![]() ![]() Since many of these cars are still in good condition and have low miles, they attract American enthusiasts and collectors. In Japan, older cars are subjected to increasingly restrictive testing that effectively encourages owners to sell them. The lure of ‘JDM’ carsĪ popular niche for imported cars is the Japanese Domestic Market, or JDM for short. While many are inexpensive, they are not easy to insure or finance, and their age and size mean compromises on safety and comfort. Since most of these cars are from the early ’90s, they come with a manual transmission, which means you also have to shift with your left hand. It requires some practice to drive a right-hand-drive car on American roads, but you quickly get used to it, says Simpson. This opens up a niche market for budget-minded collectors.īut before you buy a Nissan Figaro or the adorable Honda Beat sports car, or the Suzuki Carry Mini-Truck, you need to know that they are small - some are tiny - have the steering wheel on the right side and often lack the features we’ve become used to, such as air conditioning. safety and emissions standards (some states have additional restrictions). Once a car is 25 years old, it can be imported without meeting U.S. To top that off, you can have fun driving one for a few years and perhaps even sell it at a profit. Unlike German, English or Italian collectibles, Japanese imported cars are more reliable, easier to maintain and sometimes use parts that are interchangeable with available U.S. “For not a lot of money, you can get a car that you don’t see on every street corner,” he says. “It’s the aesthetics” that draws people to these cars, says Jim Simpson, a car designer and collector who has owned and restored dozens of Japanese cars and has an early 1990s Toyota Sera as a daily driver. Meanwhile, the rich guy across from you is all alone with his Ferrari because everyone’s already seen that car.Īt least that’s what importer Gary Duncan says after selling these unique foreign cars, many of them from Japan, for decades at his dealerships in Virginia and Tennessee. ![]() If you drive your cute, imported Nissan Figaro to a cars-and-coffee meetup, you’ll be mobbed with fans. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. On the other hand, sports cars that receive a stiffer suspension, such as the Nissan Skyline GT-R, can also be a JDM iteration.This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. ![]() Kei-class cars, which have been designed to take advantage of benefits from the Japanese government based on their size, engine capacity, and power output, are a great example of JDM cars intended only for domestic purchase. Differences could range from right-hand drive for JDM cars sold in Japan and left-hand drive for those bound for export, to lower speed limits in JDM cars to comply with Japanese safety regulations different model names are also common. Japanese automobile manufacturers cater their car models to specific target markets, leading to multiple versions of the same model for domestic and overseas customers, often known as region-exclusive models. Keep in mind that while some people might refer to all cars made in Japan as JDM models, this is not the case - the country where the car is manufactured is irrelevant to the JDM classification only the country where the car is sold is important. JDM is short for Japanese domestic market, and it is used to describe car models specifically produced for sale in Japan. ![]()
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