JCD BLOG

I’ve had such great access to supercars since I came to Japan.
Generous friends and acquaintances in the “car scene” here have let me spend time with their treasured, magic machines. And they are magic; pure mechanical magic. Even their names are magic: Lamborghini, Lotus, Ferrari, Mclaren; Countach, 348, 355, Modena, Esprit, Elise, Exege, 570S. Because […]

Many More 15 year old models available today!
Every year, more JDM vehicles become 15 years old, making them legally importable to Canada from Japan. In this article, we present four great JDM models that finally come of age. They range from an exhilarating sports car to an exceptionally practical van and we think all are […]

Many great JDM European cars are reaching their 25th birthday in 2020 — which means you can legally import them to your home country even if you live in the United States.
Japan may not be the first market that comes to mind when searching for a used European car. But there are many advantages to […]

In our first blog post here about Minitruck Options we looked at Scissors Lifts, Dump Beds, and the Four Wheel Drive systems that you can get on the Japanese kei trucks that you can import from Japan.

Now what about the available transmissions?

Transmission Options

Back in the day (wow! I’m old enough now to say things like […]

Simple. Cheap. Capable. Reliable.

A simple, traditional, (ladder-frame) truck body. Low running costs (good on gas and inexpensive parts). Good load capacity and off road ability (you’ll be amazed what it can carry and where it can go). Reliability (just goes and goes and needs little care or attention). That’s the Japanese Kei Truck (or Kei […]

Two Really Fine Post-October-1998 Japanese Kei Sports Cars
You’ll recall that in our second post on Japanese Kei Sports cars here we talked about the changes in Kei Car specification rules after October of 1998: basically Kei cars all get 10cm (just less than four inches) longer, and 8cm (just over three inches) wider; and they do […]

The Pre ’98 Exotics
I’ve been singing the praises of the hatchback-type Japanese Kei Sports cars in the earlier posts (check out Part 1 and Part 2) about these vehicles on our blog here at Japan Car Direct, and, if my editor would let me, I’d continue on and on about how great these cars are. […]

Buy Your Open-Top Sports Car in the Middle of Winter?!?
Yes.
And no, I’m not crazy.
It’s the middle of winter in Japan now. So why am I writing to you about the great, low mileage, good condition sports cars that are available in Japan for you to import to the USA, the UK, Canada, and the EU […]

The True Go Anywhere Car
So one day I took my SJ10 Suzuki Jimny to one of those off road parks where you can go wild and bang around in your 4WD, doing all the extreme (and stupid) off road things that you would never do in the real wild country for fear of wrecking your […]