OT: Jap cars

Because their MOT doesn't start until the car is 5 years old - know as the Shaken. It's a major test and involves the car being partially dismantled.

It's almost cheaper for owners to get rid of their car for almost nothing when it's due and buy a new car.

David

Because they've got an _insane_ MOT test that gets more stringent as the cars get older.

The test includes partially disassembling the cars and after a certain age, you *will* have to replace certain components even if they aren't worn out. Plus, the test alone gets very expensive after a while.

The whole system is designed to make it cheaper to buy a new car on a regular basis instead of keeping an old one, to provide a ready market for the domestic manufacturers.

Their equivalent of the MOT is a bit on the "fierce" side ;)

And as other have said, as well as being very strict it costs about=20 =A31300 everytime it is due+whatever repairs are needed.

--=20 Carl Robson Audio stream:

err what they all said :)

Oddly enough after a bit of a google it sounds like a rigorous but not that rigorous MOT test (read an account of having it done by an ex-pat). The bloke took his own 10 year old car, and they basically check it over, give it a brake and suspension test (using a car wobbling machine!), and so on. The really expensive part seems to be that most Japanese people are so afraid of it that everyone pays a garage to take the car through the test for them.