[camhenlin]

I’ve looked into one of these and they’re completely illegal in my state, no way to register them without gaming different dmv stations and getting a clueless dmv rep who doesn’t know what they’re looking at, to register it. This is Oregon. Really unfortunate situation as these fit a lot of use cases that would previously require something as big as a gas guzzling Ford F150 otherwise.

[tgtweak]

I think most people register them out of state for this reason - Minnesota and Arkansas being the two go-to (also for bypassing vehicle road-readiness inspections...).

[RoyGBivCap]

I wish I'd known this. Oregon's bi-annual "emissions test" where they hook up the inspection machine to the ODB port and let the car lie to it is absurd. When I first heard about it I assumed they'd put some device on the exhaust. They do not.

[eric-hu]

Does that work if people don't live in MN or AR?

[ke88y]

> Really unfortunate situation as these fit a lot of use cases that would previously require something as big as a gas guzzling Ford F150 otherwise.

What about the Ford Maverick? The only issue is that the bed is fairly small, but it looks like these minis have small beds and low towing capacities as well? And Ford makes a hybrid version.

(Don't misunderstand: I'm not arguing against relaxing the rules in Oregon.)

[nluken]

The Ford Maverick is better than most modern pickups, but still misses the mark. As you mentioned, the bed is significantly smaller than a 1990 Ranger despite being 6 inches longer[1]. Honestly the biggest issue I have with these vehicles is their height, which is a known hazard to pedestrians[2]. The Maverick doesn't fix that issue.

[1] https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a36651899/sizing-up-the-20... [2] https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2022/03/pedestrians-incr...

[tgtweak]

The sales of the Maverick have really made a compelling case for an even-smaller truck that is one size down. I don't even think ford thought it would sell that well. The Maverick is still a giant truck compared to these.

[7speter]

I thought the whole appeal for the maverick was that it was a hybrid truck that you’d be able to drive around a city (Ford marketing, itll be fine to drive anywhere probably)?

[im_down_w_otp]

You could actually probably get this onto a state-wide ballot as a measure to be voted on in Oregon. The bar to get things on the ballot isn't particularly high.

[kitsunesoba]

As someone else living in the PNW, I’ve read that people in Oregon permits kei trucks, but won’t allow them to be registered and to work around this, people will register them in Washington and then bring them down.

[duncan-donuts]

Why are they illegal?

[gorbypark]

Someone has to pay to have a vehicle certified (crash tests, emissions, figure out what’s needs modified to meet US regulations, etc). If the vehicle was never sold in the US to begin with, then they can’t be registered until they are 25+ years old. Even then, it’s hard/impossible in some states.

My memory is a bit hazy, but at one point in time an importer company paid the large sums (hundreds of thousands I’m sure) to have a certain GT-R model go through the safety/emission procedures so they could be imported before they were 25 years old. That’s the only case I can think of.

[IntelMiner]

Why would they be illegal? Surely Oregon has "small cars"

[7speter]

It might be because they dont meet safety standards (being 25+ years old and tiny) or because its right hand drive…