slowandlow

i would say the biggest in mi is ram chargers

ecr527

Nothing down here in Florida even comes close to a sliver of what they are selling.

IS350_PHIL

iTrader: (2)

geez. I would spend all my money and have to live in my car if those places were anywhere near me.

Showdown

holy crap, a car junky's dream

t0e

iTrader: (1)

This is why i love japan

shrka

sweet! I work near autobacs...but never been there. is it like in the pix?

ihkskim

close enough yeah

miss_IS300

Is that Up Garage??? Its a shame that they refuse to ship to the U.S.

G35TOIS350

They prob have my two M.I.A RS-GT's over there

uschardcor

what you guys aren't realizing is how Japan works. even the people with damn high paying jobs can't find a decent appt to live in let alone a house around the cities. its so overpopulated the amount for a nice roomy appt or house its astronomical, so they spend LARGE percentages of their income on cars. human nature to show off ur status symbol some how, if u cant do it with a house cause no one else can, can't do it with ur clothes becuase everyone has the same ****, u custom out ur car. the market is no where near what the US will ever have as far as interest/capita

MrMark

iTrader: (3)

Imagine the inventory dollar sucked up by all that product.....and imagine the risk of selecting the right products that will eventually sell, and imagine the residual inventory that will have to be written off when it doesn't sell....especially the wheels, and imagine the obsolescence write-off when new models come out....

.....sorry, my accountant side coming out


This kind of shop will not survive here with the flood of consumers who always compare everything to how much they can get it on eBay....but it would be nice...

kensteele

so i'm in japan right now, been in kyoto all day and for the past couple of days in osaka. had a chance to go into the lexus dealership. all i can say is amazing and this place, this country is very very nice and clean. i see a lot of nicer cars, too; lots of car dealerships (lexus is still new), but i've only been here a little while so i can't really say what's what. but i do know that lexus is luxury and if the lexus dealership in the us was half a good as the one here.....

i'm not feeling it on the specialty cars, yes all the little cars and vans all seem to have gps, and all the bmw and mercedes cars are here new and old, including a tiny tiny mercedes a150? nissan/infinity g- and m-cars but i don't see a whole lot of unusual aftermarket equipped cars. of course bicycles and motor bikes are a big deal but i'm not seeing the car as a big status symbol deal. as mentioned earlier, i don't know what is up with housing, not a big deal to anyone at all; seems that apartments are it.

evotolexus

These statements are quite exaggerated, but I understand your point. Yes, Japan is very crowded but the perception of Japan being so expensive is often exaggerated due to the comparison of our US prices. When looking at prices, we should consider all economical factors; main one being the income. Japanese wages are much higher than US wages which directly ties back to higher prices. The ratio of income/cost of living is proportionately equal to most places in the world.

I also wouldn't say most Japanese spend large percentages of their income on nice cars. Also wouldn't say it's due to a status symbol. Yes, there are a small groups which spend a lot of money on their cars, but that's the same as the US. Just like there are small groups which like to spend their money on jewelry, electronics, clothes, vacations, etc...
Nice products are not bought in Japan for status reasons, it's because Japanese are the biggest believers in quality and reliability. That's why the market for used goods is extremely cheap.

Lastly, not sure about the comment about everyone in Japan having the same clothes??? People in Japan express themselves in many different styles, colors, shapes, designers, etc... just as we do in the US.

evotolexus

Surprisingly enough, they move their inventory quite frequently. The aftermarket scene is so large that people are constantly swapping their parts at speed shops.

New models really have no affect on this scene as many cars will always have a large demand for aftermarket goods regardless of what is released. It's quite common to be able to walk into these speed shops and find many parts for certain cars that are 10+ years old as they will always be tuner favorites.

Definitely agree on your ebay comment. I personally would rather pay more money to be able to physically browse an inventory and bring it home the same day with a 100% guarantee rather than view online, pay shipping, wait for it to arrive, then hope you didn't get scammed.......

kensteele

Most of what you say about cars and status symbol appears to be true, not seeing it here in Japan; there are lots of suburbs in USA where you can immediately tell wealthy neighbourhood, nice cars. Not so apparent in greater Japanese cities where the tiny car, the mini van, and the bike totally rule.

I can see where the casual observer might think Japanese people do not express themselves well thru clothing. Just this morning I was standing on the street corner with black pants, nice white shirt, striped dark tie. I felt out of place because 99% of all males going to work (walking or biking) had on dark business suit. Mostly blacks and blues, some grey, some brown. Most all adult men wear ties. The females also dress nicely but there is no way they had the diversity you see in the American corporate workplace. None of those short skirts or high heels or cleavage or excessive jewelry.

Street workers all wear distinctive clothing, garedners have on green/pink colourful hats, security guard and traffic directer wear full-dress uniforms like bellboy, cabbies all wear hats, middle school kids wear uniforms (public school). Every now and again you see the jeans and the people who dare to look out of place by dressing differently. Not trying to generalise but this is the way it appears on the surface.

Otherwise I've noticed in the nighttime and evenings at shopping and restuarants you have variations but that's the young people now. The style is not very different from young america but the colours are more drab and overall people here just don't seem to pay that much attention to the clothing as far as i can tell. but that only after observing for 3 days in 2 cities.

I should add that the women here are absolutely beautiful and rank up there highest to anywhere else I've seen in the world. I don't speak the language (I'm American) but for some reason, we've still been able to communicate and get along so well.