This $12,950 Daihatsu Hijet Is A Crew-Cab Pickup That Somehow Works

Somewhere in the design process, someone at Daihatsu made a choice that defied all conventional truck logic: build a vehicle that’s genuinely useful as both a people hauler and a pickup, squeeze it into kei-car regulations, and ship it out without a single shed of shame. The result is the 1998 Daihatsu Hijet DeckVan—a 130-inch-long mini truck currently listed for sale in the US that shouldn’t work but absolutely does.

This isn’t your typical Japanese import oddity. This is something weirder: a vehicle that genuinely refuses to pick a lane and somehow makes sense anyway.

The Anatomy of Controlled Chaos

Walk up to the front of this Hijet and you’d swear you’re looking at a standard van. Four full-size seats, windows behind the front doors, the kind of beige-on-beige visual appeal that screams “commercial fleet vehicle.” Then you walk around back and reality breaks.

The body just stops. Where the cargo bay should continue, there’s instead a pickup truck bed—except “bed” is generous. We’re talking 34 inches of load capacity, maybe less. That’s the length of a baseball bat, or a particularly ambitious garden rake. The 2010s equivalent Hijet registered the same minuscule dimensions, so this ’98 is probably packing similar cargo real estate. Could you haul lumber? Technically. Should you? That’s between you and whatever you’re transporting.

But here’s the thing: most kei trucks are two-seaters, period. This DeckVan sacrifices some bed length to give you an actual second row with what looks like genuinely useful legroom. The rear bench folds, which means you can extend your tiny cargo zone even further if you’re creative. Daihatsu somehow engineered the worst of both worlds and made it the best of both worlds simultaneously.

44 Horses of Pure Determination

Under those front seats lives a 660cc three-cylinder engine—the maximum displacement allowed under kei regulations. Power output was around 44 horsepower when new, routed through a five-speed manual transmission to all four wheels. For context, that’s roughly equivalent to what some lawn mowers produce. This truck doesn’t accelerate; it promises.

And yet, AWD was standard. Because apparently Daihatsu’s engineers looked at 44 hp and thought, “Yeah, we better make sure all four wheels can spin at once.” The logic is baffling, but the result is a truck that can actually find traction in conditions where a two-wheel-drive alternative would politely decline to participate.

This particular example shows around 69,000 miles on the odometer and was reportedly well-maintained. The paint looks solid, rust appears absent, and the interior supposedly dodged major wear—though there’s visible wear on the aftermarket seat covers, which is exactly what you’d expect from a work truck nearing its 30th birthday.

The Price of Impracticality

At $12,950, this Hijet DeckVan occupies a weird pricing sweet spot. It’s not the cheapest kei import floating around the US market, and it definitely doesn’t offer the most cargo bed per dollar compared to full-size used trucks. A Tacoma, F-150, or even a Ranger will give you exponentially more hauling capacity for similar money.

But that’s missing the point entirely. This vehicle isn’t competing with conventional trucks because it’s not a conventional truck. It’s a Venn diagram that somehow found the overlap between “four-seat people mover” and “miniature pickup,” and it’s willing to do both badly enough to work.

Why This Thing Actually Matters

There’s a broader context here worth understanding. The Japanese kei-car market exists because strict government regulations on engine size and vehicle dimensions created tax and insurance benefits that made tiny vehicles economically viable for commercial and personal use. Inside Japan, this Hijet DeckVan would be utterly pragmatic—perfect for a tradesperson who needed to haul tools plus pick up clients or family members.

Imported to the US market, it becomes something else entirely: a conversation piece with genuine utility bolted to the side. It’ll squeeze through tight alleys, park in spaces that would humiliate a normal truck, and somehow carry both people and cargo in a single trip. The compromises are real and deep, but they’re also kind of beautiful in their absurdity.

The real question isn’t whether this Hijet DeckVan makes rational sense. It doesn’t. The real question is whether you can afford to be the person in town driving a vehicle so refreshingly weird that it forces everyone else to rethink what a truck is supposed to be. At $12,950, that’s a bargain.

Sources: Carscoops