When looking at buying a used car it can be hard to know if you are getting a good deal and that your money is going to be invested wisely. One thing that is for sure though is getting a high-quality Japanese used car for unbelievably good prices. But it does beg the question, how can they afford to sell their cars so cheap?
Believe it or not, Japan has the third largest economy in the world. This allows Japanese manufacturers to sell their cars much cheaper through the local market, whilst also creating an extremely competitive market for new cars. Japan has a huge culture of refreshing their cars for the latest model on a very frequent basis, and the competitive market makes it affordable to do so. As a result, of course they are churning out a massive number of used cars with low mileage and generally in good shape, and they tend to export these vehicles to other countries through some reputable car shipping companies. Once the cars are shipped out of the country they can then be sold at a more than reasonable price.
So why don’t they just scrap their used cars? Well, it is actually quite expensive to scrap anything in Japan. There are many costs that come with scrapping a car in Japan, firstlypaying someone to come and collect the car and from that point they will be charged for things completely out of their hands, therefore it is more economical to sell their almost brand-new cars for up to 50% less than the original price in order to avoid spending any more money on the car unnecessarily.
While we are on the topic of unnecessary costs, another reason you are able to pick up exported top quality Japanese cars such as Honda or Nissan, for such a bargain, is because of the rules japan have in place for keeping a car for over 3 years. When you have owned a new car for 3 years in japan, you are then required to put the car through many costly tests to make sure it is still usable on the roads, and if the car passes these tests, it is an ongoing requirement to get the car retested every 2 years. I’m sure you’re beginning to understand why it is more hassle than its worth.
Once the cars reach the country they have been exported to, they are sold at one of the cheapest rates for used cars. This cheap rate also comes from the difficulty to replace and maintain parts on Japanese cars. It can be much harder to obtain replacement parts for Japanese cars, therefore there is almost no alternate but to sell them at a lower price. And not forgetting they are a right-hand drive which isn’t always the most popular choice!
So if you are looking at buying a used Japanese car, you can generally be safe in the knowledge that they will be good quality and it isn’t a scam.
