Having decided to purchase a keitora the next obvious consideration was which one. On the face of it there’s a whole host of options of differing ages, marques and configurations to choose from but ultimately I have neither the budget nor the space for a whole fleet… how depressing.

Picking this one “goldilocks” kei truck was certainly tough, though some decisions were really out of my hands from the off. My pockets aren’t nearly deep enough for the truly vintage models and despite adoring the singing 2-strokes of the early 360cc engines I’d imagine they’re not particularly well-suited to life on fast A-roads, never mind dual carriageways. And besides, would you really feel happy throwing an old fridge-freezer or 200kgs of bricks into the back of one of those?! No, I don’t think so either…

With the focus shifted to more modern keitora the next major decision was whether to go 2WD or 4WD and, if the latter, what kind of setup to choose – yep, it gets that complicated! Aesthetically there was also the choice between the different marques and between more traditional cab designs or their modern counterparts. And that’s before we get to trim levels, and…

I spent a lot of time working on my personal “goldilocks” keitora – and it’s not simple, as you’ll see in future posts – but eventually I had my rather demanding set of specs finalised and got in touch with The Car Warehouse who were really helpful and not at all phased by my kei truck obsession! Out of the 100+ matching makes and models available only one ticked all the boxes but after a nerve-wracking few days the confirmation came through that my needle had been plucked from the haystack.

So here it is, photographed in a Yokohama lot – a 1993 Suzuki Carry DD51T 4WD (5MT+EL) DIFFLOCK that I should soon be able to call my own.