The website has to repeatedly emphasize that. They cannot import these for over the road use in their current state.
In NH they can be licensed for over the road use, but state laws vary. The seller just can’t sell them overtly for over the road use because they fall short of fed standards…
For local use I don’t think they’re really as dangerous as is being portrayed. Cars here have to meet standards established to save lives in high speed crashes. These vehicle are, and always have been, ubiquotous in congested Asian cities, third world countrys, and islands, where roads are poor or coast-to-coast distances short and highway speeds are only approached by those fleeing highway bandits…or building inertia to run roadblocks. They can’t even obtain our highway speeds.
Perhaps if we really want to reduce fuel use it’s time to create a category of vehicle legal for all but interstate highways, the same way scooters are. It’s definitely a better idea than Cash for Clunkers.
They’d make nice vehicles for New york City or Boston type of traffic, where speeds don’t get going very fast, and parking space is at a very high premium. Even topped out at 40~45mph, these would make good city cars, and would be more useful than a SMART, since you have the truck bed
Agree,one of my friends didnt get a second chance on a motorcycle.Took me all of 10 minutes to realize, that to have a close to normal lifespan,I needed to stay off of two wheels(but thats just me).A resort around here has used these “Microtrucks” for years-they stopped using Cushmans-Kevin
If you want to put “safety first” that’s your business. Don’t drive anything smaller than a Hummer and make sure you never go over 30 miles per hour. Make sure you live long enough to spend the last two years of your life soiling your diapers in a nursing home.
I put living first so I’m going to continue to ride motorcycles, ski, shoot guns, and sail boats in water too deep to stand up in.
Good for you pal, seen one of the micros on RT 42 today,farm use tags-he was booking(must have been going 40 mph) had a lot of friends lose skin and almost meet the Grim reaper on motorcycles-dont have much of a chance when a big whitetail strolls out in front of you-statistically probaly pretty safe-but kinda like an aircraft,dont get to walk away from anything sort of serious-Kevin
Just bumped into a guy at our mountain park who had a Mitisubishi version. He imported it as a “classic”, it had to be 15 years old to qualify without having to be modified to meet DOT standards, which it never could.
At the other end of the scale, oriental guys here are importing very fast GT cars from Japan, again 15+ years old. They have very little in the way of our emission controls and go like stink! The cops hate them, but they’re “classics” and perfectly legal.
There is an electric vehicle made called the “Gemcar.” In Indiana this vehicle can be licensed and driven legally on a road where the speed limit is 35 mph or less.
I've read these are reasonably common in Oklahoma and Kansas. They are not street legal there either, but are on the roads commonly. I've been through west Kansas and Oklahoma (off the interstate), and there's no traffic (I saw about 1 car per hour), and some 100+ mile stretches between even small towns... so the gas mileage would REALLY save some cash. Since there was no traffic and no trees, in terms of crash safety, as long as the passengers could survive a trip into the ditch that would really be all that mattered.
Anyway.. I think people should have a choice. To give automakers an incentive to keep making crashworthy vehicles, any motorcycle, moped, ATV, or mini-car/mini-truck should have to have a prominent statement in advertising, and at the dealer, saying it does not meet crash standards. But I think people should have the choice to buy them as a road vehicle -- they can by motorcycles, so why not these vehicles? I would also say in general if vehicles can't maintain highway speed they should either be barred from the highway (different colored registration tag maybe?), or treated like farm implements where they "can" go on there but for as short a distance as possible (these trucks would probably manage to be highway-legal, but obviously some 35mph or 45mph vehicle, well, if it's not barred I'm sure some jerks would just try to drive it on the highway.)
The Gem cars are electric and, in Virginia at least, the “low speed vehicle” rules specify electric vehicles only. Those little trucks would easily meet the other requirements, but the law specifies electric. I could easily see the micro-trucks as convenient second car, commuter, grocery hauler, etc.
Long ago and in a galaxy far away, I remember them on a road called QL1. I suppose they might be an alternative for farm or light off-road work, but they’d be deathtraps on Interstates or even heavy-trafficked US or State highways, like US 59 in Houston or NY State Route 17.
one problem with legalizing vehicles of this type would be other vehicles of this type. people (me) would then try to get their oddball creations on the road. things resembling swamp buggys and stuff straight out of “The Road Warrior”. these would be safer because of roll bars, but the government wants nothing to do with redneck creations. and they have no converters. hot rodders would have too much fun modifying them. and they dont want to inspect every single one of them. that gets expensive.
Perhaps the time has come for a seperate category oof vehicle, legal for all roads with speed limits not exceeding a certain level, maybe 50 mph. Control could be accomplished perhaps via a different color license plate, one that readily identifies the vehicle as limited speed.
Now there’s an idea that might actually save gas while reducing urban congestion and also open a new market segment for sutomotive manufacturers. Dirt-cheap limited speed urban vehicles.
They had this when I was in Morocco -- honestly I didn't see anyone driving over about 45MPH anyway (to save gas I guess), but there were vehicles (busses, trucks, and old beater cars) with a circle with a number in it on the back, this was the max speed in kph -- typical was 90kph (55), 80kph (50mph) I think a few said like 50 (which is about 30mph.) I'm not sure how enforcement worked -- there were gendarmes with radar guns, but it appeared they didn't have cars, motorcycles, or radios. But nevertheless I didn't see anyone driving that fast anyway.
Carry me back to ol’ Viginny-would that include electric golf carts as well? I butt heads with VDOT from time to time,so I like to stay up on thier laws-Kevin