mmarshall

Notice how high and narrow these vehicles are. That's (probably) why you don't see them offered in the U.S....they would have problems with our safety/rollover standards. In the JDM, the standards (and liability laws) are substantially different than in the U.S.

A good example of this was in the U.S. some 20 years ago, with the Suzuki Samurai. The Samurai, especially when driven by young, inexperienced, aggressive drivers (a large percentage of its buyer-base), was a flip-over just waiting to happen....and led to class-action suits and a Not-Acceptable rating from Consumer Reports. The vehicle was very narrow and short in relation to its height, which, naturally, made it unstable. Suzuki, though meeting U.S. emission-standards, essentially imported the JDM version, with its narrower wheel-track. Daihatsu, in contrast, when it brought over the competing Rocky, was smart.....they knew that the American liability-laws would work against them with the narrower JDM version, so they bulged-out the fenders and widened both the front and rear-wheel-tracks for the imported, American-market vehicles, which made them more stable. As a result, American-market Rockys did not have the tipsy-problem that the Samurais did.

Raralith

Wow... looking at those cars, I don't know what to say. I'm curious now of how sell sedans sell there.