'Lo Bob >Hi Keith, > I'm shaken by your Japanese "Shaken". Shaken because here in New >Zealand, where we buy all those second-hand Japanese cars, we are required >to have a roadworthy test every six months.
:-( Wasn't it once as year in South Africa? Whatever, it wasn't very onerous. >Within a very short time it adds up to the price of the import. It's a conspiracy. Toyota's got it rigged so you buy a second-hand car when they want you to too. In Japan they make it easy to buy a new car when you don't really need one, you get a good deal, especially on the trade-in, especially if your existing car's a recent model they can export to New Zealand or wherever at a good price. All best Keith >Regards, >Bob. > >-----Original Message----- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of >Keith Addison >Sent: Sunday, 29 March 2009 5:35 p.m. >To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org >Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Artisanal Cars > >Hi Zeke > >>On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 10:08 AM, Keith Addison >><[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: >> >>> >Keith Addison wrote: >>> >>> Old cars aren't necessarily scrapped here. It's expensive to scrap a >>> car. Our two are 19 and 20 years old, both those models are still >>> quite common (especially the TownAce, it's a classic). There are much >>> older cars too. I saw an old 60s English MGB sports car, an open >>> convertible, beautifully restored, driven by a Japanese guy wearing >>> tweeds and a very English moustache. There's a cult that worships >>> massive 60s US V8s, they often go on outings together, an >>> extraordinary sight, all in perfect condition or even better. But >>> indeed old cars are a small minority, though that might have more to >>> do with consumer perceptions than with safety regs and shakens. Far >>> too many cars in Japan, no need for most of them - public transport >>> is very good. >>> >> >>That's interesting to hear -- because over in the US, we hear that Japanese >>cars rarely make it beyond 30,000 miles because of some sort of regulation. >>There are importers that specialize in low mileage JDM engines and half >cuts >>(the whole front of the car or truck) to replace engines over here, or put >>diesel's into ones that only came in gasoline over here. Wonder what >>they're referring to...... > >Mythology, I think. The Japanese also believe it, they think it's too >expensive to keep old cars in Japan, but it can't be true. For one >thing, as I said we have two old cars on the road, and we're not >exactly rich, almost all Japanese are richer than we are (they're >richer than most people are). The myth that they're unaffordable >deterred us at first, but when we checked it out we didn't find >anything to stop us. > >Midori and I were discussing it the other day. I don't think there's >anything tied to a particular mileage like 30,000 miles, it's the >time that counts, if anything does. > >When a car is more than two years old it has to get a "shaken", a >roadworthy certificate that comes with a test, and it's not cheap. >This is allegedly the major reason people buy new cars, but it >doesn't seem to make sense. Anyway it's cheaper than it was, and much >less restrictive too, there are more options now, and different ways >to go about it (even DIY). It has to be renewed every two years after >that, and each time it costs. > >For us, there might be cheaper ways of doing it, there are certainly >much more expensive ways. For the TownAce it costs us about half what >it would cost to buy another old TownAce. So it could be worthwhile >getting another one every four years or so. We're quite rough on cars >and stuff, the TownAce is getting a bit battered these days, so we're >considering replacing it. (Ours is about the only battered looking >TownAce I've seen, usually they look new, though they're at least 17 >years old.) > >Then we'd face the expensive business of scrapping our existing >TownAce, as we wouldn't be able to sell it, but that also turns out >to be not very expensive after all. > >Now, if the shaken is the main reason people keep buying new cars, >you'd expect the average age of cars on the roads here to be less >than two years or close to it, and I'm sure the car companies would >like that very much, but it's not that bad, hard to estimate but I'd >say it's maybe 4-6 years, not exactly that good either. > >So it's not the shaken that's the deterrent. > >There's also a tax to be paid on any car over 10 years old, but that >also isn't a major expense, certainly not prohibitive. There are a >few other things, but they don't amount to anything too burdensome. > >Anyway, Japanese are in the happy position of simply not being >deterred by such things: if they want a new car they buy one, it >doesn't hurt a lot, and if they wanted to keep their old cars they'd >do that too. Maybe they can afford to believe whatever they want to >as well, I wouldn't know, but the national faith is that old cars are >too expensive to own, and it's just not true. > >Then why exactly do they buy new cars all the time? Seems I found the >reason: "Because Toyota wants them to?" > >"Yes," said Midori. > >Two pleas from the defence. One is that the worldwide export of >second-hand cars from Japan, including late-models, as well as >engines, means that at least that much isn't simply wasted, though I >don't know how many second-hand cars it accounts for and how many it >doesn't. The other is Japan's swarms of K-vehicles - K-cars, K-vans >and K-trucks - which make a pretty small footprint whichever way you >look at them. (But the only old K-truck in this village is our >Daihatsu Hijet.) > >It's a dumb thing to do, buying a new car, IMHO. Apart from >everything else, I don't think a two-year-old car is any less >reliable than a brand-new one. Buy it new, drive it 10 metres out of >the showroom, and you just lost about a third of the value. For what? > >>I'm working on a 1974 Ford Courier (made in Japan by Koyo Togyo, known as >>Mazda in most places), electric vehicle conversion. >>http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dn5ptfs_4gnnwwwhn > >Nice. Good on you. Nice old Landie too. > >All best > >Keith > > >>Z _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
