RE: More unobtainium

["Janet Scruggs" <scruggs@mbay.net>]

Agreed.  Actually in Japan there is a very through and very expensive yearly
'safety inspection' required to license your car.  After the car becomes
five years old the inspection must be done _twice_ a year!  Therefore the
value of the five year old car drops to near zero on their market.   This
gives the rest of the world, as pointed out, an excellent source of very
high quality parts and cars.  The 'safety inspection' racket is clearly a
Japanese government device to ensure a constant domestic market for their
automobiles.  There is an exemption from this inspection for US service
members who are then in hog heaven as they drive perfectly good six year old
cars in Japan that cost them virtually nothing.

Interestingly this is the reason why Japanese cars had such a poor
reputation as 'rust buckets' when they were first introduced into the US in
60s.  They rusted out fairly early in their usable life because in the home
market, for which the bodies were designed, they only had to last for five
years.  As the complaints about short body life reached back to Japan they
were at first puzzled then adjusted to the rest-of-the-world market by
adoption of galvanized metal and such.  At eight years and 152kmi my
departed '87 Camry had one tiny rust spot.

As an aside, in Japan there is nowhere the bodywork expertise that exist in
the rest of the world at there is an endless supply of perfect body parts at
the local wrecking yard.  All they have to do is unbolt and replace...
'panel beaters,' and to a degree painters, are not needed.

Regards, Gross


>Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1999 11:07:12 -0800
>From: "Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz@kla-tencor.com>
>Subject: RE: More unobtainium

>> I think the same legislation is in place in Japan, where there's
something
>> like an extremely high price to pay if you want to keep a car older than
>> _three_ years on the road. The result is heaps of basically fine cars
that
>> are scrapped. That's why in RHD countries there's a steady stream of used
>> cars coming in from Japan.
>>
>... and a supply of inexpensive replacement engines for Japanese cars here
>in the USA ...
>
>Steve Buchholz
>San Jose, CA (USA)