Japan is the largest automobile manufacturer in the world. With eight major car makers, Japan created a history by producing 9.916 million vehicles in the year 2008. Japan is also a very attractive market for used cars – especially exporting used Japanese cars to other countries.
The Japanese automobile industry is one of the biggest industries in the world. It supports number of companies that produces cars, trucks, ATVs, motorcycles, engines and spare parts, etc. Japanese domestic auto market is the world’s third biggest after United States and China. Japanese automotive manufacturers such as Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Isuzu, Suzuki, Subaru, Mazda, Kawasaki and Yamaha are popular names throughout the world.
How Japanese domestic car market is unique?
Toyota Motor Corporation accounts for 45 percent of vehicle sales in overall domestic car market, except for 660 cc mini cars. 660 cc mini car segment in Japan is unique and which makes up more than one-third of the auto market and receive tax incentives. Daihatsu Motor Co and Suzuki Motor Corp together make up more than two-thirds of Japanese small car market. Most of the auto models in Japan undergo a full model change every four years to stimulate overall domestic car market.
Japanese Used Cars
Used car market in Japan
It is very expensive affair to own a car in Japan. In Japan, nine different taxes are levied on car buyers and users which makes car more expensive. The taxes increase as the car gets older, so Japanese prefer to sell off older vehicles. These factors make Japanese consumers to go for a new car purchase very often. This also adds to steep depreciation rates on used cars in domestic market. This sharp depreciation makes Japanese used cars inexpensive enough for exporting worldwide.
In Japan, public transport by trains is a real and viable alternative to traveling by road. Japanese world famous Bullet Train (Shinkansen) normally takes care of longer distance traveling requirements. This is why Japanese cars are generally used for short distance commutes. We can say it in other words that Japanese car do less miles per year. Normally, most of the used vehicles are less than 9 year old and have very low mileage.
Japanese cars have almost certainly never been driven hard. Japanese drivers generally keep their cars in perfect condition and well serviced. Japanese cars also have more features compared to those sold in other countries. The used Japanese car prices are among the lowest in the world. All these factors make Japanese used cars very attractive for importing into other countries.
Japan has many public Used Auto Auction Halls, which sell about 20,000-50,000 vehicles every day. Most of these vehicles get exported to other countries in Africa, South America, Asia and Europe.
Technorati Tags: Japan, used Japanese cars, Japanese, Toyota, Honda, Japanese cars