In the U.K. once a new car has reached three years of age, you have to take your car to an M.O.T. center every 12 months.
At the M.O.T. centre, the car undergoes a series of checks to ensure that the car meets certain specific requirements (effective breaks, emissions, bodywork, lights etc etc).
If the car does not pass the test, you must have it repaired to their recommended standards before you can legally drive the car on public roads.

Do you have these sorts of controls on cars within your country / state ?

 

In California you have to pass a bi-annual smog test before you can renew your license tag (Cars over 25 years old are exempt.) It's really another rip-off of the motorist, and a way for garages to make some more cash. They don't check for any other car defects (like lights or brakes - just for smog emission). It's a joke - especially when you see so many black smoke-belching diesel vehicles on the road (I think diesels may be exempt too), such as older Mercedes and school buses (which are about the worst!). Then, when you see F4 jets flying overhead, it seems that all that effort trying to stop pollution from cars on the ground has just been wiped out in one fly-by of just a few of those planes.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by 1Y2KS2K
[B]In California you have to pass a bi-annual smog test before you can renew your license tag (Cars over 25 years old are exempt.)

 

We don't even bother (re) testing our drivers when they renew, why would we bother testing the cars they drive?

I disagree with the DOT on both accounts, for the record.

 

In Oz it varies from state to state. In NSW for example I believe they have regular (annual?) inspections whereas in Qld you can drive any rusted out POS held together by duct tape as long as you don't let the registration run out.

 

I don't like the CA smog test. One of the reasons I'm getting rid of the Civic. If not for the high cost of getting it smogged for being all fixed up, I'd keep it as a beater.

 

As I understand in Japan, the initial certificate ("Shaken") lasts for 3 years I think. After that you have to get a new one every 2 years. This requires a test of the car and compulsory servicing of certain parts, enough to cost you about US$1,000 every two years. Once the car reaches 10 years old, then you have to have the Shaken replaced every year.

As you can imagine, most cars on the road, certainly in the Tokyo area, are pretty new....

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by tokyo_james
[B]As I understand in Japan, the initial certificate ("Shaken") lasts for 3 years I think.

 

Andy I think you are right. Second hand prices for most cars are pretty low here.

Unfortunately in Japan the S2K seems to have got cult status already and prices are not falling very quickly on them here.

I have also been advised that the garages are pretty bad with repair work, so never touch a crach repaired car from Japan.

 

Here's what I know, in Japan ... The price of a new car including on road costs, that's your tax and whatever beureacratic crap that you have to pay is less than that of maintaining an older car. So the trend in Japan is, after a few years say approximately 3 years depending individually again they sell the old car or trade it in for a new one instead. Why not? In Japan, cars are cheap like anything and you get the best of JDM ... Hah!

Anyway, so those loads and loads of used Japanese cars whether performance, luxury or general commuting use is stacked up in car yards all over the country for cheap auctions generally and I mean real dirt cheap because there is no demand in the country for it. Then comes along these grey importers, usually small companies but sometimes large companies are involved as well go and select what they like. Buy it with their own funds first, export it to the country of their origin ... Mark up the price dramatically depending on local demand on their side and that's how they make their money.

Basically, if you live in a country where a personal grey import is not much of a problem like UK I'm quite aware of then you can go to Japan. Open a bank account like with Bank Tokyo which happens to be owned by Mitsubitshi or something like that anyway ... [You need this to bid and ultimately buy a car of your choice], and you go shop for something you like anywhere in the country. You bid, you win ... Sort out the paperwork, funds are transferred accordingly and you ship the car back home to the envy of your buddies. While you get to save on quite a bit of money exchanging hands but you take the effort to ensure the car you bought is exactly what it is, not something sometimes rigged KMs or jigsaw puzzled cars of parts put together from junk elsewhere in terms also known as buying a Lemon.