The Daihatsu Hijet Jumbo Is the Extended Cab Kei Truck Worth Hunting For
The Hijet Jumbo trades a few inches of bed for a taller cab, reclining seats, and real storage behind the seats. It might be the most livable kei truck Daihatsu builds, and the cheapest new pickup on the planet.
Most kei trucks punish anyone over six feet tall. The seat does not recline, your knees touch the dash, and a two hour drive feels like a flight in coach. The Daihatsu Hijet Jumbo fixes that with a stretched cab, a taller roof, and seats that actually lean back. Jonny Smith called it the cheapest new pickup you can buy when he drove a 4x4 example for The Late Brake Show, and he is not wrong. This is the version of the Daihatsu Hijet that solves the one complaint everyone has about kei trucks.
The catch is that the Jumbo gives up bed length to get that cabin. Whether that trade makes sense depends entirely on what you haul and how far you drive it. So let me break down what the Jumbo actually changes, what it costs, and how an American gets one in the driveway.
What Makes the Jumbo Different
The "Jumbo" badge is not a trim level. It is a different body. Daihatsu first used the high roof extended cab layout back in 1983, and the idea has barely changed since: take the standard Hijet cab, raise the roofline for headroom, and push the rear bulkhead back to create a pocket of space behind the seats. That pocket is the whole point.
In a normal kei truck the seatback is bolted vertical against the bulkhead because there is nowhere for it to go. The Jumbo carves out enough room for the backrests to recline and for a small parcel shelf behind them, plus an extra quarter window on each side that makes the cab feel far less claustrophobic. It is the difference between a truck you tolerate and a truck you would actually take on a road trip. If you have never sat in a standard kei cab, our what is a kei truck primer covers why the regular layout is so tight in the first place. For the long view on how Daihatsu landed here, the kei truck history on Wikipedia traces the class back to the postwar tax rules that created it.
The Specs That Actually Matter
Under the cab sits the same 660cc KF three cylinder that powers the rest of the current S500 generation Hijet, making roughly 46 PS, or about 45 horsepower. Nobody buys one for the engine. They buy it for the part numbers below.
| Spec | Hijet Jumbo (S500 series) |
|---|---|
| Engine | 658cc KF three cylinder |
| Power | ~46 PS (45 hp) |
| Payload | 350 kg (about 770 lb) |
| Drivetrain | Rear drive or 4WD (S510) |
| Transmission | 5 speed manual or CVT |
| Bed | Shorter than standard Hijet |
| Cab | High roof, reclining seats, rear storage |
The drivetrain is where the Jumbo earns its keep off pavement. Higher spec models run Daihatsu's Auto 4WD system on the CVT, which decides on its own when to send power to the front axle instead of making you stab a transfer case lever. Purists will still want the 5 speed manual with the locking 4WD, and that is the combination worth chasing if you plan to use it on a farm or a trail. The Drive has covered why these tiny 4x4 systems punch so far above their weight in mud and snow.
The Cheapest New Pickup on Earth
Here is the line that makes American truck buyers wince. A new Hijet, Jumbo cab included, starts under $7,000 in Japan. That is not a typo and it is not a stripped fleet special. For 2026 Daihatsu even rolled the Smart Assist driver aid package up to 13 preventive safety systems across the Hijet line, with the near identical Toyota Pixis Truck getting the same updates, according to reporting from Carscoops. Adaptive cruise and lane assist in a sub $7,000 pickup is a sentence that does not exist in the American market.
Compare that to the cheapest new pickup sold in the States, which clears $30,000 before you add a single option. The Jumbo does most of what a homeowner or a small acreage owner needs for a quarter of the money, and it sips fuel doing it. The only thing it cannot do is legally roll off a US dealer lot as a new road car, which is where things get complicated. The same value math applies to the Suzuki Carry and the Subaru Sambar, the Jumbo's main rivals in the segment.
How Americans Actually Get One
There are two paths, and they are not the same. The clean federal path is the 25 year rule: any vehicle built 25 or more years ago can be imported without meeting modern FMVSS standards, which as of 2026 means anything from 2001 or earlier. Plenty of older Jumbo cabs from the late 1990s now qualify, and the NHTSA import rules spell out exactly how the exemption works. If you are starting from scratch, our import guide covers brokers, shipping, and titling so you do not get burned.
The second path is buying a newer Jumbo through a US dealer that brings them in for off road, farm, and utility use rather than highway registration. These show up brand new with the 4x4 and 5 speed, but whether you can plate one for the street depends entirely on your state, and the rules are a moving target right now. Check the state legality guide before you wire money anywhere, and browse the dealer directory to find an importer near you. Hagerty has tracked how quickly the registration landscape keeps shifting from state to state.
Is the Jumbo Worth It?
If you haul long lumber or full sheets of plywood every week, the standard Hijet's longer bed wins and the Jumbo's shorter deck will annoy you. For everyone else, the extra cab space is the better truck. The reclining seats alone make it the one kei pickup you can drive across a county without your spine filing a complaint, and you still get the 350 kg bed, the 4x4, and the under $7,000 sticker that makes the whole class addictive.
Before you buy anything imported, run through our pre-purchase checklist and read what owners say on r/keitruck about Jumbo cabs specifically. The extended cab Hijet is not the fastest or the biggest kei truck. It is the one you will still want to drive after the novelty wears off.
