Living Car Free - Check this out - Toyota hard up in Japan

In today's Globe and Mail, they ran a story regarding Japaneese attitudes towards cars

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080326.IBJAPAN26/TPStory/?query=toyota

I found it interesting that the physical environment, costs, and inconvenience of car ownership has finally led to young people losing interest - to the point that Toyota has to resort to gimmicks to get people to even look at cars.

If only north americans knew how to count...

I had a friend who lives in Osaka. In her early 40's she still has to live with her parents. They have one small used car for the whole family. And her father owns his own company. Cars are expensive, trains and bicycles are cheap.

"A car used to symbolize a dream. People used to work hard to buy a car. These days, nobody is saying that. No one thinks a car is cool any more."

That was a great article. I would love to see that auto sales slip in North America to that extent, but somehow I never see it happening. Malls here already have the whole car thing going on for them though. Not sure if any malls are owned by car companies, but one of the big mall owners is Cadillac.

Living in North America, it is difficult to comprehend the cost of living and the limited living space in Japan. When I am in Japan and my friends in Japan say that they will pick me up by automobile for an outing or shopping, I just groan. It always means being cramped in a car for hours and high tension searches for parking.

With the enormous cost of automobile ownership in Japan, licenses, parking, fuel, and maintanance coupled with the world's finest public transportation system, the automobile represents a very foolish and extraordinarily expensive vanity for most Japanese people.

It is no surprise that automobile ownership is losing its luster in Japan. It is not so much a phenomenon as it is common sense.

I recall reading that car registration in Japan is designed such that costs go up with age. After a certain point, it becomes cheaper to sell a few year-old car and buy new. [Supposedly there is a large gray market of used cars going out of Japan into the Pacific rim as a result.] Automobile ownership is much different over there than it is here.

I recall reading that car registration in Japan is designed such that costs go up with age. After a certain point, it becomes cheaper to sell a few year-old car and buy new. [Supposedly there is a large gray market of used cars going out of Japan into the Pacific rim as a result.] Automobile ownership is much different over there than it is here.

You are correct, sir!

I recall reading that car registration in Japan is designed such that costs go up with age. After a certain point, it becomes cheaper to sell a few year-old car and buy new. [Supposedly there is a large gray market of used cars going out of Japan into the Pacific rim as a result.] Automobile ownership is much different over there than it is here.

I believe it also has to do with the very stringent pollution standards. I know back in the late 80's early 90's we were buying gently used engines that were coming straight from Japan, we were installing them in our high mileage Honda's and Toyotas. Best fun I have had with my UPS man....when he delivered an engine for my Honda Civic 1200:D

Aaron:)

Auto sales are starting to slip in the US also, including toyota sales. Unfortunately, I think Toyota will look to selling more cars in developing markets, especially eastern and southern Asia. It's a plague that never stops spreading.

Greatest quote of the year. And this is by an auto analyst with Mizuho Investors Securities. While this is about the Japanease market, I think that this is a growing sentiment here in the US as well. The American Dream coalition better adjust their vision of the American Dream.


"Domestic sales are a total disaster now," he said. "A car used to symbolize a dream. People used to work hard to buy a car. These days, nobody is saying that. No one thinks a car is cool any more."