Autoblog

Click the image above for a hi-res gallery of the Nissan Otti and Moco

Kei cars. To know them is to love them, or to tower over them in Gulliver-like wonder. Both the iridescent colored Moco and Otti feature the 0.66-liter engines common to the Kei class, meaning each also boasts 54 thundering mares beneath their ridiculously tiny hoods. Once up to speed, they run nicely, and they're pretty quiet. But these are not cars to take when you're late for anything.

They have lots of room inside and enough controls to operate them on public roads. They are both fine cars. The Otti adds to that with a chic little IP featuring good looking materials and colors, a power rear sliding door on the passenger side that you can open from the driver's seat, a seriously neat set of cupholders, and the world's smallest tailpipe.

Regarding the Moco, a rebadged Suzuki MR Wagon, Nissan says "the current generation model features a stylish exterior and interior." The Otti is Nissan's version of the Mitsubishi eK Wagon. It's described as a minicar "for daily living," and "has experienced extremely strong sales in the Japanese market." Yes. What they said.

You can check out the Nissan 360 event site for more details on all the vehicles in Nissan's lineup. In the mean time, be sure to check out the gallery of hi-res photos below.



Our travel and lodging for this media event was provided by the manufacturer.

Last week's announcement that Toyota wants to raise its stake in Subaru's parent company Fuji Heavy Industries looked to have no down side. Subaru gets $300 million with which to build a new factory, Toyota gets greater access to FHI's high tech batteries for hybrids, and both get to build the affordable RWD/AWD coupe that we're all waiting for.

But the bean counters in Toyota City have noticed that Subaru's kei car division spends a fortune on developing quirky micro cars such as the supercharged Vivio that Colin McRae campaigned in his first rally (above), the worlds smallest four-seat convertible (below) and the fabulous R2D2. The trouble is, profit margins on such marvels of engineering are wafer thin, and that is not the Toyota way. So, come the next decade, Subaru will only sell OEM kei cars made by another member of the Toyota family, Daihatsu.

Most analysts think this this is a good idea, but this one ain't so sure. Eighteen years ago I bought a rear-engined rear-wheel-drive Subaru Sambar. It was such a hoot to drive that I traded up to a Rex, then an RX-R, then a WRX and I now drive a Forester STI. In all likelyhood, my next car will be an Impreza STI.

Will rebadged Daihatsus garner such brand loyalty from young buyers in 2010?

Click image for a high-res gallery of the turbocharged Mitsubishi i

I'm the resident kei car obsessive here at Autoblog. That means I'm the guy who actually thinks, "That is awesome," when he reads the (Google translated) announcement of yet another Suzuki Wagon R variant. Hell, I did two posts on the one-off Hello Kitty Mitsubishi i. Keis are cool. So, you can imagine how happy I was to see that Mitsubishi brought along a small fleet of its i minicars to the New York Auto Show this year.

Mitsubishi's focus at the show was squarely on the the all-electric i MiEV, which goes on sale in Japan next year and will be tested in North America this fall. The gasoline-powered version was on hand, too, though. I drove the i MiEV for AutoblogGreen, and was a passenger in a black i Turbo. Head over to AutoblogGreen for driving impressions of the i MiEV, and note that many of the observations there apply to both the electric and gasoline-powered cars.

The i Turbo you see here is powered by a 660cc 3-cylinder that delivers around 64 horsepower. It's got around half the torque of the electric i MiEV and it's buzzier-sounding (obviously), but it felt just as well-suited to city driving in New York as its battery-powered counterpart. It can comfortably transport four adults and a bit of cargo, too. Try doing that in a smart.

Mitsubishi is monitoring public reaction to the cars this week, so if you go to the show and like what you see, make sure to let them know. Me? I'll happily take one in black -- with a DAMD kit for optimum not-exactly-badassedness.

Head to AutoblogGreen for a full i MiEV review and video.



All photos Copyright © 2008 Alex Núñez / Weblogs, Inc.

Click image for photo gallery

When you boil away everything else, the core elements of the new "Bloom Edition" Mitsubishi kei cars are their Sakura Pink paint; light-colored, water-resistant seat fabrics; and makeup mirrors. Yes, there are other colors available, and we're sure some of the Japanese shoppers (women, specifically) who Mitsu is targeting might also appreciate the cars' UV glass with water-repellent coating (think "factory Rain-X" here). But the real package centers on the Hello Kitty-look that the pink brings.

The Bloom Edition package is available on the "i" (above) and eK Wagon kei cars. It's not uncommon to see keis marketed in pastels with an eye toward female buyers anyway, but these Bloom Editions are about as direct as you can get. Who knew vanity mirrors could actually be promoted as a selling point?

[Source: Mitsubishi]

The 2007 Tokyo Motor Show ended last week, but today we're cleaning out our closet of yet-to-be published posts from this biggest of biannual Japanese auto shows.
click above image to view just how much legroom this truly mini vans have

Pity poor Suzuki. Japan's vast market for mini vehicles has been dominated by the company since the creation of kei cars in the '50s, but ever since the turn of the millennium, Toyota subsidiary Daihatsu has been taking some serious chunks out of Suzuki's market share. The final straw came at the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show when Daihatsu premiered the Tanto -- a kei with minivan-style sliding rear doors and simply astounding amounts of leg room and interior space. Suzuki had to react, so at this year's Tokyo Motor Show it unveiled the Palette (shown above), a car strikingly similar to the Tanto in profile, but with a smidge more legroom.

So balance has been restored to the kei car market then? Nope. Daihatsu has upped the ante by removing the B-pillar from the Tanto (shown at right), creating a mammoth hole through which struggling toddlers can be passed. The ball is back in your court Suzuki.