Kei cars are so awesome that even President Trump likes them (in completely unrelated news, even a broken clock is right twice a day). YouTuber Doug Vargo recently bought a kei truck in one of the more, shall we say, adventurous ways we’ve seen. He and his friend Jared flew from Pennsylvania to Florida to buy a blue 1995 Honda Acty, sight unseen, then drive it home. (It’s not this amazing pink one, but nobody’s perfect.) They had one-way tickets and no backup plan in case the sale fell through. What could possibly go wrong?
Despite the risks, their journey gets off to a promising start. The truck is in great shape, and the only thing wrong with it is that the seller has not yet performed the oil change he promised, which justifies knocking the price down a little bit. Then all they have to do is register it and insure it before starting the drive back. That turns out to be the hard part, as not many insurance companies are willing to insure an imported vehicle that doesn’t show up in their systems. Be sure to do your research before buying anything brought into the U.S. under the 25-year import rule. They finally find someone willing to insure them, and since neither Pennsylvania nor Florida is among the states where kei cars are illegal, they’re ready to start the 1,000-mile or so drive home. (They are illegal in some of the states along the route, so they just have to roll the dice and hope for the best.)
Take the long way home
This is where Doug and Jared discover why kei trucks don’t really make sense in the U.S. They’re not made for the great American road trip, with a tiny interior and a top speed around 55 mph. They’re a rolling roadblock, even on state highways where semis still constantly pass them. At one point, they accidentally end up on Interstate 95, a terrifying 12-mile, top-speed trip to the next exit, pushing the tiny truck to its limit. Adding a jet engine would probably help.
On the plus side, the Acty gets a consistent 39 miles per gallon, nearly double what a Honda Ridgeline can do. The truck may be small, but the six-foot bed is longer than many trucks offer these days, long enough for Doug to sleep in one night (all he needs is a minibike for the perfect adventure). My favorite feature, though, is that you can stop for gas and refuel without even getting out of the truck. Amazingly for a 30-year-old truck, the only problem it has along the entire trip is a broken alternator belt just 50 miles from their destination. Unfortunately, it happens at 3:00 AM in the middle of nowhere, so they have to resort to a tow home instead of a roadside repair. Doug fixes this in the driveway soon after their arrival.
This video is the classic formula of traveling a long distance to buy a questionable vehicle, then immediately driving it home. Some might say it’s been overdone, but I always find these entertaining, especially in an interesting and highly inappropriate vehicle for the task. Taking a kei truck on a long-distance road trip across America certainly falls into that category.
