Kei cars are designed for cities. These will likely be fine in dense areas on local surface streets where traffic is high.
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.
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.
> Kei cars are designed for cities.
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?
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.
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.
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.
And modern kei cars like the N-Box/Tanto/Roox have gotten pretty nice and cost upwards of ¥3,000,000 with lots of bells and whistles - more than some regular cars. Definitely not luxurious by any means, but very roomy inside and well-suited to city driving and even light highway driving with a turbo.
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 the passers by you force to move out of your way.
Palanquin were probably the ideal Japanese vehicle for both city and country.
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.