Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Cars around the world

These are two pictures I took of German cars in
Japan. These are three of four of Germany's most popular cars and the more expensive of the four. From what I have learned, Japanese people much like Americans want to show their wealth, and having a nice foreign car shows that you have money and like to have toys. These models of cars are not like the usual Japanese style car. These are the sedan models and the coupe would be a little more Japan sized. Many Japanese cars are smaller because of the driving conditions in Japan (narrow roads, small parking spaces, etc...) and large cars are inconvenient. I have seen six Hummers here. Having a Hummer in Japan is (in my opinion) one of the worst autos to have here. I think besides it being too big for here it is rude to other people for making it hard for them to maneuver around your monster of an auto.
In America people buy a lot of Japanese cars. People are buying Japanese cars more because of the price and they are reliable. With the price there are a few points about Japanese cars that are reasons why they are becoming more and more popular with Americans.
First is Japanese cars are built to last. With regular upkeep Japanese cars will run forever. This is going to save on taking your car in to the shop often to fix things. Most Japanese autos are also champions on gas. Even the large trucks get better gas mileage than American trucks. This together with being more reliable is knocking American trucks and cars down in sales.
Another reason people in America want to have Japanese cars specifically is that they are fast and you can race them. People have done racing in America for ever and now they are turning to Japanese cars for ease of replacement parts also. One problem with this is that some of the racing style cars are also very easy to steal. So when someone breaks something they may know where to get a replacement part off someone else's car. That is not a good thing but it is true. Japanese cars handle very nicley also. That is important if you are racing your ride (car).
Japanese cars are everywhere now and there are many foreign cars in Japan. The world is just becoming smaller and things from other countries are a lot easier to get for whatever reason you may have to get them.

2 comments:

visual gonthros said...

American cars are popular in Japan and Japanese cars are popular in America - this is a great example of globalization.

My father back in the 1970s was the first in our neighborhood to buy a Honda Civic. At that time all Americans associated Honda with motorcycles. I was always asked how my father, mother and I could fit on a motorcycle... But that was then and now is now...

I think In would would like to see more focus on japan rather than so much comparison text with the American situation. You are in Japan now. Concentrate on what you are seeing and learning about here and now.

shizzle said...

I think it is hard for me to only write about Japan because America has been such a huge part of my life. I will try to keep the focus more on Japan though.