I was wondering how everyone got into Japanese cars, many are bought up on American cars, especially if you are a little older. The moment for me, was when I was about 12, circa 1994. I had a car passion already, yes I liked Corvettes and Porsches, But I really loved european exotics, especially the Ferrari 512TR, and the Lamborghini Diablo. I kind of knew of the Nissan 300zx, Totota Supra, Acura NSX, and Mazda RX-7, reading comparisions and seeing pictures in magazines, but didn't have any real emotion for them. It took a video game, no not grand turismo, that will come later. It was the original Road and Track presents the Need for Speed video game for my Sega Saturn. I bought it because it had the Ferrari 512TR and Lamborghini Diablo. Unlike games of today, they had real car profiles, featuring specs, info, pictures and yes, actual video. The Jap cars, they had are the NSX, Supra, and RX-7, I was watching live videos of these cars for the first time, and really began to fall in love with them, and then wanted to get any info on them etc.. so yeah a video game got me into liking japanese cars. btw I never really heard about or really knew about the might Skyline GT-R until I got Gran turismo, but that is another story. So what did it for you?

 

Always admired and respected famous cars from all regions, but my experience with the reliability and maintenance expenses of Volkswagen (and, to a limited extent, Mercedes-Benz) drove me to Japanese cars for my first car purchase.

 

When i was little my Dad had a couple of Nissan's so growing up around him plus one of his friends had a fixed up 280Z Turbo that was really nice well ever since those days just started getting into the Japanese cars as i got older and just thought they look better fixed up then American Cars. IMO

 

reliability.

 

I grew up loving Porsches & Camaros/Firebirds (KnightRider). Once I got into the family "hand me down" 87 Celica everything changed. I'll sacrifice status for reliablity anyday.

 

My family is asian.

 

I was always into domestics, especially Camaro, Trans-Am, mustang, Chevelle, etc. My best friends Mom had a 1st gen. 1976 Honda Accord. I tell you, that thing was the smoothest running, slickest shifting car in the world. It was an amazing car. I wanted to keep my drivers license so I sold my built 1971 Camaro and bought a 1979 Accord Hatch. Loved that car. After the Camaro, I thought the gas gage was broken!! Been driving mostly Hondas (non-riced) ever since.

 

I don't purposely select my cars by country of origin, but over the years I've owned cars from Japan, US, Germany, England.

The Japanese cars that I've owned were selected based on design and driving characteristics and include Lexus, Toyota, Honda, Acura cars. And the reliability has been very good overall.

 

Did I read this right?

You finally admit that the Japanese brands are more reliable...lol.

 

Styling, reliability, value, user-friendliness are all reasons got me into Japanese cars. Toyota make the best luxury cars and family cars, Nissan make the best sports and sporty cars, Honda make the best small cars, Mazda make the best looking cars. Besides BMW, these four are my favorite automakers.

 

My wife.

I've driven US cars all my life until our Lexus'. My '89 T-bird Supercoupe was easily the best car anyone in my family has owned, even with the pos 5 speed manual. Had 290 000 km on it with no major issues.

Once my wife test drove the RX her mind was made up and we were into our first Japanese vehicle. Realistically, had Lexus not come out with the IS F, I would have looked at a German car. The reliability and positive experience with the RX kept us with Lexus....for now.

 

Dad had a 1990 Acura Legend as the company car when we first moved here then later on that became my high school car. I was very into Honda/Acura because of that car so I replaced it with a '97 Honda Accord and that got me through six years of college and grad school. My heart was dead set on the last gen TL but the debut of the 2IS, especially the IS350, quickly changed that. I was briefly considering the e90 330i but that didn't last long after the test drives...

 

It's a little hard to argue with facts. I've never been delusioned enough to argue otherwise.

 

We have similar cars. Ever since my family immigrated to the U.S. in 1992 my parents got a 1988 Mazda 626 as a used car. It wasn't a bad car. Then they got a 95 Toyota Camry LE V6 and replaced it with a 01 Acura 3.2CL coupe in 2000. I got my first car, a used 1995 Honda Accord EX V6 sedan with salvage title(but the car was completely trouble-free through the five and a half years I owned it, what a great car) in my junior year in college in 1997 all the way through grad school. Then I got a 2003 Infiniti G35 sedan and now driving an 2IS. Most cars we have owned are Japanese.

 

i grew up loving benzes until my family got the first RX.

after that, i admired the japanese culture that seeks to be perfect, this itch to make the best product. after that, it was easy to stay attached to a nice service advisor, loaner cars, and reliability

note: i dont love all japanese cars, just lexus and toyota. i base my cars more on their traditional values, and not by their origin