Fine until they get crunched by a 6k lb Tahoe.

True of most everything

Not really. In something like a moderately new VW Golf you’ll likely be fine.

( cries in NA mx5 )

Miata is always gong to be rough because in a modern unibody a lot of the strength is in the roof.

NA Miata here in pickup truck heartland. Any other vehicle can kill you, even a Camry seems gargantuan. Just gotta drive smart and defensively. That said I’m more worried about no airbag and no roof protection way more than the type of cars around me. Gotta treat it like a 4 wheeled motorcycle.

Yeah that's exactly how I drive mine, luckily it's just a weekend car so the chances of someone not seeing me while driving is reduced.

I also maintain that 'loud pipes save lives' (lol), and being bright yellow does also add a little to it's visibility on the road.

>Just gotta drive smart and defensively.

If you're stopped at a red light behind a car or truck and someone on their phone plows into the back of your car there's no driving defensively to protect you. A modern car might save you. If the fun of driving a lightweight car is worth the safety issues that's fine, but you can not just drive defensively and solve those issues.

Perhaps a CDL should be required for the Tahoe.

And a wheel tax that scales with weight^4 just like the road wear it causes.

“You should have brought a bigger gun” -Americans

Light compared to the new 9K lb Cadillac Escalade EV.

And a Tahoe's fine until it gets crunched by an actual truck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TskUzmg6Sk

    > Kei cars are designed for cities.

Really? Says who? In Japan, in rich cities, most private drivers are driving regular-sized cards, not kei cars. Some small businesses use kei trucks for deliveries. When you go to the suburbs and countryside, it is mostly kei cars and trucks because the annual registration tax is much lower than a regular car. In short: They are cheaper to own. For normie drivers in Japan, a kei car is practical. If they could afford a regular-sized car, they would probably upgrade.

> In Japan, in rich cities, most private drivers are driving regular-sized cards, not kei cars.

I mean, "most private drivers" in Japan is a _tiny_ subset of people, no? Isn't a large part of that basically just rich people showing off?

Man, people are so clueless about Japan here on HN. Let me repeat what I have said so many times here before: All rich non-microstates are mostly driving except their biggest cities. And rich people in big cities mostly own cars. The urban car owner rides a train to work, but they drive on the weekends.

Yes, like most other rich countries, cars are a status symbol. Kei car/truck basically says you are middle class or below. Regular size car/van is the flex, especially German cars.

Most Westerners visit Central Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and think all of Japan is that way. One big difference though is Japanese families will often get in one car together while Americans can often take more than one car between adults.

Even Japanese who grew up in Tokyo seem surprised that cars are a necessity out in the smaller cities.

Yet another clueless comment about Japan. Do you think the same applies for Parisians? "Even French who grew up in Paris seem surprised that ..."

All kinds of people who grew up in Tokyo are well aware that cars are required outside of a few big cities in Japan. Examples: (a) You have relatives that live in the countryside. (b) You take a family trip to the countryside for hiking or onsen/ryokan or skiing. (c) You watch NHK (public TV) about a small village.

Dude, I fucking live here.

I often get questions about train and bus coverage and they are surprised that you need a car in 2nd tier cities like Kobe, Nagoya or Matsumoto. They ‘know’ that having a car is convenient, they didn’t _understand_ that it was a necessity.

Don’t be that guy that thinks your experience of Japan is the only one.

> Regular size car/van is the flex, especially German cars.

Funniest thing my brother has sent me pictures of while living in Japan was a local guy in Nara who drove an imported H2 Hummer.

> If they could afford a regular-sized car, they would probably upgrade.

Cost is a major factor, but so is the convenience of driving (and parking) a car with a small foot print. Plenty of people who could afford a larger car opt to go with a kei car for that reason. My family has one large luxury car and one kei car, and for a lot of day-to-day stuff the kei car gets more use because it's more convenient to park or drive on narrow streets.

This is incorrect. I live in Japan. Many people buy kei cars for cities because they're cheap, small (Tokyo streets are sometimes super narrow) and enough for city driving. Kei cars are extremely common in cities, towns and suburbs.

I drove a Suzuki SuperCarry 999cc from Albany (western australia) to Perth, around 400km. I bought it from down there and figured I'd tow it back, but I discovered when I got there that the Carry was too narrow to actually get on the car trailer.

So I drove it the whole way. It was god awful - noisy, slow, every corner felt like it was picking up the wheels and about to roll over. But it was hilarious and definitely possible to do a trip like that lol.

MCM did a movie about driving a kei truck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tfSBS3HyTc ( 4X4 Adventure in a Sierra Jimny & JDM Kei Truck [OFF ROAD FEATURE FILM] )

> Kei cars are designed for cities.

1. The article is about kei trucks, not kei cars. different things. 2. Kei is Japanese regulatory category designed for Japan. Japan is a country with quite a bit of non city places where kei .* are quite popular.

Alphard and Velfire are designed for cities, ideally dense areas where driving them isolates you from high traffic and passers by you force to move out of your way.

In California, many local surface streets have speed limits above 35mph.

There is more than one concept called "city driving".

In terms of fuel economy (mileage), vehicles are typically tested and rated in at least two environments:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_economy_in_automobiles#Di...

* "City driving" which means surface road speeds and the typical stop-and-go of traffic lights, stop signs and other controls.

* "Highway driving" which means, sustained speeds 55mph+ without the stop-and-go. This category is usually judged more efficient, especially for ICE vehicles.

Now, there may be other design considerations, such as "city vs. rural" if they're manufacturing tractors and combines vs. sports cars. And categories beyond these I've already mentioned. So when we say the vehicle is "designed for cities", do we mean that all of these boxes have been checked? Because in terms of fuel economy, "city driving" and "highway driving" both happen in cities.