Illinois Is Allegedly Threatening To Crush Imported Cars Because The State Doesn’t Know Squat About Them

Car enthusiasts in the state of Illinois just had their first hearing in the fight against the state’s ban on legally imported Japanese vehicles. The hearing was brutal, with the state clearly showing that it doesn’t actually know anything about imported vehicles. But perhaps the worst part is an alleged threat that, should the state deem imported cars to be illegal, the state will reserve the right to crush Kei cars at their owners’ expense.

Back in March, import car enthusiasts in my home state of Illinois began reporting a depressing development. The Illinois Secretary of State (our version of the Department of Motor Vehicles) had sent them letters. The pages contained within those letters stated that, effective immediately, the state had revoked their vehicles’ titles, replacing them with titles branded with a mark saying ‘Not Eligible For Registration.’ The state also demanded that imported vehicle owners surrender their license plates to the state, warning that those had been revoked, too.

The aggravating factor was that while Illinois is clearly trying to target Japan’s smallest class of road-legal vehicle, the kei-jidōsha, the state doesn’t have any real idea on how to identify a Kei vehicle. As such, owners of all kinds of imported Japanese vehicles have been getting the kiss of death from the state.

The state has given imported vehicle owners in Illinois a chance to make a case to argue why Keis should be legal. That hearing was today, and somehow, the situation is getting even worse. Illinois is allegedly considering ordering the crushing of imported cars it has deemed to have been illegally used on the road. If true, that would make Illinois’ Kei ban the worst in the nation.

Illinois Has No Idea What It’s Doing

As of publishing, there are no public-facing documents or policies regarding the Kei ban here in Illinois. All of the information that we’ve gathered thus far has come from direct interactions with Secretary of State offices and now with Administrative Law Judges conducting a hearing on the matter.

It has now been over three months since the state confirmed that it would ban cars, so it’s frustrating that there still isn’t a policy for enthusiasts to even see. Even worse, the Autopian has now reached out to the Illinois Secretary of State several times without any return contact. The Autopian is also aware of another journalist working on a story about Illinois Keis, and they, too, have not gotten any return calls from the state.

Here’s what I wrote when the ban was first reported by enthusiasts:

For years, Illinois has largely treated Kei cars, vans, and trucks like any other car, issuing regular, unrestricted license plates to these vehicles. I’ve been able to register Kei cars like a normal car, as have a few of my friends. But even then, I say “largely” because Illinois hasn’t been clear on its stance about Kei vehicles.

Some people have reported registering their vehicles and getting license plates, but also getting a title marked as ‘Not Eligible For Registration.’ Weirdly, some of these people are able to continue renewing their registration stickers as normal, but they were otherwise stuck with a title that branded their vehicles as off-road-only. This is similar to how other states like Pennsylvania have handled Kei trucks. But this isn’t universal. Some folks get regular titles.

At any rate, it appears that Illinois might be ramping up efforts to remove Kei vehicles from its roads. Last year, someone on Reddit reported having their license plates revoked. Now, as of about a week ago, more reports are flooding in.

We know that the state isn’t just banning Kei vehicles because several people have been reaching out to me with their stories. One of the first was Johnathan, who sent in his letter. The vehicle in question was a 1998 Toyota Crown, a car that wasn’t even close to being in the Kei class.

According to Illinois, this Toyota Crown is so unsafe that it has to be branded as an off-road vehicle and banned from the road. Of course, a Toyota Crown is not an off-road vehicle. Branding cars as off-road vehicles isn’t much of a consolation prize either. Illinois has very few trails and only a handful of off-road parks to speak of. So, having an “off-road” brand is as good as saying that your car is now a paperweight.

The Law Illinois Is Using Against Kei Owners

Back in April, Robert H held his nose and dove head-first into dealing with Illinois bureaucracy in an effort to get his Kei van to be legal again. First, Robert got this statement from the Illinois SOS:

Unless legislation is passed that specifically allows for Kei Trucks to be registered in IL, our default is that it is not eligible for registration pursuant to IVC Section 3-401(c-1) as an off-highway/non-highway vehicle.

I looked that law up, and here’s what it said:

What the IL SOS is referring to there is 625 ILCS 5/3-401(c-1)(1), This part of the ILCS is known as the Illinois Vehicle Code, or IVC. I apparently correctly guessed this to be the justification because this is the only part of the Illinois Compiled Statutes that even remotely comes close to describing this situation:

(c-1) A vehicle may not be registered by the Secretary of State unless that vehicle:
(1) was originally manufactured for operation on highways;
(2) is a modification of a vehicle that was originally manufactured for operation on highways; or
(3) was assembled from component parts designed for use in vehicles to be operated on highways.

Illinois also cites 625 ILCS 5/11-1426.1, which states that off-highway vehicles cannot use public roads. Basically, the state uses 625 ILCS 5/3-401(c-1)(1) to establish that Keis are off-highway vehicles, then uses 625 ILCS 5/11-1426.1 to say that they aren’t legal for the road.

No part of the Illinois Vehicle Code explicitly bans Kei vehicles or really any other kind of imported vehicle. However, all of the people who have reached out to me are owners of vehicles imported from Japan. Most of these people own Kei cars, although some own vehicles in larger classes.

What’s curious is that the states that have banned Keis have thus far not also gone after tiny cars from other countries. To these states, a Suzuki Jimny from Japan is bad, but a Suzuki Jimny from Europe is just fine. Again, that comes without any sort of explicit law targeting Keis or vehicles from certain countries.

What I have found is that the Illinois Vehicle Code goes to great lengths to say that for a vehicle to be legal in Illinois, it needs to have equipment complying with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Per Illinois, a vehicle not built to FMVSS specs is not legal for road use in the state. The problem, aside from how silly that standard appears, is that this standard is not being applied equally. The state doesn’t care about imported BMW 3 Series Touring wagons, which definitely weren’t built to FMVSS, but a Toyota Crown is bad. Surplus military vehicles, like World War II Jeeps, also weren’t built to FMVSS (which didn’t even exist back then), but the state is okay with those.

The current edition of 625 ILCS 5/3-401(c-1)(1) has been on the books for over two decades. Clearly, the state did not have a problem with imports until recently. Yet, nobody in Illinois has any real clarity on what’s going on because the state isn’t being straightforward.

The Hearing

Robert H decided to appeal the revocation of his vehicle’s legal status, and the state gave him a hearing date of today, June 6, 2025.

These hearings are designed to give an individual the chance to provide evidence and an explanation for why the state made a mistake in revoking the license of a vehicle. The hearing is conducted by an Administrative Law Judge, who, despite the name, isn’t a typical judge like the way you’re thinking. ALJs are members of the executive branch, not the judicial branch, and their job is to oversee administrative matters in an impartial manner. You might also see an ALJ when contesting a city’s parking ticket in an in-person hearing.

While Robert’s hearing was focused on just his Kei van, a positive result at a hearing could be used to reverse the ban for all Kei owners with revoked titles and plates. Unfortunately, as Robert informed me this morning, the hearing did not go so well.

First, Robert said, the Illinois Secretary of State Title Division said that his Kei van is illegal because it does not have a collapsible steering column, which would have been required in a U.S. market vehicle of the same model year as his van.

The Title Division also argued that Kei vehicles have top speeds that are too low and engines that are too small for road use. Robert countered with a list of vehicles that are legal in the state of Illinois that are either slower than Keis or have smaller engines than Keis, but the state has deemed them to be legal.

One example that he used is the 1998 Smart City Coupe, which had a 60 HP 600cc engine. That car was never officially sold in America, yet it’s legal in Illinois, against the state’s own criteria for what makes a car illegal. Robert also pointed out that Kei cars are faster, safer, and more powerful than the Ford Model T, which is another vehicle that the state has no issue with.

The Title Division countered by saying that all of Robert’s examples were classified as antiques, and thus, they are not required to meet the burden that the state is putting on Keis. Robert pointed out that per the federal government, a car that is over 25 years old is no longer subject to FMVSS. To that, the state said that Illinois has set a stricter standard than the federal government. To be fair to the state, it does have the right to do that.

Robert then correctly pointed out that even by Illinois standards, a Kei car is an antique. In Illinois, a vehicle can be classified as an antique when it is at least 25 years old, which all legally imported Kei vehicles are. Robert also brought up how the classic Mini is also legal in Illinois. To which the state allegedly countered by saying that the Mini was built in America. That’s not true.

The state then continued by saying that the Title Division has reviewed the records for the JDM vehicles it has banned, and it has come to the determination that the specs of these vehicles are insufficient for road use in Illinois. The state allegedly could not produce evidence of what it meant by this. Remember, the state also bans larger JDM vehicles, not just Keis. In the state’s eye, even a Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R is not good enough.

The state then told Robert that it would make a decision within 90 days. But that came with a twist. Allegedly, the state also said that if it decides Robert had been driving an unsafe, illegal vehicle on Illinois roads, it reserves the right to demand the crushing of that vehicle at Robert’s expense.

Crush-on-demand isn’t unheard of. States have been known to crush vehicles that they claim are so illegal that they cannot exist anymore. Usually, this is applied to illegal motorcycles or vehicles used in crimes. I’ve never heard of a state claiming it could crush a vehicle that was legally imported but deemed unfit for road use. Further, the state has been branding Keis as being off-road-only vehicles. Is that no longer on the table?

I have reached out to the Illinois Title Division for clarification on this.

More confusion comes from the documents the state is using to support its argument, which are posted above. In these documents, the state confuses mini-trucks (which are sized like Kei trucks, but are designed for off-road use only and equipped 25 mph speed limiters ) with Kei trucks. The state cannot even get its facts straight, as it claims Keis cannot be driven in Texas. The state then says that Keis are considered to be low-speed vehicles in North Carolina, while stating in the same paragraph that they’re road-legal in North Carolina nonetheless.

AAMVA Strikes Again

Since summer 2021, the states of Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Michigan, Georgia, Massachusetts, Texas, Illinois, and Colorado have passed either restrictions on Keis or outright bans, with varying levels of success in enforcing such policies and laws. In 2024, enthusiasts in Texas, Massachusetts, and Michigan successfully beat their bans. Here in 2025, Colorado became the first state since 2019 to protect Keis in law.

Texas followed up Colorado’s big win with an even better pro-Kei law, one that should be the blueprint for Kei vehicle advocacy in America.

All of these states are following direct recommendations issued by the now-infamous American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA), a non-profit and non-governmental lobbying organization run by DMV administrators and law enforcement in all 50 states, Washington D.C., Canada, Mexico, and the Virgin Islands. Its official mission is to streamline driving laws between all jurisdictions.

While AAMVA recommends that every state in the nation ban any and all vehicles not built to FMVSS, it also specifically targets Kei trucks as being particularly unsafe. Sadly, AAMVA’s language can be found all over the present import bans in America. Previous reporting in Colorado has also found that supporters of AAMVA’s agenda include state police and car dealer associations. I have written extensively about AAMVA, click here to read more.

Moving Forward

So, what’s next for Illinois? The state is going to take up to the next 90 days to figure out if it wants to keep banning Keis. However, Robert says that the state held firm on its position during the hearing.

Thus, we’re planning on moving to the next phase, and that’s advocacy. We will call every lawmaker in this state in hopes of getting some allies on our side. Then, maybe those people can help us convince the state to review its policy, which is similar to what happened in Texas and Massachusetts. Should our organizing efforts fail, then maybe we’ll have to escalate to a lawsuit.

Either way, there’s a long road ahead, and it may be a while before Keis are legal in Illinois again. For now, some enthusiasts are taking the alleged threat of crushing very seriously, and they’re now considering registration options outside of Illinois. All of this is too sad. Come on, Illinois, we want to give you our money!

If you’re in Illinois and you’re interested in joining the fight, I welcome you to join the Illinois Kei TRUCK/VAN/CAR private group on Facebook.