georgia the state with entire towns set up for golf carts instead of cars? You gonna look me in the eye and seriously argue that a golf cart is safer than a kei truck? This is 100% government overreach.
That’s Peachtree City and they have their own network of trails for golf carts.
Yeah, but as Bob said, they have separate trails for golf carts. Near where I live, you can drive a golf cart on trails to a local brewery, get beers, and then drive home, all without ever driving on a road.
“Kei Vehicles are imported (primarily from Japan) for use as farming vehicles and off-road recreational vehicles in the United States”
Often, it seems like government agencies and officials really struggle to justify their silly positions.
I just really don’t understand the safety issue considering motorcycles and mopeds are allowed on our roads and seem as dangerous to the rider as a kei truck would be to its occupants. I owned a pajero a while back that I had the misfortune of totaling, I would be furious if these bills started passing in my state.
Came here to say this. Hell, I grew up in Kentucky and remember when they revoked the law requiring a helmet when riding a motorcycle.
As I mentioned, I grew up in Kentucky, and I now reside just across the river in Indiana. Neither state has any kind of vehicle inspection. When I moved to IN they just checked to see if the VINs on my cars matched the one on the paperwork. My Beetle is eaten up with rust and would never pass an inspection, but it’s been legally on the road for 19 years.
If the AAMVA really cares about safety, maybe they could work on lobbying for basic safety inspections in states that don’t have them? I’ve seen some truly terrifying cars on the roads here.
I’m beginning to suspect the AAMVA is secretly meant to just find any excuse to get vehicles that aren’t overpriced trucks and SUVs off the road for the sake of auto industry profit. Which makes sense, cars from Europe and Japan can be had for less money in better condition with better fuel mileage, features, and handling than used or new USDM cars even after the cost of importation. The only reason you shouldn’t import a car instead of buy one here is that it’s difficult and time-consuming, but for some people it’s worth it. Heck, I’ve been wanting to import a car to daily drive for a while now since most everything for those prices locally is worn-out junk.
To me, the best explanation of AAMVA and most motor vehicle departments comes down to “Follow the Money”… With some political climbing thrown in for good measure.
Inspection programs often have less to do with safety and more to do with lobbying from dealerships’ associations. Likewise, restrictions on registrations of 25-year imports will probably trace back to the same states and their relationships with lobbying and political funding groups.
Safety inspections seem necessary given the state of some cars, but the data is clear: less than one percent of crashes are caused, even in part, by a safety problem with the car. This number changes very little between inspection and non-inspection states.
Safety inspections do a questionably good job of solving a problem that is fairly minor to begin with. Putting that same effort and money into improved driver training and testing, safer roads, or better distracted driving enforcement would save many more lives than safety inspections ever could.
Safety inspection is more keeping insurance company costs down than human safety. Having working lights means rear end collisions are less likely since drivers had extra warning. Or seeing the deer about to leap onto the road. Same with brakes and tires. That tire with belts showing may be fine going straight. In an emergency situation it could pop. Insurance companies want to keep as much of the premiums as possible. If they can persuade the state to mandate a minimum condition of safety equipment then it’s less money going out to policyholders. But use that to lower premiums? Get outta here!
Don’t forget that some economy cars from the 70s and 80s were essentially death traps. But those are still legal to drive.
We had a guy at my work that daily drove a Kei car for over a year. But the state I’m in isn’t likely to be joining the anti-Kei ranks. In some of our more rural areas it’s legal (or at least tolerated) to drive side by sides on public roads.
Just because there are a few death traps on the road that were legally sold here when new doesn’t mean we should bring more death traps here from other countries.
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Feels like a short hop from this to banning registration of any vehicles over (x) years of age due to lack of modern safety features.
Yeah, just put big loud straight pipes on your kei car and you’ll be fine!