MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
When you picture a pickup, you might imagine a big truck towering over the rest of traffic. But a new truck has hit the roads of the U.S., and it is not what you are used to, as Casey Martin from KUOW in Seattle reports.
CASEY MARTIN, BYLINE: Tonneli Gruetter runs a flower farm on an island north of Seattle.
TONNELI GRUETTER: On a regular basis, we'd be loading heavy tables and buckets and doing a lot of setup - pop-up tents, all these different things - and it was very, very physical, and it was hard on us.
MARTIN: They used to work out of a Chevy Express van, but it was hard to get in and out of. Then they discovered kei trucks, tiny Japanese pickups that have a small cab but a large bed in the back. Gruetter knew they had to get one, and not just any kei truck.
GRUETTER: Specifically the fire trucks come with a lot of racking and sort of accessories built into them that are very suitable to farming.
MARTIN: These are small, often even smaller than a sedan. Not the fastest vehicles, they top out at about 70 miles per hour, but tough and reliable. And they're usually well maintained by fire departments, with very low miles. Many still have their lights, PA systems and, as you can hear, their sirens...
(SOUNDBITE OF SIREN)
MARTIN: ...Which comes in handy if you slow down traffic.
GRUETTER: So we're able to put on our lights as flashers, hop on our intercom and let people know, you know, thanks for supporting local farms. This vehicle is slow, and we will pull over when we can.
MARTIN: Adam Chovanak is a dealer who buys cars in Japan to import to the U.S. He says he's seen a real uptick in kei trucks on the West Coast in the last 10 years, with cars being sent from Japan to ports in Seattle, San Francisco and LA. Several dealers said most of the cars stay on the West Coast, but they've also sold to buyers in Texas and North Carolina. According to Chovanak, you used to be able to pick one up for about $5,000. Today, that's closer to 10,000, but it hasn't curbed demand.
ADAM CHOVANAK: So it's not uncommon for them to have a deposit before they land.
MARTIN: Chovanak says kei trucks first started showing up in the U.S. when large factories, universities and zoos bought them as utility vehicles. Then they really caught on with Japanese car enthusiasts and drivers wanting a truck with a smaller footprint.
CHOVANAK: They are really easy to like. They're inexpensive. They're easy to park. They're pretty reliable, pretty durable. You park them for a year, you turn the key, they start right up.
MARTIN: Most of the kei trucks driving around are from the mid-to-late '90s. That's due to federal restrictions on importing kei trucks less than 25 years old. So they often need new parts and maintenance. That's where Tuan Huynh can help. He runs a Facebook group where thousands of kei truck fans swap tips and advice. Huynh took me out for a drive recently. I climbed in on the right side where the steering wheel is.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR CLOSING)
MARTIN: Getting it on this side is so weird.
(LAUGHTER)
TUAN HUYNH: If you get in an accident on the freeway, you're going die, so at least it'll be quick.
MARTIN: (Laughter).
That Facebook page is where Huynh met Daniel Ton. Ton works in professional racing, so he knows serious car people and car culture. Usually, there's a lot of talk about speed and horsepower, but kei truck owners, he says, are much more lighthearted.
DANIEL TON: The kei truck community is just like, hey, I painted it like a panda, and it looks like a panda now. It's just a quirky group of people.
MARTIN: They may be popular here in Washington, but in some states, like Oregon, you can't register kei trucks. Oregon's Department of Transportation says they're not built for American highways. They don't even have airbags. Colorado just legalized them, but kei lovers there will have to wait until 2027 to register one. For NPR News, I'm Casey Martin in Seattle.
(SOUNDBITE OF AIR'S "LA FEMME D'ARGENT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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