Disclosure: this guide contains referral links, marked where they appear. All prices are independently measured from public data on the dates shown.
US search interest in the Honda Acty van is up 174% year over year in my keyword tracking — and the vans themselves are doing the opposite of keeping up. On August 18, 2026 I measured Japan’s entire public market for Honda’s eligible kei boxes and found a two-tier structure nobody writes about: ordinary Acty work vans have nearly vanished from retail (5 listings nationwide, median ¥270,000), while the passenger-spec siblings — the Street and the Vamos — survive in numbers at collector-leaning prices (¥815,000 and ¥850,000 medians). Which tier you shop determines everything about price, supply and strategy, so this guide covers both.
I research Japan’s used vehicle market from Sapporo. The truck side of this platform has its own guide; the van class as a whole is mapped in the kei van buyer’s guide.
The 60-Second Verdict
For a cheap, honest box: a 1999–2001 Acty Van (HH5/HH6), bought at auction. The three late-build examples in public retail median ¥190,000 — the lowest figure in my entire kei dataset — but with supply this thin, the dealer auctions are effectively the only real market. Use public retail to learn the price, then do the actual buying at auction.
For seats, glass and daily manners: a Street or an early Vamos. Honda’s passenger boxes are plentiful by comparison (18 and 14 eligible listings) and priced accordingly — ¥815,000 and ¥850,000 medians. You are paying van-life money for van-life spec, and the possible 2.5% passenger-duty classification claws a little of it back.
Know the family tree before you search, because the names trip everyone: Acty Van (work box), Street (its passenger twin through 1998), Vamos (the passenger successor from 1999). US listings use all three loosely.
The Family Tree — Acty Van, Street, Vamos
| Name | What it is | Eligible years | Codes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acty Van | The work box: mid-engine like the truck, panel or glazed cargo body | Gen 2 to 1999, gen 3 from 1999 (builds through mid-2001 now eligible) | HH3/HH4, then HH5/HH6 |
| Street | The passenger version of the same van, sold through 1998 | All eligible | HH3/HH4 family |
| Vamos | The Street’s successor: passenger kei van from 1999 | 1999 – mid-2001 builds, rolling | HM1 (2WD) / HM2 (4WD) |
All of them share the Acty’s defining layout — the engine mounted amidships under the floor, driving the rear wheels — which gives the same flat load area and balanced handling the truck guide covers, in an enclosed body. Power is Honda’s E07 three-cylinder family. The Acty Van and Street were never offered with a factory turbo; the Vamos is the family’s exception, with a modest turbo presence (3 of the 14 eligible listings in my count). If boost is the whole point, the Every and the all-turbo Atrai Wagon pool remain the stronger hunting grounds.
What They Cost in Japan Right Now — Measured, Not Guessed
Complete public dealer inventory of 25-year-eligible examples on Carsensor, Japan’s largest vehicle marketplace, measured August 18, 2026. Yen at ¥159/USD:
| Badge | Listings | Median asking price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acty Van (work box) | 5 | ¥270,000 (≈$1,698) | 1999–2001 builds: n=3 at ¥190,000; pre-99: n=2 at ¥665,000 |
| Street (passenger, to 1998) | 18 | ¥815,000 (≈$5,126) | Range ¥180,000–1,580,000 — clean examples are collector stock |
| Vamos (passenger, 1999–2001) | 14 | ¥850,000 (≈$5,346) | Range ¥150,000–1,200,000; 3 turbos and 3 4WDs in the pool |
Notes: dealer retail “total payment” prices; auction prices typically run lower. Samples this small shift week to week; treat medians as orientation. A transparency note: an earlier count in our van guide mixed specially-registered camper conversions into the Acty Van figure (overstating its median at roughly ¥1.82M) — the numbers above come from re-measuring each exact vehicle category, and the correction is documented there.
Read the two tiers together and the market’s message is clear. Japan’s work fleet used up its Acty Vans, leaving a handful of cheap late-builds at retail, while the passenger versions were garaged, loved and priced like the modern-classic Hondas they have become. The Street and Vamos medians sitting within ¥35,000 of each other is no coincidence: they are the same idea a generation apart, valued by the same crowd.
The ¥190,000 Question — Cheapest Box in the Dataset, With an Asterisk
Three late-build Acty Vans at a ¥190,000 median is the lowest number I have measured on any eligible kei vehicle — under the Hijet Cargo’s ¥280,000, under everything. Landed math on that specific ¥190,000 tier says such a van reaches the US for roughly $4,100–6,500 all-in (the FAQ below prices the full retail range). The asterisk is supply: n=3 is not a market, it is a rounding error, and it is why the honest advice for this model is different from every other guide on this site. For Everys or Carries, public retail is a fine reference market. For the Acty Van, the dealer auctions are the market — thousands of vehicles cross the block weekly, work vans among them, and an agent with auction access will surface more Acty Vans in a fortnight than Japan’s public listings show in a season. Price them against the ¥190,000–270,000 retail anchor and the auction sheet, not against US dealer stock.
Street and Vamos: the Passenger Play
If the box needs to carry people — or serve as a camper base with factory glass, seats and trim — Honda’s passenger tier is the deepest and most polished in the kei van world. What ¥815,000–850,000 buys relative to the alternatives: more supply than any other Honda box (32 listings across the two badges), the Acty’s mid-engine manners, and interiors built for passengers rather than parcels. Against the competition, the Street/Vamos tier prices above the Atrai Wagon (¥370,000, all turbos) and below the collector end of the Sambar Dias market — Honda badge cachet is real and priced in. Passenger configuration also opens the HTS 8703 question at customs: a 2.5% duty instead of 25% would trim roughly $1,200 from a Vamos-priced import, which is exactly the kind of line item that decides between trims (mechanics in the cost guide; your broker rules).
Known Issues and the Pre-Import Checklist
- Everything in the Acty truck’s file applies — E07-family timing belt on schedule, the mid-engine layout’s service-access quirks, and rust at the usual seams. The truck guide’s checklist transfers wholesale.
- Sliding-door rails and rollers, the universal kei-van wear item — worn rollers read as heavy, misaligned doors, noted in the auction sheet’s free text.
- On Streets and Vamoses, originality drives value. These price like modern classics, so unmolested interiors and factory paint carry the premium; a tired example should be priced like the work van it has become.
- Verify build month on any 2001 vehicle — gen-3 Acty Vans and Vamoses straddle the eligibility line; the caution plate rules, per the 25-year rule guide.
How to Import One
Same sequence as every kei import — verify eligibility, buy at auction, clear customs with the van-vs-passenger classification settled in advance — with the emphasis shifted harder than usual toward auction access, for the supply reasons above. The import guide walks the process end to end.
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FAQ
What is the difference between the Acty Van and the Honda Street?
Same van, different mission: the Acty Van is the commercial box, the Street is its passenger-trimmed twin (sold through 1998, succeeded by the Vamos). Mechanically they share the mid-engine Acty platform; in today’s market they inhabit different price universes — ¥270,000 versus ¥815,000 medians.
Is there a turbo Acty Van?
Not on the Acty Van or Street — those stayed naturally aspirated. The Vamos is the family’s exception (3 of my 14 measured listings are factory turbos). For deeper turbo supply, the Every (F6A turbo, importable today) and the Atrai Wagon (an all-turbo pool at ¥370,000) deliver it more readily.
Why are there so few Acty Vans for sale in Japan?
They were bought as tools and consumed as tools. Work vans that survived 25 years of deliveries mostly moved through dealer auctions to exporters years ago; the public listings that remain are the tail of the tail. The passenger Street/Vamos versions, garaged and driven gently, survived in far greater numbers.
How much does an imported Acty Van cost all-in?
A late-build work van at the ¥190,000–270,000 retail anchor plus roughly $2,900–5,300 in freight, duty and fees lands around $4,100–7,000. A Street or Vamos pencils out at $8,000–10,600 — less if the passenger classification clears at 2.5%. Line items in the cost guide.
Acty Van or Acty Truck?
Truck for open-bed utility and a far deeper market (83 eligible trucks vs 5 vans); van for weatherproof cargo and camper bones. Same engine, same layout, same maintenance file — the Acty guide covers the shared mechanicals and the truck-side prices.
Are these street legal in the US?
Federally importable at 25 years by build month; registration is state law — 8 states register kei vehicles like ordinary cars, 13 refuse, the rest sit between. The 50-state guide maps it.