Kei Cars

Kei cars are the passenger side of the same regulatory class that produces kei trucks and vans — capped dimensions, a 660cc engine limit, and decades of engineering ingenuity spent working within those limits rather than around them. The results are frequently more interesting than the format suggests.

Because manufacturers could not compete on displacement, they competed on everything else: turbocharging, intercooling, clever packaging, all-wheel drive, mid-engined layouts and genuinely adventurous styling. A kei car from the 1990s is often a more imaginative piece of design than anything of comparable size sold in the United States, before or since.

Stock in this category rotates and tends toward the unusual. The Honda Z is a standout — a mid-engined, all-wheel-drive turbocharged kei car with styling that looks like nothing else on the road. The Daihatsu Move covers the tall-boy format that dominates Japanese city driving, with turbocharged and twin-cam versions available. The Daihatsu Naked is exactly what its name suggests: exposed hinges, visible fasteners and a deliberately utilitarian look applied to a small hatchback.

These are bought as second cars, campus and site runabouts, collector pieces and conversation starters. Running costs are minimal, they park anywhere, and there is a real pleasure in a small car engineered with this much care. Each listing shows recorded mileage, drivetrain, transmission and a full photo set for that specific car.