Changing Engine Oil

It has been raining since the beginning of this week. Although it is still summer, the sun is hiding behind thick clouds and it has been a bit cold with the temperature around 25 degrees Celsius. The sudden change in the temperature might be blamed for our staff having colds and taking sick days. Look after yourself, please.

Today, I went to an auction instead of the staff member who usually goes there. Maybe because everyone’s summer holiday has finished, or maybe from the influence of the end of the financial year coming next month, there seemed more cars listed at all the auction places this week. There are lots of cars I wanted to check but as you know, I cannot spend all day doing so; I tried to ignore the urge and started checking cars our customers had ordered. When we check cars, there are many bits we should be looking at but the engine is one of the most important parts; we carefully check for the existence of any unusual noise, stability of idling, wobbling, acceleration, oil leakage, etc. Fortunately today I did not find anything serious enough to worry about before bidding. However, this is a very important process because the engine can decide the total value of the car. As you know, most engine troubles come from not changing the oil as often as it should have been. Then, how often we should be changing it?

At most car dealers and gas stations, they recommend it every 3000 to 5000Km. For drivers who do not know much about cars, I think this is a good advice.

What the makers say about it? The data is as follows:
(Toyota, Mazda & Honda)
Standard petrol cars: every 15,000Km or annually
Petrol car with turbo engine: every 5,000Km or six-monthly
Diesel car: every 5,000 to 20,000Km or 6 month – yearly
However under severe conditions (when a car is used in rather rough conditions)
Standard petrol car: every 7,500Km or 6 monthly
Petrol car with turbo engine: every 2,500Km or 3 monthly
Diesel car: every 2,500 to 10,000Km or every 3 to 12 months
(Nissan)
All cars: every 5,000Km or 6 monthly
Mitsubishi does not have any recommended time for this

How about engine oil makers? Most of them say every 3,000 to 5,000Km or yearly but some say every 5,000Km or 6 month. Isn’t it confusing?

So here is what I think:
Non-turbo petrol car: every 15,000Km or yearly change should be OK
Petrol car with turbo engine & used under severe conditions: every 2,500Km or 3 monthly

When they say they recommend an oil change every 3000Km, it does not mean it is always dangerous if you do not do it at 3,000Km but means it is safe if you do it every 3,000Km. Thinking about your car’s condition and the condition of use, it would be the best to decide how often you are going to change the oil beforehand.

Before I finish, there is a more important thing than changing engine oil: oil level. If you drive a car, even if you do not know much about cars, you have to know how to check the oil level. Even if you completely forget to change oil and run 20,000Km, it does not mean the engine will get damaged but it you forget to check the oil level and run under the recommended level, the engine will surely be damaged.

Once it is done, it will not be fixed simply. Either getting a new engine or overhaul, it is going to cost more than \\100,000. You might have to buy a new car if you are unlucky. Check the manual about how to check the oil level and make sure you know it. It is not difficult to do it yourself.

When the oil gets too low, the engine sound changes. When it sounds noisier than usual, or is making an unusual noise, be warned. Check the oil level straight away. Keep an eye on the oil spot in your usual parking space right down where the engine should be. If there is any leak, be careful. Make sure the oil level is OK. After rain, it is easy to spot oil leakage. Look for the cause and fix the problem. If you leave it too late, your engine will definitely break. (￣∇￣|||) Bang!


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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
Kato building 4F, 1-1-2 Furuishiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955

Third Day of my Summer Holiday

On the third day, we started the day hiking around “Midagahara” near the lodge we stayed. It is famous for its alpine flora. At a height of 2000m above sea level, it is a large swamp area with rare alpine plants. Unfortunately, with the clouds lower than usual, we could not see the far away mountains which we could have been enjoying if the weather conditions were better.

So we just wandered around there, then went back to the Murodo to try mountain climbing again. The higher we went by bus, the denser the mist got and it started raining. When we got there, the visibility was almost Zero with thick fog. On the notice board nearby, it said the temperature was 10 degrees Celsius, rain and visibility 20m. Nothing was really promising. As a note of caution, there were some copies of newspaper articles of slipping accidents and deaths on the mountains to call people’s attention to safety. Getting there easily by various transports, we tend to consider mountain climbing just as easy; but all there was were mountains of 3000m in altitude. We realized that we should consider it as a quite tough and dangerous sport. Looking around, most people there were dressing properly with waterproof jackets and pants, special shoes for trekking, gloves on their hands and holding sticks. They looked like they were going to climb the mountain. Compared to them, we looked silly without any proper gear. It was a tough decision to go down without getting to the top but we realized it is not something that amateurs like ourselves should do, so after a brief discussion, we chose our safety and started thinking about going back.

To go back, we simply reversed what we had done to go up there. When we got back to Kurobe Dam, because it was lower at 1500m above sea level, it was as harsh as the mountain weather. We saw some traces of the sun through obviously lighter looking clouds. So we quickly changed our plan and enjoyed an excursion on a boat on the dam. It was a 30 minutes ride introducing us to nature around the dam but after enjoying the scenery of 3000m high mountains, we felt a bit short of excitement. Although we had a plan of going down to the bottom and visiting more tourist attractions in the Shinshu area on the way home, we got stuck in a heavy traffic jam and it took twice as long to come back home than getting there.

It was a small 2 night 3 day family get-away but the weather was ok and we had reasonably successful days. 3 days after we got back, we heard on TV that there was a huge rock slide from the place near where we had visited and some mountain-climbers were killed by the impact. We usually think it is safer to climb mountains in summer but no, we should not take nature too lightly.

Now, I have good news. The mountain we visited is called Tateyama and is in Toyama Prefecture. They have a dance called “Owara Odori” which started about 300 years ago in the area. I have “Mimikaki” (ear pickers) especially designed for the dance. If you are subscribers of the newsletters or visitors of my blog page and purchase a car from us after 1 September, we will give you one! We have 10 to giveaway. First in first served. Please do not forget to tell our staff that you saw the newsletter/blog page. Limit to 1 per customer. We will send it to you with the documentation. Don’t miss the chance!

＊Mimikaki: We use them often in Japan to clean our ears. To use, gently put it in an ear hole, scratch the side of it using the small spatula part to scoop wax out. Be careful not to overdo it because it might lead to some infection.


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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
Kato building 4F, 1-1-2 Furuishiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955

Second Day of my Summer Holiday

The next morning, I got up at 5:30 to have a bath. They swapped “Men” & “Women” signs. It was the cypress bath yesterday and the rock bath today. Anyway, I experienced the ultimate bliss of having a bath while looking at trees and the natural beauty of the area.

After a quick breakfast, we left the hotel and rushed to the entrance of the mountain by car. It was only a 20 minute drive there but because of the season, the car park was nearly full. I managed to find one and moved to the trolley bus stop. Although they had 5 buses running every 30 minutes at the same time, the 7:30 ones were all full. The bus went through the tunnels which were made more than 40 years ago to carry material to build a dam deep in the mountain. The construction work was difficult and took the lives of 171 workers.

After a 15 minutes ride, we got to the first destination, Kurobe Dam. Thanks to the beautiful weather, the sky was totally clear and the sun was reflected on the rocky surface of the mountain. The breathtaking scenery of the dam is definitely one of the best in the country and is always mentioned in tourist books about Japan’s natural beauty. Surrounded by beautiful mountains, I could not resist taking a lot of photos with my camera.

Enjoying the scenery there, we walked along the dam to the next stop from where we got into a cable car. To protect nature and minimise the damage from heavy snow, the cable car route is underground and we went up 400m without stopping. The ride was only for 5 minutes but because of the number of people there, we had to wait for 1 hour.

Getting off the cable car, we took the ropeway. There are no support poles in this 1.7Km line and it is the longest ropeway in the country among this type of construction. Looking 500m below ourselves, it was a 7 minute ride. The service started in 1970 and the same old ropeway is used. Worried about the age of the ropeway, I could not feel safe and wished to get to the other side as quickly as possible.

Getting there in one piece, we rode another trolley bus which runs at 2450m, the highest railway station in Japan. This was the last ride to get to the top. A 10 minute ride took us to the first destination, “Murodo”. Getting outside, I felt the temperature definitely lower. This was the start of our hiking. We had a light lunch and when we were just about to take off, mist started to appear. At first I was thinking about doing the 4 hour walk to the very top of the mountain (3001m), but knowing that the weather changes quickly in the mountains, we decided to go on a safe 3 hour hike around Murodo instead. Considering that we did not bring any proper mountain climbing gear, this seemed the best idea. Most routes are tar-sealed, so it is a suitable trek for beginners like ourselves. When we started, I thought it would not be too hard if it was just 3 hours, but then realised it was not that easy. At the height of 3000m, the air was thin and walking over the bumpy surface around an old crater, I ran out of breath soon. But it was truly a blissful time for us walking in picturesque scenery without worrying about my daily business. We saw some unusual birds called Rock Ptarmigan, one of Japan’s protected species. Being only 330 of them spotted in the whole Tateyama, we were lucky to see 3 of them.

We wanted to do more things after the trekking, but we were too tired to do anything else. Not being able to feel our own legs properly, we decided to head to the hotel for a rest.


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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
Kato building 4F, 1-1-2 Furuishiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955

First day of my summer holiday

Last week was the beginning of my summer holiday and I took my family to Mt Tateyama in the Japanese Northern Alps (a National Park) for a 2 nights & 3 days trip. It is a very famous place for mountain climbers. There is a motorway from Tokyo to half way there and because the open roads after getting off the motorway are also well-maintained, if not crowded, you can get to the village at the foot of the mountain within 5 hours by car. However, it is a National Park where private access is totally cut off for the protection of the environment. We could get to the entrance of the trail, which was about 5Km after getting to the village, then we had to park the car and to get to the mountain top, it takes almost half a day after changing from the trolley bus to a cable car, then to the ropeway. So, we decided to visit some tourist attractions near the mountain then to get to the hotel at the foot of the mountain.

On the day, we got up at 5 o’clock in the morning. As soon as waking our children, all 4 of us left home in the car. As we expected, at this time of the day even when most people have summer holidays in Japan, the road was not crowded. Not wanting to ruin our holiday by being stuck in a traffic jam, we ate rice balls for breakfast in the car. But I do have to worry about the rising cost of petrol, so I tried “Eco-driving”, not to accelerate all of sudden, keep the speed steady without sudden braking. Although we got stuck in a usual traffic jam on the motorway on the way there, we got through there fine and to the 450 year old ruin of a castle before lunch time.

This is a replica of a small castle built on top of the 900m high hill and has been reconstructed the same as the original mountain castle made in the medieval age of provincial wars. It was used for a location shooting for an NHK(Japan Broadcasting Corporation)’s historical drama series about a year ago. From the top, it has a panoramic view but one side of it is a steep cliff. They cleverly used nature. Thinking that climbing up to the top without carrying anything is hard enough, it must have been incredibly hard for the Samurai warriors in the era to reach to the top wearing heavy armour. I felt lucky we can use the car now. I guess not just the warriors, servants who had to carry water and food must have had hard time. But the River Chikuma flowing lightly next to it looked breathtakingly beautiful.

Then we had lunch at a soba noodle place, popular with the locals; visited an old famous battle field of the medieval era, prayed for our happiness and health at Zenkoji temple, a national treasure which was opened more than 1350 years ago. They were planning to use it as the starting point of the Beijing Olympic torch relay but after China’s suppression of Tibet, the head priest rejected that. The main statue being held up high on a pedestal was a gift from the Korean Peninsula to the then emperor in the year 522 and the oldest Buddhist statues still existing in Japan. Having been moved from place to place by the rulers of the time, it has finally settled in the current place in 1598. It is supposed to be absolutely hidden and even the resident priests are not allowed to see the sacred sculpture. It has been a popular spot for religious people for a long time. We saw some local TV crew filming there. It is also a symbol of the peace Japanese people love.

Leaving Zenkoji, we headed to the hotel we had booked previously. It was 6pm when we got there and we went straight to the Onsen, hot public baths. The water there was clear without smell and we felt totally relaxed in the open-air ones surrounded by the forest. We had local delicacy for dinner which we enjoyed thoroughly; then went to bed fairly early to be ready for the next day.

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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
Kato building 4F, 1-1-2 Furuishiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955

Summer Festival

Hi there. After our week long summer holiday, we are back in business. Thank you very much for waiting patiently. Today I am going to tell you about the summer festival in Fukagawa town where our office is.

JPC’s office is situated in the middle of Tokyo, 2Km from the Tokyo Railway Station as the crow flies. This area was, about 400 years ago, under the government of Edo, an old tenement district for townspeople. With numbers of mansion houses for Samurai, the town was full of life at that time. We have 3 big summer festivals in Tokyo and the Fukagawa Festival is one of them. It is normally held around the 15th August every year. It is also called “Mizukake Matsuri” (Water Splashing Festival) because it is held on a hot mid-summer day, spectators along the street splash water onto the portable shrines. Every 3 years, we have “Hon-Matsuri”, an even bigger one where all 54 neighbouring towns get together with their portable shrines and carry them for 8Km as a group ritual. We had the “Hon-Matsuri” this year. It is a big event with more than 500,000 people, some carry the shrines and the others just watch & cheer them on. The origin of the festival goes back to 1642, when Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu celebrated the birth of his eldest son Ietsugu, the festival has more than 360 years of a long and distinguished history.

This year, it was held on Sunday, 18th August and was in the middle of our summer holiday, so we, JPC did not participate as the company but because I live here with my family, my wife and 13-year-old daughter joined the event. My daughter had a role to lead the shrine (and me? Of course, taking photos of them…). Somehow, it was unusually chilly that day with rain pouring occasionally. With people splashing water on her and the shrine, my poor daughter was so cold that she had to go to the toilet very often. According to her, she was worried what to do because there was no public toilets around, but people who had houses along the street let her use their toilets. It must also be the magic of the festival when people let total strangers use their toilets! A heartwarming scene, isn’t it?

Well, have you ever seen a portable shrine before? It is amazing. You will be overwhelmed with its size and decorations. It is totally impressive when everyone carries it together saying “Wasshoi” rhythmically and after seeing so many of them walking past, I was quite moved. I really admire to the Edokko (Tokyoites) who have been trying hard to keep this remarkable tradition, for their attachment and passion for the festival. We have this festival annually around this time of the year, so if you happen to be visiting Japan, please let me know; I will be more than happy to show you around. Lots of tourists from overseas come to watch the festival and they seem to be enjoying it, so I am sure you will like it too! (Please check some of my photos on the blog page.)


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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
Kato building 4F, 1-1-2 Furuishiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955

Beijing Olympics

The Beijing Olympics finally started. China, the host country has had a bit too many problems such as when some agricultural chemicals were found in Gyozas (Chinese Ravioli) exported to Japan and it made some people seriously, the Tibet issue, etc., which might have affected the opening of the Olympics, but at least when you think about those athletes who have been working hard to be there, it is good to see it finally started.

This time, because it is held in Beijing, China, our neighbouring country, we only have 1 hour difference and can watch games live on TV. Having our summer holiday at the same time as this, our staff can all cheer for the participants from our country.

One thing worries me though: the air pollution in Beijing. I heard that in the city, to improve the air purity for the Beijing Olympics and the Paralympics, they made a rule that for 2 month from the 20th last month, that only cars which have a licence plate ending with odd numbers can be driven on the odd days and with even numbers on even days. On a TV news broadcasting a special programme this week, they were checking the effect using white gauze before and after the odd & even rule and yes, we could clearly seen it has been effective. However the air pollution was not only from the heavy car fumes but also from gas emissions from industrial plants and the ones in the city stopped operating in time for the games, so thanks to these measures it seems to be getting there. But once the Olympics are over, everything is going back to normal – the traffic rules will be a thing of the past and the industrial plants start operating. I feel sorry for the people in Beijing who have to live with breathing that air everyday.

Whenever watching a Marathon, I always wonder if the top runner has a problem breathing exhaust fumes from the motorbikes or pilot cars. I personally have no experience in running (you know, I am not that good to be in one of the races which are going to require pilot vehicles…), so I cannot even imagine what it is like. Please send me a comment if you have been in one! Checking on the internet, I found that they used a “HydroGen1”, GM’s fuel-cell electric vehicles as pilot cars. They run with hydrogen-fuel cells and water vapour. I wonder what sort of cars are going to be used this time. I expect that to advertise domestic products to the world, they might be using Made-in-China vehicles for the role. I personally want to pay attention to a lot of different things as well as just watching the games at this Olympics.


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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
Kato building 4F, 1-1-2 Furuishiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955

Things to do when you are caught in a traffic jam

Things to do when you are caught in a traffic jam

Yes, it is summer holiday time in Japan. I noticed less people on the commuting train lately and it is not crowded. At some companies where all the workers cannot take a holiday at the same time, they started taking time off by rotating everyone’s schedule. We, at JPC, are taking our annual holiday for a week while most auction places are closed. Some auction places will open for special auctions this year but because half of us have to work in shifts every Saturday anyway and if this is a chance for all of us to take a reasonable holiday, we might as well take it. (So please do not upset by this.)

In Japan, most people take their summer holiday next week, between 10th and 17th August. Some visiting their families, some travelling around, a large number of people use their cars. Have you been in the middle of traffic jams on highways in Japan? It can be more than 100Km long and I am sure we all experienced ending in one of them. So what can you do when you are stuck in it? There was a survey result in a newspaper recently. This is what most people do:

1. Listen to music
2. Talk
3. Listen to the radio
4. Eat snacks
5. Take a nap
6. Enjoy the scenery
7. Sing songs
8. Play “Last and First”
9. Watch TV
10. Email someone
11. Check the map
12. Look at signboards
13. Check websites with a cellphone/PC
14. Watch a movie (DVD)
15. Look at clouds…

The top ones are something you can do without spending much money and you can all do this together including the driver. Thanks to multi-functioned car navigation systems, some people even watch TV or DVD movies.
The top one, “Listen to music” seems an easy choice but be careful with the song choice. You cannot really play anything which is going to send the driver off to sleep. You cannot play songs you love but bores everyone else. This will lead to a big argument. CDs of music from different decades (top of pops) and soap-opera theme songs are useful because you can sing along, just listen or sometimes start a conversation from there. If you have young children, some of you choose children’s songs but sometimes if you raise their spirits too high, they can annoy the driver like hell. Yes, you have to choose songs and the timing. Among the things you can withdraw into your own world, lots of people just look outside without thinking anything else. By gender, females spend more time “talking” while “eating snacks”. These are the rankings in Japan. What is it like in your own country?

OK, although it is fun to think what you can do in a traffic jam, the most important thing for the driver is of course to concentrate on driving. If you are tired, please do not force yourself, just have a rest in a rest area. Drive safe and enjoy your holiday!



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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
Kato building 4F, 1-1-2 Furuishiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955

Odometer Tampering (2)

In the last issue, I wrote about the odometer reading administration system. This time, I am going to write how to detect odometer tampering on a car which has only had 1 owner and cannot be checked with the system.

Generally speaking, it is believed that you can easily track down the history of the car if it has only 1 owner so you can safely buy it. In most cases, this is true. However, because of the same reason, the only person who knows the history is the owner, which also means that he/she can hide inconvenient information without anyone else knowing about it.

Firstly, the easiest way to check the mileage is to have a look at the car’s “Shaken”/Warrant of Fitness certificate. Everytime the car goes in for a shaken/WOF, the mileage at the time is recorded on the bottom left corner of the certificate. From the date on the certificate you can check if there is anything suspicious by comparing the figure to the present odometer reading.

Secondly, you can also check it from the maintenance record. Manufacturers recommend maintenance at 1 month, 6 months and yearly after a new car is purchased and if it is done at a dealer, they record what they did to the car, the date, odometer reading and the name of the person who carried out the maintenance. Following the history, you can work out the possible current mileage.

When you cannot use the above two methods, you can take the car to a dealer and ask them to check it with a tester. They can check Mercedes Benz, BMWs, Chryslers and Peugeots though it depends on the grade and age. Unfortunately they can only check a few types of Japanese cars even of Toyota or Nissan. For your information, Lexus, Japan’s finest cars send the odometer reading to the dealer via radio wave everytime the engines are turned on, so they are safe; but most Japanese cars are not compatible with such a system yet.

Imagine something like this happens: Mr A buys a new Nissan Sylvia. He uses it for almost 3 years and the mileage reads 80,000Km. Before needing another Shaken/WOF, he decides to sell the car. Wanting to sell it for a high price, Mr A tampers with the odometer from 80,000Km to 30,000Km, takes it to an auction through a trader and sells it. If Mr A has not taken the car to a dealer for maintenance for the last 3 years and nothing has been recorded on the book, there is no way to check about odometer tampering. The auction place decides there is nothing wrong with the odometer reading because this is the first time for the car to be listed at an auction and it will not be caught with the odometer reading administration system. In a case like this, JPC check the condition of the car at the auction place and judge it from there. A preliminary examination, using all our experience and five senses, our grade AA staff check to see if the car is really in a condition of one with 30,000Km mileage. If a car does 80,000Km, it shows a certain level of wearing exterior & interior, steering wheels and brake & accelerator pedals, engine oil leaks, wearing of the seats, tyre & belt abrasion, etc. Getting a close look at the car, we decide if it matches to the alleged mileage. This is a skill which requires a lot of experience in examining cars but even when we cannot exactly say a car’s odometer was tampered with, we do tell the customer before the auction if there is a possibility of it happening and then in some cases advise him/her to reduce the bid.

However, please do not get the wrong idea. You do not have to worry about odometer tampering for all the cars with a sole owner. Most of the cars are OK. From our experience, depending on the age of the car, we say, if you see a sole owned sport car, especially with some alterations, with the average mileage (less than 10,000Km/year) and with the auction point 3.5, be careful. Usually when a sport car is altered, they have high mileage. But considering the age of the car, if the mileage seems incredibly low against the condition of the car, you should go and have a look at the car yourself and ask the reason for this. Or if it has lots of unfavourable comments from the inspector on the auction’s entry form, check the contents and if you have any doubt, do not place a bid. (We, at JPC, do the translation of the auction forms for free.)

In Japan, odometer tampering is a crime. Thanks to the odometer reading administration system, it is getting less and less. But there are always some heartless traders who still do this. We, at JPC do our best for our customers not to fall victim of this ugly activity.


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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
Kato building 4F, 1-1-2 Furuishiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955

Odometer Tampering (1)

Sometimes customers ask us about the possibility of a car’s odometer being tampered with. It is an important question you want to make sure before purchasing if you are buying a used car. When you go to a used car dealer, along with the price, equipment, selling points written on the front windscreens, all the cars in the display have stickers saying “you can buy this car safely because its odometer had been checked using the odometer reading administration system”. Did you know about this “odometer reading administration system”?

From the view of a healthy future development of the used car market and consumer protection, the Japanese National Auction Association (NAK-Nihon Auction Kyogikai), an independent agency introduced the centralized system to eliminate any odometer tampering on used cars listed at auction by keeping a record of odometers of all the cars brought into auctions nationwide. This system is not only for all the cars at auction, but also for dealers, car sales companies and used car exporters like us. We can ring up and ask them if the car we want to buy has an odometer tampered with or not beforehand.

Simply speaking, all cars which are going for auction have to go through the recording system and at the point of listing, the listing date, its vehicle identification number and odometer reading should be recorded. For example, if a Skyline listed at USS Tokyo years ago had an odometer reading of 80,000Km and 2 years later the same car was listed in a different auction place with an odometer reading of 70,000Km, the data does not match, so it obviously means the odometer was tampered with; the car will be dealt as an “odometer tampered car”.

Cars at dealers which have been through the checking system have had their odometer reading checked at the auction place if they are bought at auction, so they are inevitably “checked with the odometer reading administration system”. Even when the cars are bought privately, the dealers can contact NAK to get their data checked through the system.

However, this is not a perfect system. You can definitely check cars which have gone through auctions but what if buying a car which has never listed at auction? If the only owner of a Mercedes Benz decides to sell it when the odometer reads 100,000Km and changed it to 50,000Km, the system cannot catch him out. When a car is listed for the first time at auction, with no record at NAK, no one can detect the tampering. Isn’t there anything we can do with the cars like this? To be continued…


★ Japanese used car stock : http://jpctrade.com/stock/index.html
★ JPCTRADE Home page : http://jpctrade.com/
★ JPCTRADE Blog : http://jpctrade.blogspot.com/

(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
Kato building 4F, 1-1-2 Furuishiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955

Model Change

Lately consumers in Japan are getting cleverer and buying cars at auction is now widely accepted. In the car auction business, our company is quite well known. I guess that a large number of people check our website before purchasing a new car at auction. We do have lots of people actually visiting our website. Our name being shown near the top of Yahoo & Google Search and our precious customers writing about us on their blog or online notice boards, we are getting a lot more enquiries than before. (Thank you very much for this!)

The latest trend is more customers enquiring about purchasing late model cars, less than three years after the first registration, not cars of more than 5 years old. Most new cars come with its manufacturer’s 3 year guarantee. If you buy one of these at auction, by asking the dealer for the succession of the guarantee straight away, your car will still be fixed for nothing (almost) at the dealer if anything happens within the 3 years: this provides security to the customers.

However, this trend has changed slightly this year. More people want the newest cars of the current models. But the numbers of certain types of cars listed are getting less. Because there are not many on the list, customers have to wait for a long time until they see the car listed; then even when some are listed, if they lose the auctions they cannot get what they want. There are quite a few similar cases like this happening. This is because people stopped buying bland new cars. No one buys new cars, so there are not enough used cars. Consumers became reluctant in spending money and because of high oil prices, sales of new cars have dropped dramatically and there are less new model cars around.

Japanese car markets have been stimulated by changing models every now & then. There are two types: full-model change in which cars look totally different from the original ones and minor change in which they only change bits & pieces to improve the existing models. Manufacturers do full-model changes every 4 years and minor changes every 1-2 years. At full-model change, manufacturers spend money in advertisement for aggressive sale. But if they cannot sell them after a full-model change, it provides serious trouble to the manufacturers.

In Europe, they do not do full-model changes as often. When the design becomes too old, they check the comfortableness, performance and safety and sometimes they chose a full-model change as a result. So some well designed cars are sold for more than 10 years without a single model change. For example, Porsche, Audi TT and Volkswagen New Beetle are always in the same shape. Looking the same, they change minor bits by persistent effort: this is European. Unfortunately, even European cars are struggling in new car sales. Especially in fuel consumption they have a great disadvantage. Drivers who think about economic efficiency are swapping to Japanese cars to get better gas mileage even though they were using a European car before.

When you buy a new car, it would be best not to buy one soon after its full-model change. Of course manufacturers spend time before that but it is likely to have some troubles even then. A year later, after some minor changes would be the best time to avoid these troubles when they have fixed all the reported troubles.

We, at JPC, give you information and good advice individually after checking the numbers of the cars at auction & the price fluctuations. Not worrying about model change, there are some reasonably priced and attractive cars which are the last line of a model. They are not so popular but have a high-quality finish as a car. Please do not hesitate to ask us any questions.


★ Japanese used car stock : http://jpctrade.com/stock/index.html
★ JPCTRADE Home page : http://jpctrade.com/
★ JPCTRADE Blog : http://jpctrade.blogspot.com/

(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
Kato building 4F, 1-1-2 Furuishiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955