Are any of these small Japanese trucks street legal where you live ?

[Rusty Marina]

I had mentioned this van I found in another thread. I was going to buy it to save $$ on the route I do, but found it was not street legal
Some of the dealers Ive seen sell these really small Japanese trucks (similar to the van I have attached) mainly for off road use.
When gas went up 3 yrs ago some of the small towns here legalized golf carts for intown use.
Does anyone own one of these types of vehicles or use one on the street ?

[botsapper]

Before you see the 'other' crash video of a vanlet configuration, see the full context.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uykStESm3vw

[pprince]

Yes, they are. This one is a 1994 Daihatsu Atrai

[Ryland]

States like Arizona and Georga have vehicle registration laws that make it easier to get real regular titles for vehicles like those micro trucks, so if you really want to get one check in those states but make sure that it already has a title before you buy it! once it is titled in one of those states you can transfer that title to the state of your choice, depending on your state there are some loop holes that allow you to title vehicles that are imported if they are over 20 years old.
street legal golf carts and the NEV/neighborhood electric vehicles, LSV/low speed vehicle are nice but often restricted to 20 to 25mph even tho alot of them would be safe to 35 or 45mph, as alot of them are based off the micro vans or other road legal vehicles that are imported, but the 20 to 25mph speed limit makes them annoying to use.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by Rusty Marina

Does anyone own one of these types of vehicles or use one on the street ?

My retired neighbour has one - dates back to the late 80s I'd think.
They used to be more popular back then, but they are rare now.

[SwamiSalami]

micro trucks are awesome.

[Arragonis]

They are still very popular in Japan but less so overseas these days. The pickups used to be very popular - my local DIY store in England would let customers borrow one for transporting stuff home - useful if all you have is an original Mini.

EDIT - to answer your other question, I believe these are still street legal 0 a guy on our road has one.

[Peter7307]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

They are still very popular in Japan...

Yep the Japanese legal system encourages these things simply because of the width (or lack of it) which makes them great inner city delivery vehicles.

The fuel economy is not all that great by the way since the engine must work hard to transport what little they can manage to carry and the gearing makes sure they are reasonably quick off the line but have a limited top speed.

Oh yeah one final point...do NOT try and make a quick turn in one or you may find out about limited suspension travel and a high centre of gravity!

Peter.

[Arragonis]

Yep, plus a lot of them use solid axles and leaf springs...

Hop hop hop

[fidalgoman]

Here's a

Chinese model

that might be available soon.