Buy a K-car in Japan
Kei pronounced kay cars are a class of vehicle almost unique in Japan, they account for about 30 of the Japanese auto market They are small cars with low ownership and operating costs that we will see later, it doesn t necessarily make the cheap to buy, especially on the second hand car market.
This will be a description of kei cars are they today and in the recent past I won t cover their story from the beginning.
If you were writing the pronunciation of Japanese words for these cars, to end up with something like Kei Jidosha This means light car kei The party is using an English word to describe these vehicles outside Japan So now you know where kei has.
There are a number of vehicles entering the kei-class seats 2 convertibles, hatchbacks in with sporting intentions, family clubs, vans and flatbed trucks.
One way to identify a kei car is the use of yellow on the license plate of kei private cars are black on yellow and commercial kei cars are yellow on black.
Suzuki, Honda, Mitsubishi and Daihatsu car manufacturing kei Some of the other major Japanese car companies Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru sale kei cars made for them by the four manufacturers.
Kei cars can not be more than 3 to 4 meters long, 1 48 meters wide and 2 meters high.
For comparison, a SmartForTwo measure 2 7 m long x 75 m wide 1 x 1 m 54 of the most recent measurements Toyota Aygo 3 46 of long length x 1 62 x 1 46 high wide.
It is interesting to me that at least two cars and would fall outside the kei specifications on width.
Kei cars are limited to a capacity of 660 cm3 This has been the case since 1990 smaller limits applied before.
Motorcyclists of you may laugh at this meager power 660cc A 2009 Yamaha YZF-R6 is more than twice a 600cc engine, but I think it could struggle with two things torque and fuel economy.
Many kei cars are supercharged to enhance power while maintaining good overall fuel consumption.
In Japan, the kei car owners benefit from lower tax rates at the time of purchase and annually thereafter There are also savings through fuel consumption.
Are relevant kei cars in the UK drivers My answer is yes and no.
Fuel is expensive, although I write is relatively cheap compared to the prices we have seen in recent years, low operating costs offered by kei cars, especially the improved energy efficiency that are attractive I saw the official fuel consumption figures from 60 to 70 mpg for modern kei cars Unfortunately I still have no real world experience of the actual fuel consumption can be realized I'd be interested to hear if you do it.
Sure, you might get a hybrid version of a standard car to improve operating costs, I can not get excited about hybrid cars and I d rather try a kei car if reducing running costs was my priority, I am aware that it won t be a viable option for some people.
You'd be safer on your motorbike This is a real comment received from someone close to me when I expressed a desire to own a car kei I don t agree, but I can see what they're coming.
Japanese cars are subject to very similar safety tests to cars sold in the UK, I will be writing a separate post with more details about this and will update this post with a link when I have done if While researching this post, I noticed that some of kei cars fared remarkably well in crash tests, the scores comparable to the approval of vehicles much However, these tests are performed relatively low speeds 30-40 mph I do not think kei cars compare favorably with larger cars in accidents at higher speeds.
Is this in our congested cities and towns, surely the average speed decreases so that most accidents that occur are low speed Moreover, our speed limits on two lanes of traffic and motorways are higher than in Japan, and I Don t think we have reached the Tokyo levels of traffic congestion, although I would imagine London sometimes brings Kei cars driven in the UK are likely to pass more time to travel at higher speeds than they would have were designed in Japan I'll concede that a high-speed accident in a kei car would likely result in worse injuries than a larger car.
Parking spaces seem smaller and smaller or have our cars become more and more difficult to find small cars such as these are easier to park in small spaces.
Some of these cars are really cool, they aren t is an advantage in my book For me it is a lot of fun to own a car that is different, unusual and dare I say cute car Many kei have it by the bucket load.
At the beginning of this post, I say kei cars were almost unique in Japan Almost because some kei cars were sold again through official channels in the examples of the United Kingdom are the Suzuki Cappuchino, Daihatsu Move and Daihatsu Copen.
Many more are now available in Japanese import route However, just because they are super small, it doesn t necessarily mean they are super cheap values on the second hand market in Japan can be remarkably high in some cases, by that I mean comparable to and sometimes more than cars much the same age, condition and with similar kms I guess the payback period of the acquisition cost is relatively high operating costs .
I would like to know what you think kei car would you buy one or you see just not call Which car would you buy.
Just back from Japan Car rental expenses Kei especially in large cities from the countryside and General Saw very little in the middle of Tokyo if we were mostly shopping tourist type areas Absolutely wonderful cars took lots of pictures of them really good for easy flat roads would not suggest they were good for London or any other traffic congested cities in the UK as too many stop starts Japanese roads were wonderful to drive on but the speed limits were almost 30 mph in a built up area and the Japanese player to exactly Seemed so slow for me as UK driver and often walk us heavily at 25 mph on what I would describe as roads Yes j 'have one for the country town of the city living, but not for roads or highways fast such as motorways of the UK equal ment our steep hills and 660cc engine would not be good if need to think about the general geography of the area you would drive one in my favorite is the Honda N Custom Box Black choosing my wife would Bunny Rabbit with pale blue hope we can eventually get them in the UK as they are quite far-fetched.
Thank you for your contribution, I go to Japan this summer and looking for the kei car and photography will certainly be high on my list You and your wife have impeccable taste in cars kei You probably understood that N-Box custom Lapine and two are my favorites I took the pictures N blue custom Box in this position with a Honda dealer in Tokyo shortly after its release, I was so impressed.
I would buy a Suzuki or Daihatsu Hijet postponement van I just bought a boarding house in a conservation area My car insurance is passed 213-593, because the car is parked in a public parking Meanwhile ago a stone cellar slate attached to the property on may 3 X 3 to 5 with input 1 75 I'm sure you can see the advantage for me to buy a car KEI.
I certainly can if you got a kei car or truck kei, you may well have a garage for 1 75m If it is the height of the opening, measures just double check because I think Hijet especially some variants could be slightly higher than that.
I bought a Honda beat a few months back, but I do not have to sell it because insurance is so expensive I assure a 1988 Toyota MR2 500 per year, while the cheapest insurance that I could find for the Beat is 1400 t I really want to sell it, but I can not use it with the ridiculous insurance.
Blimey that is dear Sorry to hear that, I assume you've tried some specialized auto insurers already imported.
Kei cars small Japanese cars cars Andrew Japan, cars, small in Japan.