The Japanese domestic market is just full of endless surprises. The other day, I saw a Mazda I’d never heard of before (the Verisa). Afterwards, while crawling down the Wikipedia rabbit hole, I came across this: the kei-class Suzuki Twin. You may think this is just another kei car but there are two very unique things about this. Firstly, look at it. It’s stupidly adorable (or adorably stupid). Secondly, it was the first Japanese kei-class hybrid.
Teehee, just look at this thing. It makes Noddy’s car look like a svelte sports car. It makes the Nissan Figaro looks conventional. It looks like an oversized child’s toy. The Twin was aimed at female buyers, which I understand. Even a man confident in his masculinity would probably give serious pause before driving one of these.
One company even did aftermarket smiling mouth bumpers for these. The big headlights are clearly the eyes of the Twin’s “face”, which may be pareidolia but makes more sense than that stupid Cars movie with the eyes on the windshield. Of course, what doesn’t make sense is buying a bumper with a big smiling mouth in it…
The Twin, appropriately, came with two different engine options: a naturally-aspirated 0.6 three-cylinder with 44 hp, or the hybrid which added a 7-hp electric motor. The hybrid also added an extra 220 pounds of weight to the featherweight Twin, which hit the scales at just 1300 pounds. The Twin was available with a five-speed manual transmission, unlike the Smart, but you could also select a four-speed automatic if you wanted to be completely miserable driving such a happy little car.
Compared to the Smart ForTwo, the Twin was 9 inches longer but 1.5 inches narrower. Like the Smart, it had two seats, however the passenger seat could be folded completely flat. Unlike the Smart, the Twin’s engine was at the front and power was delivered to the front wheels.
Suzuki planned to take the Twin to Europe, to battle the Smart on its own turf, but plans were scuppered. Even in Europe’s big cities, it’s hard to imagine the Twin doing well purely because of how it looks. You couldn’t park it in front of the store, or kids would be asking their parents for coins to put into it…
Tell me: are you sad Suzuki didn’t export this happy little car?
Related Reading:
Curbside Classic: 1986 Suzuki Carry KC 4WD – The Kei-sons Go Rolling Along
Junkyard Classic: Subaru 360 – It All Started With This Little Wart
Vintage Article: 1971 Japanese Minicars – Road Test Gives An Overview Of Kei Cars
The offspring of an original Renault Twingo and a Smart car? Yes, a shame they didn’t export it. Cuter than the original Ford Ka.
Well, with one half of the population being female, why wouldn’t you want to market to women? And the smiley face bumper is genius, especially in pink. You see the fake eyelashes added to all sorts of cars around here, especially new Beetles and Minis, so why not make a tiny car look even more cartoonishly fun? Honestly, it is the perfect counterpoint to overly “butched up” looking SUVs and pickups, driven by folks who seem to be dead set on proving masculinity. If we had rules that allowed such a car here in the states, I would be all for it. Does it meet the requirements of a large market? Hell no, but neither does a Ferrari, yet those seem okay to import. Niche cars add to the overall fun in the automotive landscape. This, a truly tiny car, and a hybrid to boot, would be sure to get lots of attention at a cars and coffee, not to mention as one drives around town.
I’d love to see a few of these putting around our town. Not sure I ‘d have a use for one, but they make me happy just to look at them.
In 3 “visits” to Japan (thank you, U. S. Navy), I NEVER saw a guy behind the wheel of a kei car.
It may be my faulty memory, but I seem to remember that the smart was available with a 5 speed manual transmission (or I could be thinking about the Toyota IQ) and a turbo-diesel engine.
Suzuki is so good at small cars that at one point VW tried to buy a controlling interest in the company so they could tap into their expertise. In the end, Mr. Suzuki decided he didn’t want to sell control of his company to a competitor if he didn’t have to. (This was about the time frame when Suzuki launched the Kizashi.)
I like small cars, but I would prefer any generation of the Twingo to this car.
Considering kei class cars are by far the best selling cars in Japan, I suspect your memory is faulty, or selective. I saw lots of Japanese men driving kei vans when I was there.
And no, the Smart never had a 5 speed manual.
I’d take the original Ka over anything we’ve seen here so far, for looks.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ford_SportKa_Heck.JPG
That said, the Figaro is appealing as well, to me, in a quite different way.
Needless to say, I don’t think these would have been that popular in the U.S. had they ever been sold here 🙂
I suppose they could have sold a few in the UK without much effort, given that it’s RHD and they have a reasonable dealer network.
Like most small Japanese cars here, I’m sure they would have been bought almost exclusively by the elderly, despite the “funkiness”. They’d have had to offer it in the preferred shade of washed out metallic green.
Love the line about putting coins in it.
If this, somehow, could have been brought up to federal safety regs and made it into the US, I’m guessing its fate would have been identical to the old Subaru 360, a dangerously slow and flimsy deathtrap, famously brought into the states in the sixties by that venerable huckster, Malcolm Bricklin.
So if a Neon coupe had a baby… 🙂
I don’t think the geometric wheels quite work, but mostly I like it.
Neon is an exception to the Western rule of “no cute.” Such “kawaii” is a Japanese thing, not restricted to girlie stuff like Hello Kitty, and it seems to export well to other E. Asian countries. While Germany & Japan have some things in common, this is definitely not one of them.
Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawaii
but you could also select a four-speed automatic if you wanted to be completely miserable driving such a happy little car.
If you’ve ever been to Tokyo, you’d know why so many kei cars do have automatics. But you could be miserable stuck in traffic in such a happy car with a stick shift.
A four speed automatic effectively has as many gears as a 5 speed manual.
Good point. In Tokyo, the manual would be much worse to drive. I used to grumble about driving a stick in Brisbane traffic, and we’ve got nothin’ on Tokyo…
Traffic jams are in the “sweet spot” for hybrid efficiency.
Exception: freeway at Coachella Valley, outside temp > 100°F, with a sub walking speed backup several miles long, and the motor does little but run A/C periodically even if you can otherwise use EV mode to creep forward. Well, it was no better for conventional cars.
That’s a cute little car. I can’t imagine driving one in the usual urban U.S. traffic mix. An Expedition could run over one without even noticing. Of course it could run over a motorcycle or scooter too. No one that rides a motorcycle expects any collision protection from their vehicle. You couldn’t get one of these to pass minimal collision standards.
Well the Smart meets them. Does Japan have less stringent standards?
Another old wive’s tale being retold…. Yes, an Expedition could run over this small a car. Just like it can an Accord, or Camry, or any other car. People who drive smaller cars and bikes understand this, and we are told to “drive like you are invisible” to compensate for the distracted drivers around us. Instead of blaming those in the large vehicle who run over (or more likely, steer into, or cut off, or otherwise ignore that another vehicle occupies the space they are aiming to get into), it seems the majority choose to blame the person in the smaller vehicle. This is backwards logic at its finest! If you drive a vehicle so large that you cannot observe your surroundings, you are driving something unsafe and need to stop driving. The most important safety feature in any car, truck, or motorcycle is the driver of said vehicle. If you have a defective one, there is no safety.
If my memory is correct, these had abysmal sales figures in Japan. A two seat Kei class car really doesn’t make much sence unless it is a specialty model, like a Copen roadster. When there are such cars like the Wagon R that easily seat 4 and are nearly the same footprint, the Twin really doesn’t make sense. Toyota learned this lesson as well with the iQ; even though it wasn’t a Kei, or a two seater. A super small parking footprint isn’t that big a draw when the majority of cars in your market are already tiny.
I like it a good deal more than the Smart, but then I always thought the Smart was a strange looker.
Isn’t the engineering of the Smart incredible though? Nine inches shorter than this and yet E-class protection levels. They’re roomy too. I’m 6′ with my height all in the legs and fitted fine. I’d drive the Suzi automatic anytime, however, because the Smart’s transmission was nearly the worst single-clutch “automatic” bunny-hopper I’ve ever driven (second only to the appalling device fitted to Citroen C2).
I wonder how many who test drove the already overpriced Smart were put off by the drive, because it was an abject failure in Aus. Suzuki make rather excellent little things, and you can guarantee a better drive than micro-Merc offered, but I suspect there’d have been no market here either. Aussies are fundamentally a pretty conservative lot.
Just rode in a Smart car last week. Shuttle vehicle for the garage I use.
I finally understand the workings of the automated manual and how it sounds.
Quite like how the 3 speed manual in the Valiant operates but without the stick.
Interesting trim material used on the dash. Lots of rattles. Seemed quite accommodating inside.
That Figaro pictured above would be my personal choice, rather than the Suzuki.
Looks like an update of the Little Tikes car, but on a more serious note, some of the styling elements, especially at the front, seem to have been incorporated into a car I know as the Suzuki Celerio (Alto in your market, I believe, William).
You couldn’t park it in front of the store, or kids would be asking their parents for coins to put into it…
lol…dang, that’s cold. Do they still have coin operated kiddie rides in your area? Only place I know of is a local grocery store chain that always has a mechanical pony that offers rides for 1 cent.