Rare, odd-looking 2000 Toyota is just about street-legal in the US
- This weird Toyota is an actual production model, not a concept car
- It is being sold in Canada, but can be registered in the US as well
- There’s just one minor catch
Published on Mar 25, 2025 at 8:16 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Mar 25, 2025 at 9:35 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Kate Bain
This is a 2000 Toyota WiLL Vi, a weird city car that only recently became street-legal in the United States.
This particular model is actually registered in Alberta, Canada, but it can be imported into the United States.
There’s only one minor catch, though.
The steering wheel is on the ‘wrong’ side of the car.
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Toyota only designed this for Japan
The Toyota WiLL Vi is halfway between a city car and a kei car.
It uses a 1.3-liter inline-four – shared with the old Vitz – AKA the Yaris – that produces 87HP, which isn’t too bad considering the car weighs just 940kg.
It was only produced in Japan, which is why it comes with the steering wheel on the right-hand side of the car.
Since it’s a 2000 model year car, it qualifies for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s 25-year import regulations, which makes it easier to get one into the States.
Mind you, when we say ‘easier’, what we mean is ‘slightly less difficult’.
The whole thing is still a nightmare, and it’s just easier to pay for an importer to help handle all the red tape involved with the process.
Still, at least the car is cheap.
It is currently being offered with no reserve, and the high bid is still south of $5,000.
The magical word of JDM
This is a JDM car, which stands for Japanese Domestic Market.
Through the years, Japanese automakers have often kept some of their best vehicles for themselves, making JDM models only.
Although we probably wouldn’t add the Toyota you see here to that particular list.
The list of JDM cars you can/could technically only buy in Japan is quite long, and it includes the mythological Skyline.
We tend to forget that, mostly because we associate the Skyline with the Fast and Furious saga, but this was always a JDM-only model.
Fortunately for the rest of the world, the Skyline successor, the GT-R, was available more or less globally.
Unfortunately, the GT-R is now no longer in production.
So it’s back to the importing board if you want one.
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