![\"\"](\"http:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/us_kei_truck_fail.jpg\")
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The Drive<\/a>: Toyota revives the Scion sub-brand by introducing a US-made Kei truck<\/span><\/p>\n Few things on the road really make me look twice than seeing Kei-cars; obviously as they are not native to the United States, seeing them on the roads anywhere in America is always a novelty.\u00a0 I know of at least two homes in my general neighborhood who have Kei-cars, and I know one person who has two.<\/span><\/p>\n Aside from the quirky aesthetic that Americans don\u2019t get, and the weeb-y idea of having one, I too would really enjoy having a Kei-car if I had the means and the available disposable income to make it happen.\u00a0 They\u2019re efficient in so many different manners, from fuel economy, space consumption, cargo hauling, and I like how they\u2019re noticeable and attention-grabbing without having to look like a douche in any sort of European supercar.<\/span><\/p>\n When Toyota introduced the KEI-01, I couldn\u2019t help but feel like a sudden sucking of all the air of coolness and intrigue from actual J-spec Kei-cars.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of like the Family Guy Effect<\/a>, but instead of a show, it\u2019s a large corporation that has acknowledged the intrigue and novelty of a very niche thing, and by slapping their name onto it and proclaiming the intention of building it in Indiana, it suddenly makes it nowhere nearly as cool as they used to be.<\/span><\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t help that they\u2019ve nerfed them into oblivion with their reported 25mph top speed, and automatic transmission, but the whole aesthetic of making them tin metal silver looks like they\u2019ve never heard the expression that it doesn\u2019t matter how much you polish a turd, it\u2019s still a turd.\u00a0 Because let\u2019s face it, Kei-cars aren\u2019t pretty, they kind of are turds on wheels, but all their positives outweighs the aesthetic, which is why they\u2019re still so likeable.<\/span><\/p>\n Additionally, Toyota is intending on gatekeeping them even further by claiming that they\u2019re only going to be commercial vehicles, intending on making them only available through commercial and fleet services, with the general idea that only farms, agriculture and factories will be the only one with access to them.\u00a0 Cute idea, but people will be people, and if people wanted Lonzo Ball\u2019s shitty shoes just to say they got them, them ordinary people will inevitably want and find ways to get KEI-01s for their own selfish private reasons.<\/span><\/p>\n Personally, if I were financially better off, and in a position to acquire a Kei-car, I\u2019d still rather go the original route and get one imported over here; like an old Daihatsu, Suzuki or Honda, one with a manual transmission, and capable of getting to perhaps 55 mph.<\/span><\/p>\n I could very well change my mind in the future if circumstances change, the KEI-01 is allowed to go a little faster and is made more available to ordinary consumers, and it might be worth revisiting, but at a first blush, Toyota\u2019s Scion KEI-01 has only really managed to accomplish sucking the fun and intrigue out of Kei-cars outright, in my opinion.\u00a0 Fewer things kill the vibe faster of a fun little imported commodity than slapping a big American \u201cMade in the USA\u201d sticker on top of it.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Drive: Toyota revives the Scion sub-brand by introducing a US-made Kei truck Few things on the road really make me look twice than seeing Kei-cars; obviously as they are not native to the United States, seeing them on the roads anywhere in America is always a novelty.\u00a0 I know of at least two homes … Continue reading Few things kill the vibe than \u2018Made in the USA\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[176,51,100,45,83,52,217,190,49],"class_list":["post-51666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-murica","tag-cars","tag-comparison","tag-fail","tag-observations","tag-owned","tag-weebs","tag-white-people","tag-wtf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51668,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51666\/revisions\/51668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}