The American vehicle market has seen a lot of big trends lately, from gigantic pickups to speedy electric cars, but it has also seen one surprisingly small trend: the kei truck.

Thousands of these used Japanese pickups and vans are brought into the U.S. each year and purchased by eager fans, creating an unlikely fad. Unlikely because kei trucks are small – shorter and much lighter than a Mini Cooper – and have engines weaker than the smallest Harley Davidson, with a top speed of 70 mph on a good day. Most have a manual transmission with few cabin amenities; furthermore, the steering wheel and shift stick are on the wrong side, since Japan drives on the right.

Finally, their size and configuration means they’re not even street-legal in many states, including Vermont and Maine. Massachusetts has decided they’re OK on the roads after some waffling and New Hampshire has never stopped them.

Despite all those limits, owners say they’re a good way to get things done on the cheap, costing less than $10,000 yet giving access to an open bed that is almost as big as some full-size pickups and, with their fold-down sides, sometimes bigger. This utility combined with an attention-grabbing cuteness means people clamor for more.

“We like it so much we ordered another one,” said Greg Berger, owner of Spring Ledge Farm in New London. They bought one last year for their cut-flower operation and want a dump-body version to haul produce.

“It’s been a good farm vehicle for us, since it’s got four-wheel drive. We do at times take it out on the local roads. I wouldn’t go on I-89,” said Berger. “It’s small – if you’re a tall person it’s tight, for sure … but that’s more of a benefit on the farm. Being able to maneuver it into tighter spaces is great and it doesn’t take up a lot of room.”

Spring Hill Farms bought their truck from a new company, Granite State Importers in Hopkinton.

“We have a wide variety of customers. Some are looking to commute, quite a few from long distances away that drive them quite regularly … And there are farmers, landscapers as well, who are doing their job and they find the trucks, the smaller size, much more convenient. And much less expensive, of course,” said Stan Nelson, who owns Granite State Imports with fellow Colby-Sawyer College graduate Dylan Beckerman.

The two men, holders of business degrees, started the company last summer after informal sales to friends and family just kept growing. “It got so much that we had to get a dealer’s license so we could sell more than 5 cars a year,” said Beckerman.

Kei trucks are a class of mini-vehicle in Japan that has long been popular throughout east Asia because they can maneuver through crowded city streets yet are robust, capable of going off-road. Most Japanese car companies make one or more versions, including dump trucks and passenger vans.

Used kei truck models are relatively common because of the tax structure in Japan, which makes it financially reasonable to get rid of vehicles after just a few years. This means there’s a lot of turnover of vehicles, which have relatively low mileage.

“We have imported and sold about 25 of them” since starting the company, Beckerman said. “We’ve sold 5 already this year and it’s just been 16 days.”

The duo gets its kei trucks through a port in Newark, N.J., and brings them up to New Hampshire. They also sell other vehicles not normally exported to the U.S., a group known as JDM, or Japan Domestic Market.

They say it costs around up to $1,700 to get the vehicles here, with a 25% “chicken tax” tariff on imported light trucks. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for profit on vehicles that retail for around $7,500 but they say they can make it work.

Granite State Importers is not the first or only kei truck importer in the state. Northeast Auto Imports in Hudson also serves the JDM market. Yet there’s still plenty of room to get the word out.

“The majority of people we talk to have no idea of what (kei trucks) can do. Our main job is increasing our brand image at this point,” said Nelson.

David Brooks can be reached at dbrooks@cmonitor.com