New Boss at Toyota

The other day, Toyota welcomed their new president and he had a press conference. This is what he has to say.

・They started facing hardship in the second half of last year. It is a departure in the middle of a storm.
・They have to decide where to attack and where to withdraw.
・They have to work together as a team to restructure a new stronger Toyota.
・This hardship will last at least 2 more years. Place priority on making profit as early as possible even a season earlier than expected.
・Through making cars, they have to answer to the needs of the society, make people live in prosperity: and as a business rooted in the community, they will stimulate the economy of the local community. But they are in a big hole, they cannot even properly pay tax, which is a minimum duty. I feel frustrated. This is the start at the bottom rung.
・They would do their best to avoid being in the red three years in a row.
・He does not think they made a mistake in the idea of expanding their business in order to answer their customers’ needs but without a realistic plan, they could not ride on their strength alone.
・From the strategy of putting all the line-ups in all the areas, they are changing directions to develop individual needs by area.
・What he wants his employees to know is that it is not how much profit they would be making. Their target is to make “better quality cars”. They have to think what sort of cars people in each area want and how much they are prepared to pay. The new Prius, which is reaching 200,000 domestic orders, made them happy.
・He does not think that the young generation have lost interest (in cars). Instead, they do not have a chance to use cars. If older generations show them how enjoyable it is to own a car, young people might follow us.
・Toyota-maru departed in the middle of a storm without a sea chart. Honestly, they do not have time to talk about yesterday’s weather. They will just keep going forward, thinking about the current weather, thinking about the weather tomorrow for a safe journey forward.
・In today’s world, it will be hard whoever becomes the president. He has learned a lot from different people after being born as a Toyoda. He would like to make an effort to pay the society back through their business.

Before this press conference, as a hedge against the downturn in business, it was announced that all the top management including the president Akio Toyoda voluntarily would give 30% of their income back to the company. Listening to this, I will not be the only one who felt their mettle toward restructure with solid determination. While US car manufacturers are now working toward restructure under their insolvency law, Toyota has been leading in the business as the world No 1 motor company. Without being happy and contented in their current situation, their motto is “Tomorrow’s Toyota has to be better than today’s Toyota”. Now they seem to have a bit of a break for a while thanks to the good sales of the new Prius, I would like to see more from the new Toyota. Be positive!


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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
3B YS-Building, 1-2-2 Botan, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
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Resale value ranking – SUVs

Continuing from last issue, I am again going to talk about resale value which is based on the trading price of cars at used car dealers’ 3 years after the cars were bought as new; and this time it is about SUVs (Sport Utility Vehicles).

The top was the “Dualis” Nissan Motor’s SUV launched in May 2007 in the domestic market. Having developed it in Europe and manufacturing it in the UK, they are reverse imports. Last time they did reverse imports, it was 13 years ago. It shines the brilliant innovative idea of blending the design and function of SUVs and hatchbacks. It has the height of SUVs and interior of Sedans, it succeeded in attracting people who were sick of Sedans. The resale value of the “20G FOUR” is a very high percentage of 59 – 69%. The second was Honda’s “CR-V”. The new model, launched in autumn of 2006, is receiving high commendation because of its roomy space and sophisticated style. The resale value is 58 – 67%, not much less than the top rate. The third, Nissan’s “Extrail” went through a full-model change in August, 2007 and with the wider use of “scratch guard coat paint” gave a plus factor when thinking about resale. Honda’s “Crossroad 20Xi 4WD” came fourth, Mitsubishi’s “Pajero Long Super Exceed” came fifth. The sixth was Toyota’s “RAV4 SPORT”. All the top 6 are Japanese and made by 4 manufacturers. They are all putting a lot of effort in, aren’t they?

From the seventh and lower all are imported SUVs. “BMW X5 4.8i”, “BMW X3 3.0i”, “Chrysler Jeep Wrangler Sport” and “Volkswagen Touareg V6 Stolz” came in this order. This shows that people have different purposes for these cars from off-road to city riding.

As a matter of fact, this survey was done just before the launch of the “Land Cruiser 200”, so the car was not included. However, soon after its launching, they checked the resale value of the “Land Cruiser 200” and it was easily the top rate of 67 – 74%. The ‘Land Cruiser 200” is very popular not only in Japan but worldwide and is still popular after 3 years. This time, it was done at 3 years but even if they do this survey at 5 years and 10 years, or by mileage at 100,000Km and 200,000Km, I am sure the resale value of land cruisers would come to the top. But if they are old and with high mileage, the buyers will not be in Japan but overseas, so the resale value drops dramatically if it is not manual transmission model. This is because when an automatic car breaks, the whole transmission will have to be changed but with manual transmission, a local mechanics can fix it easily.
After writing about resale value, I do realise that cars are a financial commodity. If we can control the depreciation rate and resale value, there might be some tax benefit. No – it would be a more specialized topic from here, so I had better stop here.


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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
3B YS-Building, 1-2-2 Botan, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955

Resale value ranking – imported cars

When buying a new car, some people choose it thinking about resale value in a few years time. If they can sell the car for a high price, it increases the budget for the purchase of the next car and seeing their loved car is sold for a good price must be good for the car, too. The resale prices of used cars reflect the popularity and quality of the cars.
I have data collected by a think-tank of the car industry to show the resale value by cars 3 years after they are bought brand new.
(* Resale value is the number showing how much cars retain their value 3 years after being bought brand new and it is shown as a percentage of the resale price to the original price. The higher the number is, the less the cars have lost their value than when they were first bought.)

First of all, the car which came first in the resale value ranking of imported cars is the “Mini”. Especially, the grade “Cooper S” it has a resale value of 62 – 70%. Thanks to the devoted fans, it showed its strength in retaining its value. Without changing their cute forms, they increased power performance such as engine and safety structures; they are still attracting many users.

The second was the “BMW 3 series Cabriolet”. The new model, launched in February was the first BMW with a full-metal hardtop. Compared to the more expensive 6 series, they do not look bad for the money. The resale value of a “335i Cabriolet” is 55 – 61% and retains a value of more than the half of the cost price after 3 years.

The third was one of the luxury fixtures, “Ferrari 599”. The 4th was “Mercedes Benz R Class”, the popular 3-row 6 seats model and the 5th was also “Mercedes Benz C Class”. With a successful defiant change of image, the “C Avant-Garde” has a fearless and sporty face and became popular very quickly. Because of high sales of new cars, a lot of them are expected to be on the market as used cars in the near future; so the resale value was somewhere between 54 – 59%.

The 6th was “Porsche911 Carrera” (resale value 54 – 59%), “Porsche CaymanS G” (53 – 59%) 7th, “BMW X5 4.8i” 8th, “Mini Cooper S Convertible” 9th and “BMW 320i Touring” 10th. In the top 10, there were 3 of BMWs, 2 of Minis, 2 of Mercedes Benz and 2 of Porsche listed: we can see strong brand power here. We can also see some models with distinctive design keep their popularity for a long time with their scarcity. The next issue would be about the resale value of ever popular SUV cars.


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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
3B YS-Building, 1-2-2 Botan, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955

Ranking the durability of cars

The other day, an American research company published the result of their survey. They asked more than 46,000 Americans who had bought brand new cars 3 years ago if they had problems with them 3 years later. Here is the list of car manufacturers with the least complaints.

1. Buick & Jaguar
3. Lexus
4. Toyota
5. Mercury
6. Infinity
7. Acura
8. Lincoln
9. Honda & Cadillac

The top were GM’s Buick which came 5th last year and with the same points, Jaguar, which has been bought by India’s Tata Group and was the 9th last year.
Japanese cars, popular because they do not easily break, had been the top for the last 14 years, but have dropped to 3rd: Toyota came 4th, Honda’s prestigious brand Acura came 7th, Honda came 9th. In total, Japanese cars were still strong and 5 of the top 10 brands were Japanese car brands.
In their model ranking by car types, Toyota was the top in 5 different segments, Lexus in 4 segments and Lincoln in 2 segments.
In the USA, during this severe recession, people are keeping their cars longer than before. In 2006, it was 65 months but in 2009 it became 73 months. To keep cars for a longer time, the durability of cars is getting more important. Not only does it raise the satisfaction of the users who have them for a long time, it affects greatly when they choose a new car and need to decide on the brand and model of the car to buy later on.
This survey revealed that, how often they had to change the parts or had troubles with their cars affect the loyalty to cars. Out of the users who said that they would choose the same brand cars again, 40% were the people who had never had the engine changed or any other minor troubles with their car but only 11% would do so if they experienced some troubles.
The company also found that, the users of Buick, Lincoln, Mercury and Jaguar had lower numbers of parts changes. There was not much difference in the number between expensive brands and fleet cars but was greatly different depending on the segments. The least parts change needed were luxury sport cars and vans required the most parts change.
For all of us in the world, trouble-free cars are the best. It seems a bit strange that luxury sport cars need the least parts changed but I guess because it is expensive, the drivers drive them carefully. I sometimes have a chance to drive a Mercedes Benz and Porsche, because they are such an expensive car, I tend to concentrate more on my driving. On the other hand, the reason for commercially used vans require more parts changes is because it is used commercially and people tend to drive rough and not to worry about its maintenance.
This survey did not include the history of the car maintenance but I can tell you that if you regularly maintain your car, it should not breakdown easily.


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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
3B YS-Building, 1-2-2 Botan, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955

Exhibition of the Buddhist ashura

Last Sunday, with my wife I went to “The special exhibition of the national treasure Ashura”, shown only for a limited time at Tokyo National Museum (Ueno park). This exhibition commemorates the 1300th anniversary of Kofukuji Temple, Nara and to raise funds for the restoration project of the temple. When we got there, it was around 4 o’clock in the afternoon. It was about 1 hour before the closing time, so there were not many people there and we took time to have a good look around. One of the people there told us that they had so many people visit in the morning that most of them had to wait for 1 hour to get inside.

The Ashura is a national treasure earmarked as one of the important cultural assets of the country. It must be one of the most famous Buddhist statues in Japan. It is a wooden statue made almost 1300 years ago from today. With 3 faces, it stands with 6 arms, some palms facing toward the sky. Although it has experienced repeated fires and arson at the temple and wars, it still holds the original shape even after 1300 years; so it is really precious that we can still see it right in front of our eyes. It is usually kept in a glass case at the Kofukuji Temple. To see its faces, we could only see from a distance and could only have the front view. But this time, it is exposed and we were allowed to get as close as 1m to the statue, checking it from a 360 degree view. I do not think I would have another chance like this in my life time.

Looking close, Ashura’s 3 faces are all attractive and small, and it has a tiny body. Most Buddhist statues we see at temples usually look angry or smiley but Ashura does not look angry or smiley. But it is not emotionless. It has a dignified expression on its faces – it was like the love it has sent to so many people over a long, long time. If we look at things philosophically, without any dark side of human nature such as desires, foul passions, distresses, etc., we might look like the statue one day.

Because it was just before closing time and not many people around, I stood in front of the statue for a long time. I felt really good after feeling pure energy coming out of Ashura.

We are lucky because we live in Tokyo where this sort of rare art and cultural exhibitions always come not only from all over Japan but all over the world. I have been to a lot of exhibitions of art and Buddhist statues. The organizers of the exhibition said that it was extremely rare opportunity and not going to be repeated in this century. I was incredibly lucky.

On the way home, we stopped at “Ameyoko”, a famous wholesale market. It was also just about closing time, so I bought a big chunk of oily belly tuna cheap after a bit of negotiation of the price. Have I used up all my luck?


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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
3B YS-Building, 1-2-2 Botan, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
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Fierce competition among highway bus services

In Japan, the main transport for a long distance journey used to be airplanes or bullet trains. However, now becoming more popular is highway buses. The reasons are that they are “cheap” and “luxurious”.

Of course, bus trips should be cheap; but now we have some bus companies offering ridiculously cheap fares. For example, the trip between Tokyo and Osaka, a customary discounted one way ticket costs JPY 12000～JPY 13000 by bullet train but the cheapest bus fare is an incredible JPY 3400!! The bus is a standard type with 4 seats in a row and no toilet on it. If you want a reclining chair or a toilet on the bus, you can upgrade your ticket for only JPY 500. On the other hand, there is an auxiliary seat option and you can use the service for JPY 2100.

So if you use this service, it will be a lot cheaper than using bullet train if you use it for a round trip. If you use an overnight one, you can travel while you are asleep and you will not waste your time. For bullet trains and airplanes, you have to think about the time to get to the nearest station or airport and if you want to get to the destination early in the morning, you will have to get up even earlier but even if you get up early, because of the time table, you can only get to Osaka at 8:30am. If you use a night bus, you can get to Osaka at 7:00 in the morning. You can sleep on the bus and Voila! You get there at the usual wake-up time. This is the reason for their popularity.

Now the buses are not just competing in price, they are making their service more comfortable. One of the bus companies uses a bus with large seats (big enough to put 2 people in each). You can also receive terrestrial digital media broadcasting and the one-way ticket is JPY 9900. Another bus company has luxury seats, a TV and a DVD player, outlets for computers and even wireless LAN on the bus and their one-way ticket costs JPY 11000, almost the same as a bullet train ticket.

The reason for this fierce competition among bus companies is the change in the road transport law in 2002. For route buses, bus companies have to use their own buses and employees but if it is a long distance tour bus, the company who organises the tour and the company who actually owns the bus can be different. A travel agent can decide how many buses they want to hire, depending on the number of passengers; so they can cut unnecessary cost and lower the fares. Thus, the tour bus industry expanded their business largely within a short time.

Especially, when the oil price went up extremely last year, more people started using buses after getting rid of their own cars. So with more people wanting to use buses, the competition among bus companies is getting fierce by lowering fares and increasing quality.

Japan’s economy is not getting better and even if it gets a bit better, it does not always means working people would end up with more cash in hand. I think that we will see more of these type of tour buses as long as people are looking to cut costs or a bit of luxury.

So if you have a chance to come to Japan, please try one of the highway buses.


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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
3B YS-Building, 1-2-2 Botan, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955