The best ever Japanese kei cars: lightweight, lovable and back in vogue
Car weight has become a big issue with the rise of EVs, but Japanese kei cars have had the problem solved for years. These are the best…
Once an oddity offered only to buyers in a country thousands of miles away, Japan’s tiny ‘kei cars’ have become something of an automotive phenomenon in recent years, spurred on by demand from the United States, as several iconic models cross the 25-year-old threshold that allows them to be imported by one of the world’s biggest enthusiast markets.
The ‘kei’ in kei car is short for kei-jidousha, roughly translating as ‘light automobile’, and describes a uniquely Japanese class of car that conforms to tight regulations governing dimensions and propulsion. The diminutive vehicles enjoy various tax and parking benefits in their home country.
All kei cars fit inside a box just 3.4 metres long, by 1.48 metres wide (that’s 34cm shorter and 10cm narrower than the Dacia Spring) by 2.0 metres tall, while engines are capped at 660cc. You might have heard that power is also limited to 64PS, or 63bhp, but that’s much more loosely enforced, and is more of a gentleman's agreement than a hard limit.
Kei car regulations have been around since 1949 and have been updated several times since, with today’s limits introduced in 1998. It means that modern kei cars feature largely the same specifications as they have for more than quarter of a century. That’s led manufacturers to differentiate their cars on styling, equipment and driver appeal, rather than a never-ending power or size arms race, and in turn it’s led to some spectacularly imaginative takes on the formula over the years.
Below we’ve selected seven stand-out kei-jidousha, plus five that made it to the UK officially – and then we let you know what to look for when buying your own tiny Japanese car.
Autozam AZ-1
No model illustrates the way kei cars are simply normal cars condensed into a smaller space than the Autozam AZ-1. Sold under one of Mazda’s many Nineties offshoot brands (and also as the Suzuki Cara), the AZ-1 is basically a miniature supercar, with a mid-mounted engine and gullwing doors. Given the huge surge in interest when it hit American import status at 25 years old back in 2017, prices are becoming a bit supercar-like too.
The AZ-1 debuted in 1992, with both Mazda and Suzuki input in its development, and it uses a similar engine to the Suzuki Cappuccino. There’s British heritage in there too, as like the Mazda MX-5, the AZ-1 spent some time at International Automotive Design (IAD), for prototyping and development. It cost only a little less than the MX-5 on the Japanese market, and just under 5,000 were made, including Cara production.
Honda Beat
Honda fans revere the Beat as the final car to be signed off by company founder Soichiro Honda himself. That feels quite appropriate, given the Beat was much like Honda’s very first passenger car, the S500 of 1963: a tiny, high-revving roadster.
It also gave kei car customers a kind of scaled-down NSX to play with. The 656cc naturally aspirated three-cylinder makes the most incredible noise, partly on account of its 8,500rpm red line (peak power of 63bhp is made at 8,100rpm), and partly because each cylinder has its own throttle body to admit air and fuel. It’s mid-engined too, which plays havoc with boot space, but makes the mad zebra-print interior more spacious than you’d expect for a 3.3-metre long car.
Suzuki Alto Works
Plenty of companies have made performance-focused kei cars, but the Alto Works is among the best known. Suzuki has been making them since 1984, and while it doesn’t currently sell a Works model brand new, there have been five generations to choose from over the last four decades. The recipe has always been the same: a body kit that treads the line between mean and cute like a cartoon baby dragon, a turbocharged three-cylinder, and more often than not, a manual gearbox.
The 657cc second-gen (1990-1994) and third-gen (1994-2000) models are probably the most coveted, not least for their regular appearances in Gran Turismo games and on Japanese automotive TV show Best Motoring, where they typically put in giant-killing performances. After disappearing in the mid-Noughties, the Works badge returned in 2015, with a pugnacious look, KYB dampers, Recaro seats and Enkei wheels.
Honda S660
The Daihatsu Copen kept the kei sports car flag flying after the AZ-1, Beat and Cappuccino left the market, but in 2015 Honda joined the fray once again, with the S660. Spiritual successor to the Beat, the S660 was once again mid-engined, but this time used a targa-style roof arrangement and had a turbocharger to help its 658cc three-cylinder along.
While output is technically no more than the Beat’s 63bhp, the turbo made all the difference to driveability. Where the Beat developed just 65Nm of torque at a 7,100rpm scream, the S660 had 104Nm at only 2,600rpm. You may notice the past tense there: unfortunately, the S660 disappeared in 2022 with no replacement, but thankfully there are still plenty to choose from if you’re considering importing one.
Mazda R360
While it looks a little like a European ‘bubble car’ from the Fifties, this glassy coupé was actually Mazda’s first passenger vehicle, making its debut in 1960 and immediately taking the market by storm. It sold just over 23,000 units in its first year, equivalent to nearly two thirds of the entire kei car market.
One advantage it had was performance. This sounds daft given it uses just a 356cc V-twin, mounted in the rear (a 360cc displacement limit was in place for kei cars until 1976), but like the modern MX-5, Mazda made the R360 light, and the 16bhp engine only needed to push along 380kg. For context, today’s Citroen Ami weighs 485kg and makes half the power. A four-speed manual gearbox was standard, but the R360 was also the first car in Japan to offer a torque converter automatic, with two ratios.
Daihatsu Midget II
One of the more curious kei cars to emerge from Japan is becoming a bit of a cult vehicle. Daihatsu revealed its first Midget in 1957 as a three-wheeled, handlebar-steered single-seat pick-up, which evolved to become a two-seat, but still three-wheeled, truck with a steering wheel by the time production ended in 1972.
In 1996, though, Daihatsu debuted the Midget II, this time with four wheels but again as a one-seater (although a jump-seat was offered in automatic versions). Retro styling extended to a spare wheel mounted on the nose and separate headlamp pods, while its naturally-aspirated 0.66-litre engine made just 33bhp. Crucially though, it also appeared in 1999’s Gran Turismo 2 video game, introducing a generation of gamers to this weird and wonderful vehicle. With those gamers now in their 30s and 40s, plenty of Midget IIs are finding their way outside Japan…
Subaru 360
The Subaru 360 might look a little like a copycat Fiat 500, but it’s more an example of automotive convergent evolution. The 500 arrived in 1957 and the 360 in 1958, so it’s fair to say the two were developed without knowledge of the other – and to ensure it met kei car regulations, the Subaru’s 356cc engine is even tinier than that of the Nuova 500’s.
Although it was a parallel twin like the Fiat’s motor, the Subaru was a two-stroke, so the 16bhp it made at launch is actually a little more potent than the 1957 Fiat’s 13bhp. Subaru eventually boosted that to 25bhp, and even 35bhp in the twin-carb Young SS sports model in 1968. Subaru actually exported the 360 to America that year too, where it was sold (genuinely) under the tagline: “Cheap and ugly does it.”
Suzuki Jimny
We’re all familiar with the Suzuki Jimny in the UK as a chunky, retro-styled and often brightly-coloured 4x4 that was only offered for a few years before it fell foul of emissions regulations. But shorn of its wide, boxy arches and fitted with a 658cc engine, it conforms to kei car regulations in Japan – while its 1.6 million yen starting price, around £8,500, is enough to make you weep. UK buyers had to stump up £15k or more when ours debuted in 2018.
Japan also gets an array of personalisation options to make the MINI’s colours and roof graphics look as adventurous as a Model T. And that’s before you get to the huge aftermarket, to give it the look of Defenders, G-Wagens and more. The small engine doesn’t seem to hamper it off-road either, with Japanese enthusiasts happily venturing into the mud in their pint-sized 4x4s.
The 5 best kei cars that came to the UK
While kei-jidousha are a uniquely Japanese phenomenon, several have actually made it to the UK as official imports over the years, giving buyers a taste of life on the other side of the world. Models such the Suzuki Cappuccino and Daihatsu Copen brightened up otherwise relatively dull ranges of city cars and superminis, while the UK has even built its own kei car and sold it back to Japan, in the shape of the Caterham Seven 160…
Suzuki Cappuccino
The Suzuki Cappuccino may be most closely associated with the import scene today, but back in the Nineties it was officially imported to the UK, and at £11,995 in 1994, undercut the Mazda MX-5 by around £4,500. UK-spec cars were well equipped too, with standard power-steering, leather seats and air-conditioning.
As many drivers have since discovered, particularly as the popularity of older kei cars has increased, the Cappuccino is more like an espresso shot of caffeine to drive. Think all the qualities of an MX-5, such as great balance and rear-drive handling, but scaled down to something the width of a classic Mini. A clever three-piece hard-top means it can function more or less like a coupé in poor weather, too.
Daihatsu Copen
The Daihatsu Copen is probably the easiest kei car to find in the UK classifieds, as it was brought in officially between 2003 and 2011, although from 2006 Daihatsu replaced the 659cc four-cylinder turbo engine with a 1.3-litre four, so technically these later cars don’t conform to kei regs.
They do make slightly better cars though, with extra power (86bhp, up from 63bhp) and torque (121Nm, up from 100Nm), while their gearing is better suited to UK roads too. All Copens got styling that looked like an Audi TT by Pixar and a folding hard-top roof, while most featured a snappy manual gearshift in the MX-5-style cabin.
Mitsubishi i
You might best remember this egg-shaped Mitsubishi as the brand’s first electric car – and indeed, one of the first volume production EVs full stop, the i-MiEV. But it arrived in the UK in regular petrol form first, complete with a 659cc turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine and a four-speed automatic gearbox.
Less boxy than the usual practical kei car form, the Mitsubishi was unusual for another reason: like the contemporary Smart Fortwo, its engine was mounted at the back, marginally ahead of the rear axle. This meant almost all of its bubbly shape was devoted to passenger space. Find one today and it makes a lot more sense than its electric counterpart, thanks to the ability to do around 300 miles on its 35-litre tank.
Daihatsu Cuore Avanzato TR-XX R4
The Cuore Avanzato’s full name seemed sillier in the Nineties than it does today, when the average diesel Mercedes C-Class comes with a longer moniker. But a name like a superbike did give a clue to the madcap Daihatsu’s behaviour. As with the Alto Works that wasn’t officially imported here, the Avanzato was a kind of two-thirds scale hot hatch.
Once again, the bare stats are just 63bhp (and 100Nm) from a turbocharged 0.66-litre engine. But you also got an 8500rpm red line, a manual gearbox with ratios like a mountain bike (70mph in fifth corresponded to 5500rpm) and four-wheel drive, for a 0-62mph time around the mid-eight seconds mark – enough to match the then-new Mk4 Volkswagen Golf GTI with its 1.8-litre turbo engine.
Caterham Seven 160
We’re not pulling your leg – the Caterham Seven 160 really is a kei car. It’s probably the most extreme example of the kei sports car genre popularised by cars like the Suzuki Cappuccino, and coincidentally, its ‘K6A’ 658cc three-cylinder turbocharged Suzuki engine is closely related to that found in the Cappuccino a few decades earlier.
What might confuse you is the Caterham’s 84bhp power output – but contrary to popular belief, there’s no hard 63bhp limit on kei car power, so the extra horses don’t disqualify it, while the Seven’s diminutive size, especially with the 160’s narrower rear arches, keeps it within class regulations. Predictably, it became a big-seller in the Caterham range in Japan, but its skinny tyres and supermini-style economy make it a great choice for UK roads too.
Buying a kei car: What you need to know
If you’ve been tempted by any of the cars above (and we don’t blame you), then the next stage is actually getting hold of one.
There are two main ways of doing this. You can either look at those already for sale in the UK, whether sold back in the day or brought in more recently by importers, or you can scour the Japanese sales and auction sites to bring a car into the country yourself.
While you can do this solo, it’s much easier to go through a company already set up to walk you through the process. The likes of Torque GT can source more or less anything you have your eye on, while other importers will keep a steady flow of stock of some of the most popular models, which you can reserve before they arrive on UK soil.
Kei cars can be surprisingly cheap to buy initially, as running older cars can get quite expensive in Japan – their equivalent of our MoT, the ‘shaken’, starts at just under £200 (about four times what we pay), and it can go up from there. This means people rarely hang onto older cars, particularly low-budget kei cars, and the huge number available keeps prices down.
However, importing can quickly add to this cost. You might find a funky, unusual kei car for the equivalent of £2,000, but you can expect to add another £1,500 for roll-on-roll-off shipping, 20 per cent for VAT, 10 per cent import duty, any conversion costs that need doing (such as changing the speedometer from km/h to mph), and fees for the paperwork, plus a margin for the company importing the car for you. So that £2k car could end up being £5k-£6k by the time you pick it up.
Newer kei cars should still be in pretty good condition, and importers will usually give each one a rating to give you some idea before it’s put on a boat. But it’s worth remembering that older cars are older cars, even in Japan, so some may be a little tired or full of holes by now. Cars do rust in Japan, despite what you might have heard about them not salting roads over winter.
Assuming you’ve finally got your hands on a kei car, then what? Well, depending on the model, the experience should be fairly straightforward. It may be a little more difficult finding parts, although the Japanese auction sites can come in handy and there are plenty of English-speaking intermediaries to make buying bits and pieces easier these days. As we write, the exchange rate is very favourable too, making importing cars and parts much cheaper than it was a decade ago.
Just bear in mind that kei cars are very much developed for Japan’s lower speed limits. Gear ratios can be quite short, leading to screaming revs on motorway journeys, and lower fuel economy than you might expect from a tiny engine. Sporty models can ride very firmly indeed too; Japan’s roads aren’t perfect, but they’re still generally a lot smoother than those in the UK. And you may feel somewhat vulnerable alongside everyone else’s SUVs, too…
Which kei car is your all-time favourite? Tell us in the comments section below...
