I Bought a 1991 Honda Beat.

Kei cars are the smallest cars allowed on expressways in Japan. They’re physically tiny: less than 11.2 feet long, with engines under 660cc (40 cubic inches). Most motorcycles in the US have bigger engines than that! Popular kei car designs include the retro Nissan Figaro, gullwing door Autozam AZ-1, and adorable workhorse Daihatsu Hijet trucks and vans.

Kei cars were never sold in the US, but now that they’re over 25 years old, they’re eligible for import. Even better, they’re dirt cheap in Japan because the government has tapered off the kei car tax benefits. You can buy imported kei cars stateside for around $5k-$15k – even less if you’re willing to buy a used one in Japan and import it yourself using guides like these.

When this 1991 Honda Beat showed up on Cars & Bids, it was right up my alley because the previous owners had already invested a lot in tasteful upgrades like leather seats, a custom exhaust, and Watanabe wheels. When buying a kei car, you wanna look for one that’s already personalized the way you want because it’s quite hard to source things in the US for 30 year old cars that were only sold in small quantities in Japan.

Here’s how it looked when I bought it – the pictures don’t do justice to how tiny these things are though:

Sharp, but I wanted to take things up a notch. I was inspired by the Morgan Super 3, a tiny 3-wheeled British car that’s often decorated in the style of a World War II airplane. I wanted my Beat to look like a tiny Japanese fighter plane with Japanese warning labels on the various components. I described what I wanted to Miguel and the folks at Purple Flare, and they delivered:

It’s got really good proportions so it’s hard to understand just how small it is until you put people or other cars next to it:

Kei cars are fun weekend toys, but I wouldn’t recommend one as a daily driver. Parts can be very hard to find – not necessarily expensive, but just hard to source – and they’re not designed for US highway speeds. For example, the Beat can do 70mph, but its tiny, buzzy engine is doing 5,500 RPM to pull it off. (Redline is 8500 RPM.) To learn more about the engine, its addictive sound, and the car’s joyful handling, check out the Regular Car Reviews video on it: