http://japantrends.com/back-to-the-future-the-bamboo-washi-electric-car/ Made from lacquered iron, bamboo and washi paper, this Japanese electric car combines modern eco technology with ancient traditions.
Duration : 0:1:56
When they really ain’t. They are still a foriegn car company trying to take American jobs. And yet I still see a bunch of people driving Japanese cars.
The car commericals don’t even show asians driving em. What gives?
sorry to break it to ya. They will never be american becaues they didn’t start out here.
I looked at your profile. You’ve asked a BUNCH of questions about how "fake" Asian Americans are "trying to be".
I think you have a serious identity crisis.
You might wanna try and get it resolved because SUICIDE is the leading cause of death in Asian American girls ages 17 – 25.
As for your question – you hint of racism and self depreciation in almost everything you type.
Japanese car companies don’t make their ads. Their branches in individual countries make their ads and they are designed based around the culture of the country they are made for.
Why are you so hateful?
I guess it helps if you’ve owned a Japanese car before but yeah… I just love the styling and performance of Audis and BMW cars but always hear /read about reliability issues. Is this really true?
I had both and I like the German cars better. Simple is elegant, on the Japanese side is more of more gadgets is luxury. I am not the type of person that gets lost easy and needs a Nav system to go to the grocery store. One thing that I noticed is no too many people knows how to deal with Euro Imports so is hard to find a good tech.
Looking back about the 70s and 80s during the fuel crisis. The Japanese cars got their big break. The Euro cars were too expensive and left for the wealthy to buy. I remember in High School we moded the Honda CVCC (aka Cvic) since was a cheap car to obtain and was like a toy and cheap on gas. That gained popularity among my generation and learned how these cute little toys worked. Euro imports for their price, you could bought 3 Hondas, so they were left to Rich folks that does not give a dam on how that works and have the money to maintain and repair. Still Japanese cars were expensive to fix but at the mid range. US build suffered a heavy punch during those dark ages but their were cheaper to fix, Euro cars again, expensive as heck to fix and maintain. So the choice was obvious, most people looked at Japan for cars. So now you see what we have. But anybody that had the chance to drive a Datsun or a Mazda or a Toyota or a Mitsubishi they know they were not even closed to High Performance. You had to live during those days to understand what is out there now.
Does anyone have a rough idea how much it would cost to restore an old Japanese car, say, an old Nissan 300ZX? Assume that the engine, transmission, external paint, and interior all need to be repaired or replaced, but it doesn’t have to be exactly like the original parts. (I know this is a crazy idea — just wondering.)
I can’t seem to find any websites that provide such an estimate.
Thanks a lot!
It would depend on your luck finding parts. It could be done for say $5,000.00 if you did most of the work to about $20,000.oo if you farm the work out for engine, transmission, etc. rebuilds. This would strip the car down to the frame and rebuild it back to new. If you don’t have a lot of time or skill to do the work youself and of course the tools it can cost a much as a new car.
As per the claims it runs only on a 300W “Water Energy System (WES)” where WATER is the only FUEL.
The basic power generation mechanism of the new system is similar to that of a normal fuel cell, which uses hydrogen as a fuel. According to Genepax, the main feature of the new system is that it uses the company’s membrane electrode assembly (MEA), which contains a material capable of breaking down water into hydrogen and oxygen through a chemical reaction.
A Japanese venture company, Genepax, has unveiled a car on that runs on water. All it requires is a litre of water. In fact, any kind of water to be exact, whether its river, rain, sea water, or even Japanese tea. Its an electric powered car that runs solely on hydrogen dioxide.
“The main characteristic of this car is that no external input is needed. The car will continue to run as long as you have a bottle of water inside for you to add from time to time,” said Kiyoshi Hirasawa, Chief Executive Officer of Genepax, after he proudly announced the company’s invention.
Once water is poured into the water tank at the back of the car, the newly invented energy generator takes out the hydrogen from the water, releases electrons and finally generates electrical power.
“We highly recommend our system since it does not require you to build up an infrastructure to recharge your batteries, which is usually the case for most electric cars,” said Hirasawa, who is hoping to advertise the car in time for the upcoming G8 Summit in Hokkaido, Japan.
According to the company, 1 liter of water keeps the car running for about an hour with a speed of 80 kilometers or 50 miles an hour. The company has applied for a patent and is hoping to collaborate with Japanese automobile manufacturers to mass manufacture their invention in the very near future. As fuel prices continue rising and people look for greener alternatives, companies globally are trying to come up with alternatives.
Details:
http://www.genepax.co.jp/en/
http://www.overunity.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=e86772b84fc1f6d47d5b09fa64f1d8b2&/topic,4929.0.html
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080613/153276/
Duration : 0:1:22
I can partly understand europeans buying american car because of their comfort and luxury, but a japanese car? They are made for considerably shorter humen, the quality of the product is no way near european one, their models all lookalike other, the EU-board tax raises the price 7%, and one of the essential reasons: the jobs and benefits of buyingdecision are given to people on the other side of the world, not to own area.
So:why on earth a japanese car in Europe?
Simple answer: stupidity.
Jeremy visits a japanese car accessories warehouse to see the variety of kit you can buy for your car. Funny video from BBC motor show classic, Jeremy Clarkson’s Motorworld. Click beneath the video to watch in high quality, and visit http://www.TopGear.com for all the latest news and car reviews.
Duration : 0:2:59
I live in the US btw. I’m really interested in cars like the Skyline and 300Z, or actually any right-sided car! I just want to drive a Japanese car around my town lol.
United States
The United States continues to use a unique set of standards for its automotive safety and emissions regulations, which do not always directly correspond to the standards of the European Union or Asian countries, which adhere to the United Nations World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations. This means that vehicle manufacturers face considerable expense to type-certify a vehicle for U.S. sale, at a cost estimated to be upward of USD $2 Million per vehicle model. This cost particularly impacts low-volume manufacturers and models, most notably the makers of supercars. However, larger companies such as Alfa Romeo and Peugeot have also cited costs of ‘Federalizing’ their vehicle lineups as a disincentive to re-enter the U.S. market.
NHTSA and EPA regulations criminalise the possession of a vehicle not meeting U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Even Canadian-market vehicles may not meet these requirements. Exceptions exist for foreign nationals touring the US in their own vehicle and for cars displayed in museums.
Because of the unavailability of certain cars, demand for grey market vehicles arose in the late 1970s. This involved attaching certain equipment as required by the government. The agencies NHTSA and EPA would review the paperwork and then approve possession of the vehicle. It was also possible for these agencies to reject the application and order the automobile destroyed or re-exported.
The grey market provided an alternate method for Americans to acquire desirable vehicles, and still obtain certification. Despite the inherent risk, tens of thousands of cars were imported this way each year, during the 1980s.
The Lamborghini Countach was one of the first grey market vehicles, encouraging the Italian manufacturer to prepare a US model. The Range Rover was initially available only through the grey market, and the popularity of the model eventually convinced the parent company to re-enter the US market in 1987. Other manufacturers, like PSA Peugeot Citroën with the CX and Renault with the mid-engine Renault 5 Turbo, missed the signals sent by the grey market about American consumer tastes and demand.
This avenue was increasingly successful, especially in cases where only lower quality models were offered on the US market. For example, Mercedes-Benz chose to offer only the lower-output 380SEL model to Americans in 1981, ensuring a huge demand for the much faster 500SEL, which was available in the rest of the world. BMW had the same issue with their 745i Turbo.
The grey market was too successful and ate significantly into the business of Mercedes-Benz of North America Inc. This organization launched a successful congressional lobbying effort to eliminate this alternative in 1988. Allegations have been raised of improper lobbying, but the issue has never been raised in court.
It is no longer possible to import a non-US vehicle into the United States as a personal import, with some exceptions. In 1998, NHTSA granted vehicles over 25 years of age dispensation from the rules it administers, since these are presumed to be collector vehicles. It is also possible to certify the car though a Registered importer for DOT work and an ICI for EPA work, bringing in a number of cars to spread the cost of type approval and destructive testing. Destructive crash testing is not always needed if the vehicle can be shown to be substantially similar to a model sold in the US. The Smart Fortwo car is imported in this manner. Finally, the Show or Display law allows import of vehicle[s] "of such historical or technological significance that it is in the public interest to show or display it in the United States even though it would be difficult or impossible to bring the vehicle into compliance with the Federal motor vehicle safety standards. This provision is intended to facilitate the importation of a make or model of a vehicle which its manufacturer never certified for sale in the United States." However, this provision still demands compliance with emissions standards.
Recently, a vehicle which came to notoriety is the Nissan Skyline, which was featured prominently in video games, movies and magazines. This vehicle, being exclusively sold in Japan, became an object of interest and in 1999, a California company, Motorex, sacrificed a small number of R33 GTS25s for the purpose of crash testing. They submitted their information to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and petitioned them to allow 1990-1999 GT-Rs and GTSs to be imported, at the condition that they were modified to meet federal motor vehicle safety standards.
Many Skylines were subsequently imported through Motorex. This lasted until late 2005, when the NHTSA became informed that not all 1990 through 1999 Skyline models would perform identically in crash testing. Motorex had submitted information for only the R33, and told the NHTSA that it was sufficient for all R32, R33, and R34 models. According the further review by the NHTSA, only 1996-1998 R33 models have been demonstrated as capable of being modified to meet the federal motor vehicle safety standards. After that, only these 1996-1998 models are eligible for importation. In March 2006, Motorex ceased all imports and Motorex principal Hiroaki "Hiro" Nanahoshi was arrested and held on $1 million bail on financial, kidnapping, and assault charges.[2][3]
The North American Automobile Trade Association is an association of dealers that buy and sell vehicles across international borders.
The NHTSA administers the Registered Importer Program that allows companies to import and bring into compliance non conforming vehicles.
Cool designs and bizarre concept cars take the stage at Japan’s motor show, including Honda’s ‘organic’ car skin and a rotating Nissan that talks you out of a bad mood.
Duration : 0:1:28
Japanese cars are a little different than US cars, especially which side of the car the driver sits on. What’s the process for registering the car in California, and would the car be street legal?
i havent done this i guess as long as all the paper work is good with the dmv and its considered road worthy……
check dmv.ca.gov
i know its not illegal to drive a rhd car here i live in la and see a few.