I was at our local Italian Car Show and found this little gem. Mister X love's convertibles and this one was really cute, especially sitting next to eye-popping Italian masterpieces. After 25 years we can import cars that don't meet our emission or crash requirements when new so we're seeing some cool cars like this popping up. I thought it was a go-cart at first but a closer look and it is a real car with a mid-engine, very cool.
Seen a few of those in the UK but they are thin on the ground. There are loads of 'cute' cars like this in Japan, they are known as 'Kei cars' where they have to be under a certain weight/length/engine cc to qualify. If you want to look up more of these, there is a Japanese version of Autotrader called GooNet http://www.goo-net-exchange.com/ If I was buying a small Japanese car, I'd have one of these! Honda City Turbo II, and yes, it comes with a fold-up motorbike in the boot!
You should checkout Suzuki Cappuccino if you can find one, it's tinny. I think about 600cc and 3 cylinders.
Suzuki Cappuccino I'd be all over one of these too, Mazda Autozam AZ-1 In the Uk we get these as well, looks a bit like a shrunken Audi TT, Daihatsu Copen
25 year rule car import If the vehicle is at least 21 years old, there are no EPA compliance requirements upon importation. A motor vehicle that is at least 25 years old can be lawfully imported into the U.S. without regard to whether it complies with all applicable DOT Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). www.bringatrailer.com always has quirky vehicles and they pounce on them when they hit the 25 year mark. Thanks for the photos, these are really cool unique cars, the 4WD vans are also cool, someday I'll grab one just to try it out for a while. Back in the mid 80's there was the "pocket rocket" wars where there was a handful of tiny cars that competing for the fun factor. http://www.themotoringenthusiastjournal.com/fun_stuff/hot_hatchbacks.htm
I think most of the Kei sports cars have been covered by earlier posts. Back to Hondas in the 1980s a friend who kept making unwise purchases of worn out cars bought one of these (I think it was the UK 600cc version). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_N360 I have just looked and it appears that the UK equivalent of the 25 year rule is only ten years, and that number can be reduced if you are prepared to pay for a one off Vehicle Approval. Consequently we got quite a few interesting Japanese imports. A lady at work once had one of these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Figaro and another one of these Until I saw a video from Doug DeMuro's Nissan Skyline GTR I had always assumed that it was a car designed for the American market, not forbidden fruit. At one point they were probably more common in the UK than Ford Mustangs here despite never being sold by Nissan UK. Back to Italian sports cars I wonder if anyone in the USA knows of the original Fiat 500 Abarth. That is Kei car size and just like the American Muscle cars has an engine that won't fit under the hood. p.s Thanks for the link http://www.themotoringenthusiastjournal.com/fun_stuff/hot_hatchbacks.htm I think that the Corolla (second photo down) is one of the best looking cars ever. My taste in car styling must have been heavily influenced by a metalwork teacher who in the 1970s explained that back in Ye Olden days they had difficulty in bending metal sharp corners so they ended up looking like the VW Beetle, but with modern technology we can now have modern looking cars.
I owned a Honda N360, I think it was called something else here, Longman. I bought it but it took me a few weeks to get a garage lined up to work on it and then I found out the guy needed to have it moved and re-sold it on me. I never had the title and he gave me my cash back. Nice very small cars but victims of the tin worms.
