This is why driving a Kei truck is a great idea – Jalopnik

Kei cars are so awesome that even President Trump likes them (in completely unrelated news: even a broken clock is right twice a day). YouTuber Doug Vargo recently bought a kei truck in one of the more, shall we say, adventurous ways we’ve seen. He and his friend Jared flew from Pennsylvania to Florida to buy a blue 1995 Honda Acty sight unseen and drive it home. (It’s not this amazing pink, but no one’s perfect.) They had one-way tickets and no backup plan in case the sale fell through. What can go wrong?

Despite the risks, their journey starts promisingly. The truck is in excellent condition, and the only thing wrong with it is that the seller has not yet performed the promised oil change, which justifies a small drop in price. Then they just have to register and insure it before they start driving again. That proves to be the hardest part, as not many insurance companies are willing to insure an imported vehicle that doesn’t appear in their systems. Make sure you do your research before purchasing anything brought into the US under the 25-year import rule. They finally find someone willing to insure them, and since neither Pennsylvania nor Florida are among the states where kei cars are illegal, they’re ready to begin the 1,000-mile drive home. (They’re illegal in some states along the route, so they just have to roll the dice and hope for the best.)

On the plus side, the Acty gets a consistent 39 miles per gallon, almost double what a Honda Ridgeline can do. The truck may be small, but the 6-foot bed is longer than many trucks offer these days, long enough for Doug to sleep in one night (all he needs is a minibike for the perfect adventure). My favorite feature, though, is that you can stop for gas and fill up without even getting out of the truck. Amazingly for a 30 year old truck, the only problem it has during the entire journey is a broken alternator belt just 50 miles from the destination. Unfortunately, it happens at 3am in the middle of nowhere, so they have to resort to a towing service instead of a roadside repair. Doug fixes this shortly after arriving at the driveway.

This video is the classic formula for going a long distance to buy a questionable vehicle and then immediately driving it home. Some might say it’s overkill, but I always find this one entertaining, especially in an interesting and very unsuitable vehicle for the task. Taking a kei truck on a long-distance trip across America certainly falls into that category.