Read About The Little Engine That Could

Tiny Japanese kei cars are cost-effective, fuel-efficient and more powerful than a Smart.

What’s shorter than a Mini Cooper, skinnier than a Toyota Echo and cuter than a VW Bug? The answer is a kei car, Japanese for “light vehicle.” The term may be unfamiliar, but you’ve probably noticed these cute and quirky little trucks, cars and vans zipping around local streets.

Kei cars are as practical as they are cute. Japan is a tiny country with narrow roads and few natural resources, so in 1949 (61 years ago!) the government introduced tax breaks for small, fuel-efficient vehicles. Though the maximum size has grown since then, kei cars are still less than 3.4 metres long and 1.48 metres wide, and have engines no more than 660 cc and 64 horsepower (this may sound wimpy, but a Smart has just 42 horsepower).

Vancouverite Kathy Dunster’s kei car is a Subaru Sambar van used to transport materials to Denman Island where she is building a cabin. Not only does it get about 43 miles to the gallon, she says, but it is “skinny on the outside, so you can pass cyclists without sideswiping them, yet deceivingly large inside.” It can haul a lot of stuff, as well as fit a six-foot foam mattress for emergency camping.

Dunster has no difficulties with the van’s right-hand drive or with servicing, performed at Japanoid in New Westminster, which imports the cars from Japan and has been featured on Treehugger. All the vehicles are at least 15 years old as these are exempted from Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, but Japanoid cherry picks the ones it brings in as well as inspecting them before and after leaving Japan. Most have fewer than 80,000 kilometres. Prices start around $6,000, parts are easy to come by, and many kei cars include features like four-wheel drive, turbochargers and dual overhead cams.

Best of all, though, is that they’re fun. “When another Suburu Sambar goes by we wave like crazy,” says Kathy Dunster. Her car brings smiles to people’s faces and encourages strangers to come up and talk to her the way they do when you have a dog. And how many cars do that?

Check out Japanoid’s inventory at  www.japanoid.com; to read Treehugger’s story on Japanoid, visit www.treehugger.com

Photo: The author in a Subaru micro van — C. Phaisalakani