Which Modern Kei Car Would You Buy If They Magically Showed Up In The U.S.?

Our big wet President wants the United States to build kei cars, despite the myriad reasons the average American consumer probably wouldn't want one. We Jalops, though, are not the average American consumers. We're car people with an affinity for the weird, and many of us would love to get a little keijidosha in our own garages. But a world of modern kei cars on American streets would be very different from our current world of 25-year-old imports, which prompts the question: Which modern kei car would you buy if they were suddenly legal here?

For our rules here, we're talking about any kei-class vehicle currently available on the Japanese market. Yes, Trump wants them built here, but that's not what we're talking about today. We're also not talking about '90s imports, so no AZ-1s or Beats or Cappuccinos here — current makes and models only. With the entirety of the 660cc-and-below Japanese market available to you, which kei car would you buy?

For my money, I'd get a Daihatsu HiJet Truck. These little trucks cost under $7,000 for a manual-transmission, two-wheel-drive base model, and prices don't exactly skyrocket from there — they're an incredibly affordable way to haul stuff around. With a HiJet, I'd suddenly be enabled in all the truly terrible motorcycle purchase ideas I stumble across on Facebook Marketplace and Copart. Can you imagine if I had a reliable way to get broken motorcycles home to my apartment? Sure, my roommates might elect to poison me in my sleep, but I'd have a fantastic time until then. 

If I could get any modern kei vehicle, I'd get a Daihatsu HiJet truck. What would you go with? Do you stare over the Pacific at night, longing for a Daihatsu Copen, or would you want to haul your family around in a sweet kei van? Leave your answer below, and I'll pick out my favorite answers later in the week.