Japanese Nostalgic Car

We all have our favorite marques, but how committed are we really? Back in the day, if you grew up a Chevy man, you’d stay a Chevy man for life. I knew a guy whose dad bought a new Chrysler every other year well into the late 80s. I remember him trading in a perfectly good (relatively speaking for an 80s Pentastar product, of course) New Yorker for a slightly newer, zero-mileage facelifted example. Sometimes the allegiance was multi-generational.

Brand loyalty isn’t really a thing anymore, but let’s pretend you had to pledge your devotion to just one marque for your entire life, and for every stage of it. What would you pick for your school-age set of wheels, family hauler, and midlife crisis-mobile? And we’re limiting it to marque, not company, so no cross-pollination between Nissan and Infiniti, for example, and Datsun is grouped with Nissan because that was a name change.

If you could only drive cars from one marque for your entire life, what marque would they be?

The most entertaining comment by next week will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What selfless car-related thing do you do for others?“. Continue reading →

For years Japan’s Prime Minister has rolled in style in a traditional Toyota Century sedan. However, when it came to choose her new ride Sanae Takaichi opted for a new Century SUV. Videos of her motorcade, which features the SUV flanked by a fleet of Lexus LS and Crown sedans, have begun showing up online. Continue reading →

One of Japan’s most famous researchers on the human brain has declared that driving a car with a manual transmission can help keep your brain health up. Apparently the extra thought required to coordinate between your four limbs while you drive can help prevent dementia. The best part is, it doesn’t need to be a fancy sports car. Even a stickshift kei van will do. Continue reading →

Today, June 29, is Real-Time Used Car Auction Day in Japan. It commemorates the anniversary of the first time dealers across the country could bid on a car live. The inaugural auction took place long before the world wide web was available for public use, on June 29, 1985 and was conducted via Laserdisc. Prior to the 29th, the auction company mailed out Laserdiscs to participating dealers. On auction day, dealers inserted the Laserdisc into a specialized terminal connected to a telephone line. As a specific cars came up for bidding, the central system would send a data command via the phone line telling the dealer’s Laserdisc player exactly which frame to pull up on the screen. It was a crude system, and at the time bidding without seeing the car in person was a novel idea. Four decades later, it’s the norm.

What’s your best story about buying or selling a car via auction?

The most entertaining comment by next week will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “How has The Fast and the Furious impacted your local car scene?“. Continue reading →