Archive for the ‘Auto Industry News’ Category

Bogus online used car exporters from Japan

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

We would like to warn our customers about bogus online used car dealers who disguise themselves as Japanese used car exporters.  An article published in East Africa news, these fake online car dealers from Japan have been cheating customers by offering vehicles at throwaway prices pretending that they are winding up their firms due to bankruptcy due the economic crisis.  Such schemes operated by bogus online Japanese used car exporters have caused a loss of over $5 million to vehicle importers from East Africa.

Unsuspecting car importers, mainly from Tanzania and other East African countries have lost millions of dollars due to these scams.  These car importers were lured into buying used Japanese cars by the low prices offered by these fake online exporters.  Many of these Web-based used car exporters are phony companies, which disappear once they receive the payment from customers.  Many of these fake companies are actually owned by Tanzanians living in Japan, who sell used motorcycles, cars, and trucks.

Online Car Dealer Scam

The scam operates in the following fashion

  • Customer can not get in touch with the dealer after sending payment.
  • The dealer does not ship the vehicle for a long period of time.
  • Vehicle received by customer is different from the vehicle he ordered and of low quality.

Please follow these safety precautions to avoid being scammed

  • Make sure that the dealer’s address is noted on his website.
  • Do not deal with companies whose phone numbers start from 81-90 or 81-80 (Mobile phone numbers).  Such dealers are hard to trace and can easily disappear.
  • Make sure that the dealer is an authorized member of [JUMVEA (Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association).
  • Some of the bogus companies involved in such scams are ‘Global Trading Co Ltd’, which is alleged to have become bankrupt, and ‘Car Zone Japan’, which is alleged to have cheated 9 customers for  over $90,000 and not delivered any cars. Other fake used car exporters include ‘41 Expo Inc. Ltd,’ ‘Progress Ltd’, and ‘The Trading Club’. We request our customers to take note of such bogus online car dealers from Japan.

We believe in delivering high quality vehicles to our customers and we feel sorry that such unscrupulous car dealers are tarnishing the image of Japan.  Please beware of such bogus car dealers and keep enjoying shopping with us.

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Japanese cars at top in Reliability Survey

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

US based Consumer Reports  – an independent and nonprofit organization – released their annual survey for car reliability recently.  According to this survey, Japanese cars are at top in nine categories among ten categories in the reliability rankings.  This car reliability ranking report by Consumer Reports was based on the feedback from consumers who own or lease 1.4 million vehicles.  The recent car reliability survey also says that 33 car models are Japanese out of the top scoring 48 models. Toyota had 18 models,  Honda 8, Nissan 4,  Subaru 3.

Cars from Toyota Motor Corporation won top positions in six different categories.  Toyota bagged top position for convertibles and sporty coupes with their model Lexus SC, and their FJ Cruiser won the in medium size sport utility vehicles.  Toyota’s TundraV6 came at the top in pickups and Sequoia in large sport utility vehicles.  Toyota Prius hybrid was also at the top in family cars and Venza in wagons and minivans.

Honda Motor Company won top positions in two different categories and Nissan Motor Company did for one category.   Honda won top position in small cars with their model Honda Insight Hybrid and their CR-V won in small sport utilities.  The first ranking in luxury cars went to Nissan Infiniti M35. 

As per the Consumer Reports rankings published by brands,  seven Japanese brands are in the top ten positions.  Toyota Scion raked the first followed by Toyota and Honda.  The forth one is Nissan’s Infiniti, Acura by Honda is fifth, Mitsubishi of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation sixth, Lexus brand by Toyota seventh and  Hyundai Motor Co’s Hyundai brand placed eighth.  Porsche brand was ninth for its Porsche AG and Ford Motor Co’s Mercury brand ranked tenth in top ten brand names.

These reliability rankings once again prove that Japanese cars are not just stylish but are excellent in reliability and performance.  Japanese car makers won seven top positions in 2008 and in 2009, they won top eight positions.  In 2006 and 2007, they had won all 10 categories. This only shows that Japanese car makers are consitently improving their quality and reliability.

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