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Volvo: Safety Beyond the Star RatingsTop 10 Kei Cars
These tiny Japanese Kei cars offer outsized thrills as sports cars and unexpected strength as work trucks. These are the top 10 Kei cars of all time.
What is a Kei Car?
If you’re familiar with Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) cars, you’ve probably run across more than a few kei cars. Keijudosha or “light automobiles,” otherwise known as kei (“kay”) cars, are Japan’s class of miniature cars, trucks, and vans. Kei cars are as adorable as they are ingenious, often playfully incorporating classic car design cues ranging from the Ferrari F40 to the Acura NSX. Long before Funko was giving you cute, shrunk-down versions of your favorite fictional characters, Japanese automakers were producing similarly miniaturized versions of your favorite Japanese cars.
Origins of the Kei Car
The kei car segment was created in the late 1940s in the wake of WWII when many Japanese couldn’t afford a full-size car. To stoke a nascent automotive industry, the Japanese government implemented a series of tax benefits on cars meeting strict size and powertrain standards.
Starting in 1949, kei cars were limited to 2 meters (6.6 ft.) in height, 1meter (3.7 ft.) in width, and 2.8 meters (9.2 ft.) in length. Regulations on size were loosened over the years and today kei cars can be up to 3.4 meters (11.2 ft.) long, 1.48 meters (4.9 ft) wide, and still no more than 2 meters (6.6 ft.) tall. Not only did the small size of kei cars keep production overhead low, and therefore prices, they were more conducive to the narrow urban streets of Japan.
Engines were originally limited to 150cc (cubic centimeter) for four-stroke engines, and 100cc for two-stroke engines. Over time, these limitations were eased; by 1951 engine displacement had reached 360cc, in 1976 they rose to 550cc, and today the limit is 660cc with a maximum output of 64 horsepower. In Japan, you can identify kei cars by both their size and their regulation yellow license plates.
It’s a well-known truism in art and design that formal strictures are, rather than limitations, the true wellspring of creativity. Thus has been the case with kei cars. Japanese engineers and designers working within the kei car regulations have come up with some of the most charming, compelling, and audacious automotive designs ever executed. Skeptical? We’ve got a list of the top 10 kei cars of all time below to make our case.
Subaru 360
As you might guess, the Subaru 360 gets its name not from the degrees of a circle but the kei car displacement restriction to engines no longer than 360cc. In production from 1958 through 1971, the Subaru 360 was the company’s first car and the first Subaru exported to the US. The 360 ran a two-stroke 356cc two-cylinder engine making 16 horsepower. Its small size and reported 37-second zero to sixty time meant it was not especially safe for American roads, but the 360 proved more than capable in urban Japan with its narrow streets and low speed limits.
Suzuki Cappuccino
The 1990s were a heady decade for Japanese cars with the rise of legends like the Mk. IV Toyota Supra and Nissan Skyline GT-R. Things were no less interesting when it came to kei cars as Japanese manufacturers produced miniature sports cars like the Suzuki Cappuccino. The Cappuccino offers a lot to love in a small package. It’s front mid-engine for great weight balance. It’s rear-wheel drive. But best of all, the Cappuccino come as a coupe, T-top, Targa top, and convertible all in one thanks to removeable roof panels, a folding roll bar, and a retracting rear window.
Honda Beat
You know Honda’s designers were having fun when they created the Beat. The Beat is another 90’s kei sports car, this one with a mid-mounted three cylinder, a drop top, and white tiger print upholstery as standard. Equipped with a five-speed manual and 8,100 rpm red line, the Beat is a thrilling tactile and aural driving experience.
Suzuki Jimny
Among kei cars, the Suzuki Jimny is one of the most widely sold outside of Japan. Since its first generation, starting in 1970, the Jimny has been offered with both kei compliant engines smaller than 660cc and with larger engines. While most kei cars are urban runabouts, the Jimny recreates the rough-and-tumble Jeep/Land Cruiser off-roader on a smaller scale. Kei cars are known for their unusual names, just see our list of the worst/best car names ever, and the Jimny has had more than its share of nom de guerre as it has been sold international under such titles as the Samurai, the Caribian, the Katana, the Fox, and the Yomper among many others.
Daihatsu Hijet
Despite their fun-seeming dimensions, kei cars aren’t just for fun, some do serious work like the Daihatsu Hijet. The Hijet has been produced by Toyota subsidiary Daihatsu going back to 1960 as a truck and van. Of all the kei cars, the Hijet is the one you’re most likely to have seen over here in the States as many have been imported as mini haulers from ports to construction sites. You’ll recognize the Hijet and other kei trucks thanks to their COE (cab over engine) layout. Their van iterations are no less charming or practical. The best of both can be found in the Hijet Deck Van that has both an enclosed back seat and a tiny truck bed in back.
Mitsubishi Pajero Mini
You may recognize the Mitsubishi Pajero Mini from its larger North American version, the Mitsubishi Montero. The kei version takes the full-size SUV and trims it down to a svelte three-door. With those new proportions, the Pajero is transformed from just another SUV into something “aww”-inspiring, as in you might find yourself saying “aww” if you happen by one on the street.
Daihatsu Copen
The Daihatsu Copen is another sporty kei car with ambitions, adopting the guise of an Audi TT and running a twin-turbo inline-four cylinder. For Copens sold outside Japan, Daihatsu upped the displacement to 1.3L! The first generation (2002-2012) featured a fold-away hardtop for open air driving. The current Copen, launched in 2012, has a more original but no less compelling look and comes with a turbo three-cylinder.
Honda S660
Like the Subaru 360, the Honda S660 takes part of its name from the kei regulation displacement. But the other half of its name refers to Honda’s classic S2000 roadster. Unlike that namesake however, the S660 has a transversely mid-mounted three-cylinder turbo and the car’s looks are lifted directly from another Honda/Acura, the NSX. A miniature Targa topped NSX? Sign me up.
Subaru Sambar
The Subaru Sambar is another kei car workhorse offered as a truck or van. It was produced by Subaru from 1961 through 2012, when Subaru partnered with Toyota to rebadge their (Toyota’s) Daihatsu kei cars, including the Hijet. From then to the present, Subaru Sambars have been rebadged Hijets. For cute, Micromachine vibes, you really can’t beat a fifth-generation Sambar among kei cars.
Autozam AZ-1
The Autozam AZ-1 was a collaboration between Mazda and Suzuki (1992-94), drawing on supercar styling and design. The AZ-1 was sold under the Mazda Autozam brand and featured the same Suzuki turbo three-cylinder that powered the Cappuccino, now positioned mid-ship. The engine placement, however, was just the beginning of the AZ-1’s supercar pretensions. Its design borrows liberally and playfully from the Ferrari F40 as well as the Ford RS200, but its most outrageous feature is its gullwing doors. The AZ-1 did not sell well, just under 5,000 of it and the badge-engineered Suzuki Cara were ever built. Though not popular in its day, the Autozam AZ-1 is now one of the holy grails for kei car fanatics.
Bonus: Suzuki Cervo
I couldn’t leave off with the above ten kei cars without including a bonus eleventh pic, the Suzuki Cervo produced from 1977 through 2009. Its first-generation design (1977-82) was a fetching sport coupe penned by none other than Giorgetto Giugiaro at Italdesign.
