Kei Trucks in New York

Short answer: you can legally buy, own, ship and keep a 25-year-old Japanese kei truck in New York — importing is federal and legal in all fifty states. What you cannot currently do is register one for use on public roads in New York. The NYS DMV will not title or register a kei-class vehicle, and that is the state’s position, not ours. Kei Truck Direct is a kei truck importer based at 185 Greenwich Ave, Goshen, NY 10924, United States, in Orange County, and we sell into this state every week with that restriction stated up front.

Where we are

We are at 185 Greenwich Ave, Goshen, NY 10924, United States, in the village of Goshen, Orange County — the lower Hudson Valley, roughly sixty miles north-west of New York City and about the same distance south of Kingston. Vehicles are inspected, photographed and prepared here before they go out.

• Address: Kei Truck Direct, 185 Greenwich Ave, Goshen, NY 10924, United States
• Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm Eastern. Closed Saturday and Sunday.
• Email: sales@keitruckdirect.com — the fastest way to reach us, or call (252) 380-3112
• Importing Japanese vehicles since 2011 — around fifteen years.

If you want to look at a truck in person before wiring four or five figures for it, say so when you email and we will sort it out. We are a real address with published hours rather than a forwarding box, and for a purchase like this that ought to matter to you.

What New York actually allows

Three separate permissions get confused with each other, and only the first two are settled in New York’s favour.

Importing: allowed. Under NHTSA’s 25-year rule, a vehicle at least 25 years old measured from its month of manufacture is exempt from Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards conformity. Import rules are federal, so this is the same in New York as in Texas.

Owning and keeping it: allowed. Nothing stops a New York resident buying one, taking delivery of it and keeping it on their own land.

Registering it for public roads: not currently available. The NYS DMV will not register or title a kei-class vehicle unless the applicant proves it complies with the FMVSS and EPA emissions requirements in force when it was built. An imported kei truck was never built to FMVSS, so in practice that test cannot be met.

That last one is quoted and sourced on our state-by-state guide, which also covers the other forty-nine states, why they disagree with each other, and the AAMVA guidance most of the restrictions trace back to.

What New York buyers use them for

Every kei truck we sell into New York goes to private-property work. That is not a consolation prize — it is what most of our buyers nationwide wanted one for in the first place, and the Hudson Valley happens to be full of exactly those properties.

• Orchards and vineyards. A 660cc truck fits between rows a full-size pickup cannot enter, and the drop-side bed loads at waist height.
• Farms and equestrian properties. Feed, fencing, tools, muck. Four-wheel drive and a locking diff on many models.
• Campgrounds, marinas and large estates. Quiet, narrow, and cheap to run across a property all day.
• Warehouses and yards. Indoor-to-outdoor shuttling where a forklift cannot go and a pickup is too wide.
• Construction and landscaping sites. Self-contained site transport that does not need a trailer.

If the job is commuting on the Thruway, a kei truck is the wrong vehicle and we would rather say so now. Why, in more detail.

If you need it registered

Some buyers ask whether they can register in a neighbouring state instead. Pennsylvania and Connecticut are both in the group that has generally allowed kei registration, and both border New York — but you must register a vehicle where it is legally garaged and where you reside. Registering elsewhere to get around your own state’s rules risks your registration and your insurance being void, and it is not something we help with.

If you genuinely live, garage and insure the truck in a state that registers them, that is a different situation and the state guide is the place to start. Insurance is a separate question again, and worth settling before you pay: what to ask your carrier.

Delivery in New York and everywhere else

Delivery is free, insured and door to door anywhere in the continental United States, which includes every county in New York — Long Island, the five boroughs, Westchester, the Hudson Valley, the Capital Region, the Southern Tier, Central New York, the Finger Lakes, the North Country and Western New York alike. There is no separate shipping charge on top of the vehicle price, and being thirty miles away does not get you a better deal than being three hundred. How delivery works.

We sell nationwide. The New York address is where the business is, not a limit on where the trucks go.

Common questions from New York buyers