Look, if Andy’s gonna straight name me out in a slideshow, I’m gonna reply. Novelty outsized autos are a menace, a hazard, and don’t have any enterprise on regular roads. Kei automobiles, nevertheless, truly make sense in a world the place people coexist with autos—not only one the place autos reign supreme.
Andy says kei automobiles are “too small, too unsafe, too slow and have the steering wheel on the wrong side.” Let’s delve into every certainly one of these.
“Too small,” presumably, refers to the truth that you may’t haul stuff in them like a pickup truck. As somebody who has truly hauled and towed loads of issues with pickup vans, I perceive that their capability is typically solely obligatory — a 25-foot trailer is just too a lot for a Sambar to tug. But except you’re a contractor or landscaper, the precise alternatives to hold a full pickup mattress load are vanishingly few. This is why God made UHaul leases, for the one time yearly that that you must transfer furnishings.
“Too unsafe” possible refers to 25-year-old kei automobiles, the sort you’ll see imported to the states underneath our absurd legal guidelines. I’ll concede that 25-year-old automobiles are much less protected than new ones, however I received’t concede that kei automobiles are much less protected on the entire. Neither will research carried out on the subject, which in contrast frontal crash security between kei automobiles and “normal” opponents, and located the smaller autos to have a commensurate stage of security.
“Too slow” is one other enjoyable one. Any trendy kei automobile is able to cheap freeway speeds. How quick are you all occurring the freeway? A Daihatsu HiJet in all probability received’t do the ton, positive, however would you wish to?
“Having the steering wheel on the wrong side,” positive. But they wouldn’t, if kei automobiles had been shipped to the U.S. by automakers, constructed for this market. This is an easy provide chain subject.
Kei automobiles are environment friendly, sensible transportation. For most individuals, driving alone to work, they’re a greater use of area and hydrocarbons than any F-Series or Silverado. The American obsession with greater and larger autos retains killing folks, and if we received’t put money into public transit we should always no less than have the ability to get kei automobiles.
Source: jalopnik.com