Article

2008-10-03 Home Front Economy

Japan's Carmakers Hit Hard As Exports to U.S. Plummet

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Posted by Fred 2008-10-03 00:00|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 Tokyo = New DETROIT, as per major Auto companies???

Also, methinks that should be written as "CONGESTED/CROWDED" BIG CITIES.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2008-10-03 00:46|| 2008-10-03 00:46|| Front Page Top

#2 Maybe our balance of payments will improve.

Posted by Jolutch Mussolini7800 2008-10-03 08:43|| 2008-10-03 08:43|| Front Page Top

#3 Excellent public transportation in Tokyo and other major Japanese cities allows commuters to get to work without having to pay some of the world's highest car taxes, tolls, and insurance and parking costs.

They've been relying on car taxes, tolls, gasoline taxes, et al to subsidize mass transit. It's gonna be a bitch to replace that funding once all the drivers are gone, isn't it? And then there's the taxes on domestic profits from car companies - that's not there any more, is it?

Posted by Zhang Fei 2008-10-03 09:30|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com]">[http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2008-10-03 09:30|| Front Page Top

#4 Another factor not mentioned, are laws/rules against owning older cars. This would cause car upgrades every 3 - 5 years.

Many of these have been relaxed, and so the article mentions keeping older cars but the impact of that cannot be well understood without the knowledge of the old car rules.

Used to cost increasingly more to license an older car in Japan, and was very discouraged.

Posted by bombay">bombay 2008-10-03 15:52|| 2008-10-03 15:52|| Front Page Top

#5 Here come the layoffs. I dont pitty the Japanese but the cars are made here.

Posted by 49 Pan 2008-10-03 16:06|| 2008-10-03 16:06|| Front Page Top

#6 Another factor not mentioned, are laws/rules against owning older cars.

Thanks for the tip. I knew about these laws, but had no idea they had been relaxed. Finally, democracy rears its ugly head over the godheads / industrial policy freaks at MITI.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2008-10-03 17:10|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com]">[http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2008-10-03 17:10|| Front Page Top

#7 I dont pitty the Japanese but the cars are made here.

Not all cars are made stateside. The ones referenced in the article are made in Japan.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2008-10-03 17:12|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com]">[http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2008-10-03 17:12|| Front Page Top

#8 No Prob Zhang,

A lot of it has to do with some grass roots support for the 'classic' Japanese cars ... i.e. Surpa / Skyline / etc.

Not all the rules are gone by a long shot, but enough relaxing has occured to where you can now consider keeping an older car whereas before it was a no brainer to upgrade.

Posted by bombay">bombay 2008-10-03 18:04|| 2008-10-03 18:04|| Front Page Top

#9 Are they making engines or trannies in the US?

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2008-10-03 18:07|| 2008-10-03 18:07|| Front Page Top

#10 This is a fine example of what happens to export economies during a downturn. I would expect to hear similar tales from Germany.

I wish we had reliable news from China.

Posted by Mike N. 2008-10-03 18:11|| 2008-10-03 18:11|| Front Page Top

23:49 Flitch the Imposter aka Broadhead6
23:47 Flitch the Imposter aka Broadhead6
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23:14 Barbara Skolaut
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22:54 Pappy
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