Massachusetts ‘Reviewing’ Kei Car Ban After Uproar Over Canceled Registrations

States around the country are banning kei cars, and the newest battleground is Massachusetts. The organization suspected to be pushing the bans, however, doesn’t seem to know who it was messing with, because the state’s JDM car owners have organized to get the ban repealed. They’ve won an important reprieve, though it’s just one battle in a wider war over what’s allowable on American roads—and an encroaching private interest in DMVs around the nation.

Massachusetts JDM car owners have recently been through the same frustrating experience as owners in states like Rhode Island, Georgia, and Maine. Suzuki Carry owner Matt Isgro recounted to me how owners have been turned away by the state’s Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) in recent months, having been told their cars aren’t legal to register. As seen under previous bans, owners are told their cars don’t meet the NHTSA’s Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS), even though their cars are exempt after 25 years—the same exception that makes them legal to import in the first place.

Owners whose cars are already registered have also been warned that their tags will be revoked, and that they can’t be renewed. The RMV is reportedly refusing to even title the cars, according to The Autopian, leaving owners with problems reselling their vehicles, too. These changes are reflected on the RMV’s website, where the state acknowledges the exemption to the same regulations it uses to justify its crackdown. While states do in fact have the legal authority to decide what vehicles can be registered, the RMV wouldn’t have gotten as big of a backlash if it actually figured out what a kei car is first.

The RMV’s understanding of a kei car is outlined in a July 3 training document (below) that has since leaked via insurers, who also received the document. It gives the impression in three different ways that nobody at the RMV bothered to research kei cars before deeming them illegal.

First, the partial list includes the Toyota LiteAce van and related TownAce pickup—neither of which are kei-class vehicles. Second, the guidelines for identifying vehicles not on the example list can also apply to domestically made, FMVSS-abiding cars. Specifically, it calls out vehicles older than 25 years with VINs shorter than 17 characters, which would naturally include pre-1981 domestic cars. Lastly, we have reason to believe the RMV didn’t write the list itself, as an identical list was previously published by the Pennsylvania DMV to support its own ban.

This suggests that either the RMV uncritically copy-pasted an erroneous briefing on kei cars, or both states’ motor vehicle departments received the list from a misinformed third party (more on that in a minute). It also explains why, despite intending to target “mini trucks” and vans based on them, a Mitsubishi Delica owner reported being denied registration. Whether it was supposed to or not, the kei car ban has snowballed into a broader ban on all JDM vehicles.

Naturally, this has impacted a much larger group of people than New England kei car owners. Massachusetts JDM car owners have banded together to ring the ears off of legislators in both the state House and Senate—and lawmakers have been all ears, according to Suzuki Cara owner Raymond Moy. He told me the representatives and senators he’s spoken to are all communicative, and that some are arranging meetings about the matter. But the RMV has allegedly been less cooperative, with Suzuki Carry owner Mason Mongeon telling me a state senate aide said official inquiries “were being stonewalled.”

Members of the public were given a similar treatment when they tried to voice complaints about the RMV in a MassDOT board meeting on July 17. Mongeon says members of the public were told they could leave voice messages that’d be played for up to two minutes to go on the public record. But the board allegedly played just one of dozens it received, writing off the rest as identical, and reading no emails submitted for meeting minutes. One member of the public who showed up to speak had the microphone cut off on them, though some fellow owners say they spoke for well over their allotted two minutes.

The RMV declined to speak with me when contacted. However, evidence has emerged that links Massachusetts’ sudden purge to the organization that originally influenced the kei ban in Rhode Island: the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.

The AAMVA is a lobbying group that rose to notoriety in JDM owner circles when one of its internal documents was cited as a reason for banning kei trucks in Rhode Island. The document, since relocated on (or deleted from) the AAMVA website (mirrored above) advocated for ceasing registration of “mini-trucks,” which is how the organization referred to kei trucks at the time. It updated this verbiage to “off-road vehicles” to argue for their ineligibility in June 2021, immediately preceding the Rhode Island ban. That instance effectively set the precedent for the policy enacted this year in Massachusetts, where owners have observed a prominent connection between the RMV and AAMVA.

Colleen Ogilvie, secretary and treasurer for the AAMVA’s northeast region, is also the Registrar for the Massachusetts RMV. According to the Law Office of Patrick J. Murphy, the Registrar “can revoke your […] vehicle registration […] if they subjectively determine that your operation of a vehicle poses an immediate threat to public safety.” In other words, the Registrar can rescind vehicle registrations arbitrarily, which may explain how the agenda of a private interest came to be state policy.

The AAMVA has yet to be formally linked to bans in some states, though there is circumstantial evidence of association with multiple other states’ bans. That June 2021 document that laid the groundwork for the Rhode Island campaign was authored in majority by people from states that have also banned kei or JDM vehicles at large, or placed some level of restrictions against them. Cathie Curtis and Nikki Bachelder both hold central leadership positions in the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles, while Brent Bennett serves as the Director of Motor Vehicles at the Georgia Department of Revenue.

Kevin Kihn, who was then acting director of vehicle services at Colorado’s DMV, also represents a state that has complicated registration of kei vehicles (though not outright banned them). Autoblog writer Murilee Martin told me he had to get special dispensation for his Subaru Sambar to even take an emissions test, and walk confused DMV staff through the car’s legality. Additionally, it’s possible the common shortlist used by Pennsylvania and Massachusetts may have been supplied by the AAMVA, though we have found no evidence directly linking the organization to the document.

The AAMVA’s campaign has been so aggressive that kei owners have speculated the push to be funded by manufacturers of golf carts and UTVs, which compete for a slice of the market kei vehicles now contest. The AAMVA, however, publicly lists its industry partners on its website, which do not (at least directly) include any manufacturers of motor vehicles. The correlation between states that ban kei cars, but allow golf carts and UTVs to be issued plates, is also insubstantial. All ban states but Massachusetts allow golf carts, and all but Michigan prohibit UTVs. If there were money at stake, this probably wouldn’t be a 50-50 split.

Though the AAMVA didn’t return our inquiry when we initially reported on Rhode Island’s ban in 2021, it got back to us this time around. It explained its policy toward “off-road vehicles” (which it considers kei trucks to be) as being rooted in their noncompliance with the FMVSS.

“The challenge with any vehicle that does meet FMVSS or is manufactured as an off-road vehicle is what safety features or components may be missing, what structural designs may be insufficient to protect vehicle occupants, or what vehicle operating designs may be lacking or inadequate,” a spokesperson told me.

The organization acknowledges the FMVSS’s 25-year exemption, but said that it applies only to vehicle importation, and not its registration. The decision over that, as the AAMVA observes, lies with the state. Hence, it encourages to DMV officials around the country to “use available statutory authority, or encourage adoption of such authority, to prohibit the use, and registration for on-road use” of kei vehicles.

“The underlining purpose of AAMVA’s guidance and best practice is to promote AAMVA’s Vision of Safe Drivers, Safe Vehicles, Securing Identities, and Saving Lives,” the spokesperson said. They have not yet responded to our followup questions.

Through it all though, there is a silver lining, a reason to take heart. There have been sporadic reports of owners successfully registering their JDM cars in Massachusetts since the ban took effect, as well as successful online renewals. These mostly seem to be with vehicles not on the Penn-Mass ban shortlist, as it seems RMV clerks aren’t as militant about JDM cars as its leadership can be. Or perhaps they’re just more cautious with enforcing what they may recognize as an ill-defined policy.

It also seems that the RMV is backpedaling, as Isgro told me officials were reviewing the JDM ban as of July 15. He says he heard from a legislative aid that “the Registrar and her staff are actively reviewing the current policy.” The outcome of this was made clear on July 19: The RMV has paused revocation of JDM car registrations while it reevaluates its policy surrounding them.

“The RMV is currently reviewing its policies for registration of Kei trucks,” its website now states. “All existing unexpired registrations for Kei trucks and vans will remain active as the RMV works to review and assess industry standards related to Kei mini trucks and develop an updated policy addressing the registration of these vehicles.”

The situation is far from resolved. Massachusetts’ legislative session ends soon, so there’s not much time for the General Court (its state Congress) to pass legal protections before its next session in January. There’s also no telling which direction the RMV takes in the months until then.

But kei owners aren’t waiting around for a savior. They’re helping each other across state lines, with Massachusetts kei owners getting input from Texans who successfully defeated their state’s ban. Other owners are writing technical white papers or filming informational videos to educate authorities on the fact that kei cars—Japan’s smallest class of highway-legal vehicles—are a-okay on the roadway. Every success, no matter how small, is sharpening JDM owners’ battle plans against potential future bans.

Still, there remains an alarming pattern of state motor vehicle authorities favoring the ends of a private interest with its own agenda over federal vehicle policy. No matter how well-intentioned the AAMVA may be, that kind of influence is unacceptable.

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