Shiotsu Autotrade Japan – President’s Blog

In my previous visit to Tokyo, I had the opportunity to visit Toyota Mega Web in Odaiba, – a Look, Ride, Feel Car Theme Park – where I could see all of the new car models that Toyota makes, and also some other attractions like E-com rides and history museum.  Last weekend,  I went to Yokohama near Tokyo, and this time I had the chance to visit the new Tressa Indoor Shopping mall opened by Toyota. You may have heard of car showrooms, auto malls, car museums and theme parks built around automobiles – but this concept of car showroom mall is completely new.  Toyota has opened this new shopping mall with the objective of selling and promoting its cars especially to young Japanese.

Young people in the United States want to have computers in their cars, but the Japanese young people want just computers instead of cars.  As per a recent study undertaken by The Nikkei, most Japanese people in their 20’s did not want a car, even if it were given to them free.  Many young Japanese even did not find the idea of riding a fancy sports car or going for a drive on a date very appealing.  Rising gas prices, parking fees of around to $400 per month for city dwellers, and frequent traffic jams in big cities – all discourage car ownership.   In addition, Japan’s public transportation system including subways and bullet trains are so economical and efficient that a large percentage of city dwellers hardly use a car.  As a result, new car sales in Japan have dropped to 5.3 million vehicles – the lowest in last 27 years.

Japanese car makers like Toyota are finding that selling cars through showrooms and regular TV commercials have virtually no effect on the young people.  So, Toyota has taken this move to open an auto mall in an area which is frequented mostly by young people – to capture the attention of Japanese young buyers, and boost car sales.  Toyota’s new car mall in Yokohama has about 220 specialty stores, arcade game center, gym, nail salon, and restaurants as you would see in any other mall.   However, one major difference is that one can find many Toyota vehicles and dealerships littering in the corridors and walkways.  The shopping carts in this mall are also designed to look like cars.  Toyota is also showing off its high-tech MOBIRO robots, which play musical instruments, apart from showcasing its latest new cars.

A car used to symbolize a dream for the Japanese.  At one time, Japanese people used to work hard to buy a car.  These days, however, nobody is thinking that buying a new car is cool anymore.  With this new venture of opening a car shopping mall, Toyota may be onto a good thing . Usually shopping malls are a haven for young people, and Toyota is hoping to influence young buyers by setting up malls in locations popular with young people.

Technorati Tags: Toyota, Japanese, Japanese car, Yokohama, car shopping mall

According to the U.S. government’s recent projections, Japan based Honda Motors have produced most fuel efficient and less polluting cars for American roads. Others who followed Honda were Hyundai-Kia a South Korea based company which occupied the 2nd position and Japan based Toyota occupied 3rd position.

U.S. based automakers mainly produce SUVs, pickup vehicles and vans which emit more tailpipe emissions and gives poor mileage whereas Overseas automakers like Toyota, Hyundai Kia and Honda produce sedans and compacts which emits less gas and gives good mileage. Japanese car makers Honda and Toyota also lead the U.S. auto market in electric/gasoline hybrid vehicles for selling most fuel efficient vehicles.

All the automobiles being sold in 2009 are estimated to have the average of 21.1 miles per gallon and due to this overall Carbon emissions went down. According to EPA, Honda’s fleet wide fuel efficiency is estimated to be 23.6 mpg. Hyundai-Kia ranking second has fuel efficiency of 23.4 mpg this year, whereas Toyota vehicles are expected to give an average of 23.2 mpg this year. Hyundai-Kia’s Carbon emissions output increased slightly while Toyota’s decreased. The European company which occupied fourth position amongst the nine global automakers been analyzed is Volkswagen AG. Its fleet wide fuel efficiency is estimated to be 22.8 mpg, bit up from last year.

American car companies like General Motors and Ford Motors are also improving their vehicles on fuel efficiency and Carbon emission output to increase their sales; however, their figures are far below the average. General Motors vehicles are set to average of 19.9 mpg while Ford trucks and cars are estimated to be 20.5mpg rating as per the statistics.

Chrysler a company which manufactures SUVs, pickups and vans ranks last for Carbon emission output while its fuel economy is estimated as 18.7 mpg which is again last ranking in both categories. Both the automakers General Motors and Chrysler have restructured after bankruptcy this year.

U.S. automakers are improving their vehicles this year, but as far as mileage and cleaner engines are concerned they still lag behind in comparison with Asian and European automakers.

Technorati Tags: Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, Japanese car, hybrid vehicles, Volkswagen

South Korea has a strong car manufacturing industry which is dominated by car makers such as Hyundai, Ssangyong, Kia and  Renault Samsung.  In spite of domestic competition, Japanese cars by Honda and Toyota are fast becoming popular in Korea. In fact it may be surprising to note that this year some car models like Honda Accord, Honda Civic, and Toyota Camry are sold more in Korea than in Japan.  Honda currently holds fifth position in automobile market share in Korea. This report was released recently by the Japan Automobile Dealers Association  and Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association.

Honda sold 1057 units of Honda Accord (Honda Inspire) in Japan in the first three quarters of this year with an average monthly sales of 117 cars; however, in Korea 1,468 Honda Accords were sold in the same time period with an average sales of 163 units per month.  Honda Accords are in short supply this year, and the demand is met by importing Honda Accords from the United States.   Honda Civic also had a similar story – 595 units of Honda Civic cars were sold in Korea in the first three quarters of this year, whereas only 90 units were sold in Japan domestic market. Sales performance of Honda CR-V, Honda Legend were also about the same in two countries.

Toyota too had a strong sales performance for some of its models in Korea. When Toyota launched Camry in Korea last month, 327 units of Toyota Camry were sold in just 3 weeks of its launch, however, they could sell only 136 units in Japan in the whole month. Lexus is a popular car in Korea, and this year Toyota also had an impressive sales performance with its Lexus LS460 luxury sedan.

So what is the reason for this strong sales performance of some Japanese car models in Korea? And, why they are not selling much in Japan? The reason is that most of these models are large luxury sedans or mid-size cars, which Korean car buyers find appealing. These cars are not so popular among the Japanese car buyers because of changing trends.  Hybrid cars, compacts and light passenger cars are currently dominating the Japanese car market. Japanese are not going for luxury sedans or mid-size cars because of many issues such as expensive parking space and tax incentives for buying hybrids. At present, the best-selling car in Japan is Toyota Prius hybrid electric car, with sales of about 30,000 units per month.

We also regulary export used Japanese cars -  including Honda Accord, Honda Civic and Toyota Camry – to our customers in South Korea.

Technorati Tags: South Korea, Hyundai, Ssangyong, Japanese cars, Honda Accord, Honda Civic, Toyota Camry

These days, Japanese vehicles are well known for their quality, durability, superior performance and efficiency.  Japanese auto makers like Honda, Toyota and Nissan are icons of quality in the auto world.  However, no American would have ever thought of classifying Japanese cars in the classic category.  They would normally associate Duesenberg , Pontiac, Porsche or Jaguar as the classic cars.  However, recently there is a growing interest in American classic car collectors for Japanese cars made in the 60’s and 70’s.  Car events and TV shows dedicated to classic Japanese cars are popping up all over the United States.  One can also find a number of books and magazines about the classic Japanese cars these days.

Five decades ago, no one could have predicted that a small island in the Pacific would rule over the auto market.  Japan is now manufacturing more cars than Germany and America.  Japanese vehicles have dominated the auto industry for the last fifty years.  Japan even outsells American cars in the United States, which is the largest car market in the world.

Toyota was the first Japanese automaker to export cars to the United States in 1958.  Their car model was then designed for narrow roads of Japan, and was found unfit for the high speed freeways in America.  The other factor of their failure was that, “Made in Japan” label was treated as low quality cars in those days.  More Japanese automakers entered the United States in the next decade, but the common thought for Japanese cars then was, these cars are just for going from one place to other, and were considered as ‘low quality’ vehicles.  In the mean time, Japanese car makers were improving their technology to make their cars fuel efficient.  It was only after the fuel shortage in 1973, fuel economy became the top priority.  Americans were forced to buy small Japanese cars with fuel efficient engines.

There is now an entirely new generation of car drivers in America who have grown up driving Japanese cars and not American cars.  It is these drivers who now want to find more about the Japanese cars including the older models which were never sold in America.  They find thrill in discovering old lineup of their current favorite car model.  This movement was growing and in the year 2005, it reached a new peak when the first Japanese classic car show was held in California.  With lots of media attention, the movement is growing fast leading to TV shows, Car shows and Magazines entirely devoted to Japanese classic cars.

Japanese car enthusiasts are now happy that their cars are finally getting the due respect. They are glad because only few classic cars will be sent to the crusher.  If you wish to import any Japanese classic cars, please get in touch with us, and we can help you to find a rare Japanese classic for you.

Technorati Tags: Japanese vehicles, Japanese cars, classic cars, Japanese classic cars