JCD BLOG

They Will Have to Get Through the Texans (and an Army of Kei Truck Fans First)
So what’s going on with this thing about government moves to ban Japanese Mini trucks from the roads in certain US states?
When we at Japan Car Direct first got involved in exporting used Japanese minitrucks to our major used car […]

What’s All This about 25 Year Old Cars from Japan?
One of my used Japanese cars is 29 years old. The other one is 23 years old. My wife’s secondhand Japanese car is 19 years old. They are all going strong.
Of course, most people I meet don’t care about how old my cars are, […]

Each generation represents the response of carmakers to new Japanese government regulations increasing maximum allowable vehicle size and engine displacement. Most mini trucks closely match these specifications.

Performance, size, weight and refinement generally increased over the years. But maximum load capacity remained the same at 350 kilograms (771.6 pounds). Some people prefer earlier models because they […]

I’m sitting here in my used commercial Daihatsu Kei car and I want to tell you about him.  I’m looking down at the instrument cluster and this is what I’m seeing:

Pretty simple, huh? Just a big, easy to read speedo, a fuel gauge, an engine coolant temp gauge and, well, that’s it. Simple. Everything about […]

What is a “Kei Truck,” anyway?

It’s a brilliant little piece of equipment, that’s what it is. Check out this used kei truck that we are exporting this summer (July, 2024) direct from Japan to the UK:

These small pickup trucks are often called “mini trucks” or “Japanese minitrucks” or “tiny trucks,” but here in Japan everyone […]

The Isuzu Elf / GMC Forward Has Been a Leader in the 2 to 7 Ton Medium Truck Category for Years and Years.

I Finally Get the Good Truck

I loved the Isuzu Elf I drove back in the 1980s in Toronto, Canada. That was when these excellent straight trucks, badged as GMC Forward, first came […]

From the Big Pumpers to the Pint-Sized Squirters, They’ll Dowse the Blaze.

I’ve never driven a fire truck, but I’ve watched my father-in-law’s one hundred year old Japanese farm house burn down. There were a lot of factors in that disastrous day but I still think that, if we’d had something like this Kei fire truck […]