Cars

So if you’ve ever been to Japan, one thing that is very noticable is that all the cars look new. They’re all shiny, glossy, and nice. You never see old rust buckets–save for maybe a work truck out in the country. Comparing this to America, its strange, because you see a lot more clunkers hanging around the streets of Detroit that you ever would… anywhere in Japan. I brought this up with someone the other day, and they shined some light upon the subject. I was talking to an Australian, who had lived in Japan for a few years back in the early 2000s. She said she bought a used car, only to find Japan wouldn’t let her register it. The car was maybe 7-8 years old, still good condition, ran great, but Japan had deemed it ‘Not road worthy.’. It makes me wonder if Japanese people go out and buy new cars every 3-4 years… I mean, I guess when you have a transit system as complete as the Japanese system, it’s not as critical to have a car. I also would posit that by having such a far-reaching transit system, cars wouldn’t rack up mileage as quickly either?