I like trying to find quirky cars in the US. A few years ago I found an AZ-1 at Heavy Seas in Maryland. Super cool car, and the owner was 6’4”. It wasn’t his daily but he did say he drove it on several trips to North Carolina.
He said they were all terrifying haha.
I think he said he was around $8,000 all in. But he did get a more beat up one and this was a few years ago. Before the import craze imo.
It’s more than 8000$ for sure, since Doug Demuro made a video about them the price went wild.
To give a ball park 8000$ is around what it cost me to get an Alto Works, way more common.
Yes now they’re crazy expensive. From what I remember he was willing to sell it for around $10k at the time. I keep thinking I’ll import something eventually but there are some localities on the east coast that kept re-registering kei cars because they were deemed “unsafe”. Even those past the 25 year mark.
Yeah I heard about those place like NYC who revoked a license plate for a Kei car. It’s Such BS. I’m in Canada so the laws differs. Sadly I’m in the only province who competes with the US at 25 years minimum to import instead of 15.
I’ve been driving my Works for a while now and I do have to admit that they are not the safest indeed even for their age. On the other hand it’s still not a motorcycle. If you have any question about driving a Kei car let me know.
Oh man 15 years would make so much more sense! I’ve moved to a city so it would be driven less than 50 mph most of the time, so it would be kind of at home!
I guess my biggest question is, how do you source maintenance parts? Like belts, suspension, general wear and tear etc.
Sub 15” tires might also be hard.
For maintenance parts like oil filters and belts you can usually find a local equivalent.
For performance parts I’ve ordered from both blackhawkjapan and rhdjapan in the past, they are good 👍
For OEM I’ve ordered some stuff from Yahoo auction using jauce or even with Amazon Japan.
Tires though, that’s a pita. I couldn’t find anything in OEM size (165/55r15) except from a special order of nankang branded tires. I went with 195/45r15 instead. They are tight but they fit. I’d check local to you if someone can order tires from overseas, that could help a lot.
That’s good to know! I’m definitely gonna have to branch out and ask some of the local shops. I’ve seen some Beats around and it’s just cool to see them being driven.