Fiat To Bring Low-Speed 'All-Electric Quadricycle' To The U.S. After Trump's 'Tiny Car' Statements

 

Last week, Trump announced he wants "tiny cars" to be sold and built here in America. Well, Stellantis wasted no time on this. CNBC is reporting the company is going to sell its Fiat Topolino "all-electric quadricycle" to the U.S. market. Ironically, a Stellantis spokesperson said the announcement was unrelated to the President's desire for small cars. Now that's some Italian irony.

Trump's "Tiny Cars" Has Huge Hurdles. People Say "Let The Market Decide." But It Already Did.

President Donald Trump's recent post on Truth Social.

President Trump's recent announcement about "tiny cars" being built in America has brought out some interesting online discussions, including in some groups I admin. I keep hearing "let the market decide." But people seem to forget that the market already decided not very long ago. 

Trump Wants A Return to Small Cars In the U.S., But Does Anyone Else?

 

On December 3, President Trump announced fuel economy rollbacks for the U.S. At some point, perhaps going off script, he started talking about the small cars he'd seen on his trip to Japan and other parts of Asia. He stated, "We’re not allowed to make them in this country, and I think you’re gonna do very well with those cars, so we’re gonna approve those cars." He then went on to say he authorized Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to allow them. In fact, I wrote an article about this topic for GearJunkie on Dec. 4, 2025; I'll let you read that on your own. 

What I want to focus on here is this: Would Americans even buy kei cars?

We Bought a Suzuki Jimny Wide!

 

Our 1998 Suzuki Jimny Wide

We have wanted a third-generation Suzuki Jimny for years. In 2023, they would become legal to import into the USA, and I was counting down the years. I literally told myself that when we could import one, we would. That year came and went, but two years later, we finally pulled the trigger and bought ourselves a Suzuki Jimny, specifically a 1998 Suzuki Jimny Wide.

One Step Closer: Oregon Lawmakers Introduce Pro Kei Car Legislation

 

News broke yesterday that Oregon Senator Anthony Broadman has introduced a bill to legalize kei vehicles for road use in the Beaver State. We first saw the news at KTVZ 21 out of Bend, Oregon. However, since then, Central Oregon Daily News has also run the story on Broadman's bill. 

Oregon JDM Advocates: Legalizing Kei Trucks In The Beaver State

 

The majority of U.S. states allow kei cars, trucks, SUVs, and vans to be legally registered for road use, even if there are speed restrictions. However, my state, Oregon, is one of a handful of places that don't allow them. A new group, JDM Oregon Advocates, is looking to change that.

A Hen's Tooth For Sale: 2018 Toyota Yaris SE (With a Manual Transmission)

2018 Toyota Yaris SE. Photo via Lexus of Seattle 

I've found a hen's tooth. A rarity. This is a 2018 Toyota Yaris SE (located at Lexus of Seattle). It was the only Yaris model to come with this front and rear facia. That's right, it only appeared for one year, as the Yaris hatchback was discontinued for 2019, only to reappear as a rebadged Mazda2 for 2020, and then genuinely made extinct. To make this Yaris rarer, it's got the factory two-tone black-and-blue paint scheme. To make it a genuine hen's tooth? It's a five-speed manual. And just in case that wasn't enough, it's located in the Pacific Northwest—an area that didn't get allocations of these with manual transmissions. It's like finding a rare animal that happened to migrate out of its natural habitat. (Now re-read this in a David Attenborough voice.)

These Two Small, Cheap Cars Are Selling Like Hotcakes, Despite Impending Discontinuation

The Mitsubishi Mirage and Nissan Versa are the last two mainstream, affordable subcompact cars—heck, last inexpensive cars of any kind—left on the North American market. And guess what? They're recently selling pretty darn well. How well and for how long? 

We Drove a 2015 Chevrolet Spark Halfway Across The Country

I've long had a soft spot for the Chevrolet Spark. When I reviewed the 2013 Spark 2LT  over 11 years ago I said, "... it’s an impressive inexpensive car with lots of personality. In fact, I’m quite smitten with the Spark." A couple years later, my mother-in-law purchased a 2015 Spark LS, aka Sparky. Things have changed since then and she no longer needs it. So, we recently drove it back from Wisconsin to our home in Oregon, some 2,170 miles, and will sell it. So what's it like to drive an A-segment car halfway across the U.S.?

Mitsubishi, Kia Kill Their Smallest Cars; U.S. Subcompact Market All But Dead. Here's Why.

On August 15, 2023, Automotive News (paywalled site) reported Mitsubishi may be discontinuing its thrifty Mirage model after MY2024. This really isn't that much of a surprise since automakers have been abandoning the subcompact market for years now in North America. (Mitsubishi Japan already killed off the Mirage, FYI.) Then today, I heard word via Carscoops Kia is going to stop selling its Rio in the U.S. This leaves just the MINI brand and its small cars and the Nissan Versa as the sole subcompact car offerings in the U.S. I'm not surprised.