For more than two years, states up and down America’s East Coast have been on a mission to remove Japanese Domestic Market vehicles from their roads. These states include Maine, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Georgia. Each of these states has its own version of the same thing: Eliminating imported vehicles from their roads. Georgia JDM enthusiasts are fighting back.
Officially, these bans are being done in the name of safety. At first, that seems somewhat reasonable. If you start thinking about it, the logic falls apart. These states are using the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards to back their rule changes. If a vehicle doesn’t meet FMVSS, these states say, it must not be allowed on the road. However, FMVSS wasn’t fully applied to passenger vehicles until 1968. Technically, any vehicle predating 1968 doesn’t meet FMVSS standards. Some vehicles were built before America even started caring about safety. Yet, you don’t see Georgia rushing to cancel the license plates of classic Corvettes, Beetles, Corvairs, or Model Ts. The states also aren’t going after surplus military vehicles or motorcycles.
It’s worth noting that most of these states aren’t banning larger JDM imports or imports from other countries, so the bans aren’t even being applied equally. Georgia also wants to ban vehicles believed to be Kei based on VIN length, but the state seems to forget that before 1981, there was no standard for VIN length.
All of this is happening because of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA), and we intend to figure out what is going on behind closed doors. Let’s check out the commentary from our readers.
Vetatur Fumare points out how silly all of this is:
Georgia DMV literally has no clue what makes something a kei car. What about a European-market Daihatsu Cuore from 1986, with a lusty 612cc engine? It exceeds kei car regulations at the time. What about a 1992 Suzuki Jimny with overfenders? If it’s wider than 1395mm, it’s not a kei car. Does the Georgia DMV go read the Japanese legal code or do they check the Japanese registration? Lots of classic mini cars, Lloyds and Messerschmitts and the like, meet the kei dimension regulations – does that make them kei cars?
If you want to get legalistic, a kei car is a specific registration category which only exists in Japan – once it is no longer registered in Japan, it is no longer a kei car. Voilà!
While EVDesigner delivers a solid chuckle:
A Kei car is only a kei car if it comes from the kei region of Japan. Otherwise it’s just a sparkling mini car.
Canopysaurus gets it:
If you can still register a K Car, then Kei cars should be legal, too.
3WiperB delivers a solid take:
I’m still struggling with the logic and reasoning on this ban, and have concerns on where this will stop. Will motorcycles be banned next? Or classic cars that don’t have modern safety features or emissions controls? People take a risk when driving these kinds of vehicles, but the risk is really only to the people that CHOOSE to drive them or ride in them. It’s not like a kei car poses a higher risk of hurting someone in another vehicle. This is where I can at least understand the squatted truck ban argument more… that can have an impact on the safety of other drivers.
I know when I drive my MGB that I’m taking a higher risk than if I hop in one of my modern cars. So I stick to secondary roads, rarely take it on roads with speed limits above 55 mph, and drive very defensively.
My philosophy has always been one of, if it doesn’t harm others, let people do what they want.
As of writing, none of the states and none of the AAMVA representatives we’ve contacted have answered questions as to why this is happening. Maine responded only by informing us that it changed its laws to enforce its ban. If you have any helpful information, please contact me at mercedes@theautopian.com.
Otherwise, have an awesome night!
The cybertruck is making it to the market but kei cars are too dangerous, fucking clowns, there’s no other way to put it
If there weren’t so many giant trucks on the road,it would be so much safer for small cars.
Unfortunately america has chosen which type of vehicle they prefer 🙁
That’s just Life Today!
I’m not Copen with such news very well these Dayz.
I need to take a Beat and fix myself a Cappuccino.
I’ve never considered a Smart car big, but that photo of the Smart next to the Honda Beat looks like a Suburban next to a Miata.
Right?! It even had me doubting it was even a Smart. Hilarious
Joining the chorus. Micro, mini, kie class cars are the antithesis of the problematic evolution of oversized vehicles on our roadways.
If Joe vs. the Volcano can teach us anything, perhaps it is that middling management and bureaucratic positions can be detrimental to mental health.
Please show compassion, and donate to these lost souls any hula lamps you can acquire.
Wow, second reference of Joe vs the Volcano I’ve read this week! Haven’t seen it in years… Meg Ryan…
This is our premier steamer trunk, it’s all handmade, only the finest materials. It’s even watertight, tight as a drum.
I’m firmly on the side of the kei car owners on this one. We allow all sorts of relatively dangerous and/or dirty old cars on the road, banning a small subset of them seems very strange and unwarranted.
That said, I wonder if the uptick in bans on Japanese imports (because it’s not just kei cars) is related to the the increase in the number of businesses specializing in importing and/or reselling them.
The ol’ 25-year-rule feels like a tiny concession from lawmakers – “systematically, we only want cars on the road that meet our standards, but if an enthusiast realllly wants to go through the work and expense to import an older, non-conforming car, we’ll allow it”.
But now you’ve got Duncan Imports and Japanese Classics and DelicaUSA and plenty of others establishing pipelines of older JDM cars into the US. Sure, it’s nothing compared to the overall used car market as a whole, but it is considerably larger than in the days before Internet car sales and marketing, certainly larger than the-powers-that-be are happy about.
Of course, if that’s the concern, governments could do a much better job here. Maybe ban registration of new imports under a certain size but grandfather in anything with an existing US registration?
When it comes to regulations, there’s one sector that generates more than any other: insurance. Maybe they don’t want these cars on the road?
The insurance industry has become in function a 4th branch of the U.S. government.
It has in many ways. Money talks and money gets the attention of politicians and government. There is a lot of money and a lot of complexity in insurance.
Follow the money. What influence do dealer associations have with the groups making the bans?
But why would auto dealers care? It’s not like someone is deciding between a ’24 and an old kei car. Or even a ’15 and an old kei car.
My cynicism just makes me think that they won’t want ANY competition.
This can be explained with governmental incompetence. Someone decided they needed to justify their job
I’ve been doing some journalism at home. As I’m looking to import a JDM Y34 into Maine to swap the s14/r33 and RB25DET into my current USDM Y34 Z33/VK45 drift rig. And it would be great to start and end with two running/driving/titled car.
So I was talking to the town clerk. And in Maine, it’s up to the town office to catch you trying to register an import. When you go in register a car, you’ll need a US and/or Canadian title or the car be older then 1995. Also insurance and an address in Maine that you may or may not actually live at. If you have these things, they plug it into an app to get your vehicles value and thus the exercise tax on it. Now, this system is shared between other states. I believe most states in the Northeast share it. Because it is legal to title an import in most of those states, a value pops up. Just like all the other cars. The town office does not ask or need to look at the vehicle. And they hand you a plate that day. Which makes it fairly easy to violate this statue. And since it’s a mandate by the BMV, it’s technically not a crime your town office is bad at its job.
Which due to the ease of getting a title here. And towns get the excise tax, so very small municipals are unlikely to turn you away. It’s become simultaneously illegal and a flag of convenience, now that our friends in Vermont tighten regulations slightly.
As an independent observer from another country, I’d like to be the voice of reason here but I believe that capacity was outlawed in the last decade or so in your country. So I’m just going to giggle. Hopelessly.
Is it possible the regulators are sitting on the wrong side of this as they drive the rules?
I’m in Canada. Haven’t had a chance to check out provincial regulations on all of this. Anyone up here know and have cheat sheet? My heart is starting to want to get into a Samba.
I’m in Ontario and it is possible to buy and drive them here. I looked into it a few years ago and the biggest obstacle was getting insurance as many companies didn’t want to touch “strange” imported cars. Move from the states with a Civic? No problem. Car that isn’t in their system? Have fun calling around to the specialty insurance companies. Provinces that have public insurance are likely different than ON.
OMG! TODAY, immediately on the other side of the jersey barrier going in the opposite direction…. fast…. loud. I barely caught it out of the corner of my eye coming, but got a good look in my side view. Blue, cab-over style pickup? I am sure there is a monikor for them I do not know. It was the noise that got me, as I didn’t really see what it was. But, it was screaming by at full till, consuming 100% of that 660cc’s worth of power.
This is not okei
These policies are specifically 0-kei.
Sounds like they’re trying to kei-o the whole JDM import business.
Now I’ve got that soccer/football song “Olé Olé Olé” stuck in my head… except, we’ve replaced all instances of “Olé” with “O-kei”. Whilst this frustrates me greatly, I do tip my hat to you fine sir for an attack on my sanity. Well played.