How Fast Can The Honda S660 Go & Is The Kei Car Legal To Drive In The USA?

Americans love Japanese cars, that's an indisputable fact. Toyota, Honda, and Nissan all ranked among the five best-selling auto brands in the U.S. last year, with total sales of more than five million vehicles. According to Marklines, the same three manufacturers are the three top labels in their home market, in both the regular-sized and kei car markets. Kei cars, in particular, are a class of mini-car meant for city driving and restricted to a maximum engine size of 660 cubic centimeters. 

Those engines can't produce more than 63 horsepower, and the bodies of the cars must be less than 11 feet, 2 inches long, and 4 feet, 10 inches wide. The Honda S660 made our list of small cars that look like a blast, but what's the top speed of this cute little kei car? Can you drive one in the United States? The S660 is a successor to the Honda Beat, which had a three-cylinder engine with three individual throttle bodies. The S660's top speed of 87 miles per hour is four more than the Beat's, but neither model meets American emissions or safety standards.

[Featured image by User3204 via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 4.0]

Kei car fans in the U.S. need only to be patient for a while if they want to bring an S660 stateside. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) allows you to import a car that is at least 25 years old, "without regard to whether it complies" with domestic safety or emissions laws. The Beat hit Japanese roads in 1991, meaning it's been eligible for import since 2016.

As for the S660, it began production in 2015, so you'll have to wait until at least 2040 to bring one to the U.S. The turbocharged engine can be mated to a six-speed manual gearbox or a paddle-shifted constant variable transmission (CVT), but that's clearly the less desirable option for those looking for a more spirited driving experience.

Ken Saito of Jalopnik drove the stick-shift version a few years ago in its home market, and found the S660 to be a delight. "It's quite possibly the most fun you can have at 40 km/h, or about 25 mph," he wrote. That's high praise for a car that can barely go twice that fast and has limited space for passengers, cargo, or even an American-sized beverage.