The highest 4$ price of gas is fueling interest in an unusual substitute to the standard farm pickup, the Japanese Mini Truck.

At least, there is budding interest around Green Forest, an Ozarks town where dwellers confirm that Japanese Mini Trucks from manufacturers such as Daihatsu Hijet, Suzuki Carry and similar models are an ever more common scene.

Bud Phillips, a poultry farmer  believes that he was the first one in Green Forest  to buy a Japanese Micro Trucks in January from a recreational-vehicle dealer in Harrison. Now, there are possibly about eight or nine of them.

Phillips said he and the other Japanese Mini Truck holders he knows bought their trucks for work on the farm. With gas hanging around $ 4 a gallon, some owners and prospective owners eyeing fuel-efficiency rates advertised as high as 55 mpg are exciteed to take the little Japanese Mini trucks on the road, said Green Forest Police Chief John Bailey. John Bailey He said has received some objections from doubtful motorists passing the snub-nosed trucks on the roads and has started investigating how they may officially be used. He assumed it seems they can be driven between farms, like a tractor. However the State Office of Motor Vehicles declares that these feul saving Japanese Mini trucks cannot officially be approved in Arkansas. Among the agency’s explanations: regulatory fears that these Japanese vehicles don’t meet up federal safety standards; the makers don’t issue the certificates of origin that are necessary for title and registration; and the engines are not qualified by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Bryan King, R-Berryville, State Rep and the owner of a poultry and cattle farm in Green Forest and owns a Japanese Mini Truck as well. He has retired his dad’s the’75 pickup (taking seven miles to the gallon) bought when Gerald Ford was president.

Jim Newberry, a Green Forest seller who sells the Suzuki brand, said the Japanese Motor Vehicles range from $ 4, 500 to $ 6, 500, depending on the model and preferences such as air conditioning and radios. These Mini truck from Japan are imported either new or used. At 10 / 2 feet long and only 4 / 2 feet wide, the Japanese Mini trucks are shorter and narrower than a normal pickup. Top speed is about 55 mph, Newberry said. He also tells that most of these models two seated, but there are extended-cab versions. He is new in this business and has sold four of them with fuel mileage “up in the 40 s and possibly into the 50 s. according to him many customers are interested in licensed Japanese Mini Trucks. He has seen saw one in Mississippi with a license plate on it.

Chuck Nelms, director of the Mississippi Motor Vehicle Commission has no informations if his his agency is licensing the Japanese Mini Trucks.

The state of Louisiana soon will allow the Japanese Mini Trucks with engines of at least 660 cubic centimeters permissible on streets and highways, except interstates. Gov. Bobby Jindal authorized it by signing Senate Bill 771 into law on July 7. That law comes with a couple of warnings: Vehicles have to meet up federal and state safety and emissions standards, and the law is canceleded if it causes the federal government to yank highway dollars from Louisiana. The law takes effect on Aug. 15.

Nic Hundley, the owner of Second Hand Trucks, a dealer in Branch, La has ordered Japanese Mini Trucks after getting new hopes from this law.

In Green Forest, Newberry anticipates he would vend more, too, if the Arkansas rules change to authorize these Japanese Mini Trucks on the road and this law would increase the number of Japanese Mini Truck owners on the road.