So my wife’s mommy got an old kei car, it’s Nissan Otti, It’s old and felt old but the has only 10,000km mileage.
1. I never went to Hakone before, is it gonna be too steep for an old kei like this? Will the car be fine constantly going up hill?
2. Also how driving a kei on highway like? Is there anything I need to to worry about besides keeping left?
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I have a Kei car, not too old (2012) and a different make so this experience might differ from yours but:
-going uphill takes a bit more pressing on the gas for my Kei to go up—nothing too serious and he does make it but it takes a bit.
-my Kei takes a few seconds to accelerate, but does fine going from 40 to 80kmph merging into the highway. I do have to step pretty firmly though
(Also, not my Kei but my friend’s Mira started to smell a bit after two hours of driving on the highway so we had to pull over to a service station to let it cool down)
According to Google the Otti was produced from 2005 to 2013. It is old, but not that old. As long as it has been maintained properly, there shouldn’t be any issue with either Hakone or the highway. However, you may struggle if you have 3 passengers along with you.
On the climbs, if you see a faster car approaching in your mirror, just make sure to yield and let them pass.
You might want to turn the AC off when you are going uphill.
Used to have a kei car and have done hakone both in and out of it.
All the advice is great. It’ll be slow uphill, but it’ll make it to the top. If you have an opportunity to let drivers pass you and you know you’re going alow up a hill, please do so. Pull to the left (watch those gutters!), put on left blinker or hazards, and wave out the window if they don’t get it.
It’s steep, but a kei car will make it.
Ultimately I got rid of mine because I love driving so much I wanted something that didn’t struggle on hills as much. But despite the struggle, and the engine winding up real loud and high pitched as it tried, it never let me down.
I drove a 1964 Honda S600 from Chiba to Sendai and back on the freeway. You’re fine.
I think it also depends greatly on how much weight you have in it.
Having a full tank of gas makes a noticeable difference, and so does the weight of the passengers.
I have had both my parents both in the back of my (2012?) Suzuki Alto and it struggled to go up steep hills. (both large by Japanese standards.)
I mean, it could do it, but it was a struggle. Need to turn off the Air con and drop down a gear (its an automatic but has a lower gear function.)
Same with the highway. Over taking needs a bit of a run up some time, so you need to be aware of approaching cars.
Its not great on the highway, but an hour or three is not too much problem.
Due to the lightness of the car, strong wind and passing trucks can buffet you quite a bit. It also gets a bit ‘twitchy’ over 100kph.. not terrible, but you need to focus.
Oh, and don’t crash! There is little to no structural integrity, you are going to have a bad time if you do..
Dont Forget to bring an empty bottle… no toilets on the road until you reach the top, and the bottlenecks can be terrible.
One more thing: the brakes on a Kei are generally very shitty. Compare the size of the brake rotors on a Kei vs. a Smart, for example.
Be careful not to overheat them on the return trip down the mountain.
I’ve been to Hakone inside a kei-car as the passenger, not the driver. The car was old-ish, not super new. But it was able to climb up and down the roads with the AC on. The major issue with the Hakone roads is that they curve and bend dramatically, some curves were sharp enough to require completely stopping to make them. If you are going to be travelling at night, beware of local folk walking on the roads close to their homes. On a side note, the dusk view at Lake Ashinoko is very pretty, definitely recommend it.