This is my first time visiting and when my hosts were gracious enough to drive my around nearly the entire island! So I got to see so much in a week and this included the vehicles!! This is a RHD country but you can drive LHD or RHD cars. Many are imported directly from Japan or from here.

As yall know I pride myself in my auto knowledge so I was eager to see so many cars we don't get!! It was really fun. I am also on the local car forum there (of course lol) and this was fun, our very own D2 has a car recently imported there. Sadly I did not get to see it.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...rs-cousin.html



Okay on to the review. First the roads which are seemingly all one lane roads with a few two lane roads in the city. There are not many traffic lights and in less desirable sections, there is an unwritten rule that you can go through the red light once you check for traffic, the cops won't bug you. To me there were two types of roads;
-pretty fantastic and recently paved roads
- roads seemingly hit by a meteor shower .

It seems everyone has memorized where these pot holes are (they are abundant) so people drive pretty fast and avoid them. Speaking of driving fast, there is no slow or medium there. Only fast!! Driving in Miami, Atlanta or New York has NOTHING on here. You have to HAUL ALL *** 100% of the time. It is a HUGE slap in the face to our moronic laws here that make people think speed kills.

I did not see ONE single accident. Not one. And EVERYONE drives aggressive.

The major reason for that is the license test is not the cake-walk it is here when someone that can't speak English, people that have never driven a motor vehicle, people that hate driving, people that have no intentions of being a good driver, understand English, teens that have never stepped in a car before pass with flying colors and then LEARN on the roads. Their test is much tougher including a MANUAL test of driving up and down steep inclines.

The car scene is CLEARLY dominated by two brands. Toyota then Honda. I would say 60-70% of the vehicles there are from both brands. Next is Mitsubishi then Nissan to me. In regards to luxury cars, the tops were Lexus/Lexus varients and BMW, then followed by Mercedes Benz (saw my first A-class, it was actually pretty cool looking!!). After than a handful of Audi's and a few Acuras/Acura varients.

What really stood out was how heavy the modification scene was. While we CLEARLY have more modified cars here b/c of the population difference, it seemed to me like at least HALF of the cars were modified in some way or another. It was pretty amazing to see how car enthusiasts love cars no matter where they are. Most were Hondas and looked like the same modified Hondas here, pretty ricey so I felt right at home. I see opportunity here.

This is a very mountainous island so when you leave the city, its just some amazing scenery. Rivers, coconut trees, ackee trees, beaches, water, just wonderful. Beautiful. Now people haul *** up and down these mountains like no tomorrow so it could worry some but I was fine riding with my hosts. My "Tail of the Dragon Crew" would feel RIGHT AT HOME here except the roads were tough. Now there are shuttle buses/vans that run from city to city and these drivers are specially trained to drive with a full load going as fast as possible 24/7. Its funny to be passed by buses all the time and you see it full of people.

Another fun part in Jamaica is a beautiful island where people do road trips constantly so there are always rest stops and food places (jerk anyone!) and "bars" seemingly everywhere. That means stopping for some corn/crawfish soup or stopping in a resort area like Montego Bay for some jerk chicken/pork.

I really enjoyed my time riding around there. I rode in mostly Toyotas and a Pajero (our Montero). Pics below

IS/Altezza is very popular
Not even sure what that van is!!
The Land Cruiser Prado is EXTREMELY popular (our GX)

 

I almost wanted to start another thread (I may in the GX forum) as I was blown away by the amount of Land Cruiser Prado's there. It is a VERY VERY popular vehicle. Yall know the GX was never my favorite Lexus and one that until this trip, made my scratch my head. Now I completely understand why its popular. Now Prado's there usually have a diesel or 4 cylinder powerplant but they are workhorses. Also the dimensions of the Prado(GX) are perfect for mountain runs as its not as big/wide as our LX/Land Cruiser or a Sequoia. Then the Prado can fit 7 people in a pinch, which really comes in handy.

I have a completely different appreciation for the GX now and when you wonder why a vehicle is the way it is sometimes, well we are not the biggest market for it.

Pic 1 is of a Harrier....it was a friends car. It had no sunroof and cloth seats. What I was surprised about was it had E-SHIFT like the old IS/GS. Our RX did not offer this feature.

Pic 2 is one of the stops.....this was for crawfish soup and corn....

Pic 3 is going through the mountains.....

Pic 4 is some of the newly paved highway

Pic 5 is the interior of an older Camry

 

Pic 1-A familiar scene, surrounded by vehicles I am unfamiliar with
Pic 2-A place to get tires, air etc.....
Pic3- A Mark II
Pic4- GOATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pic5-The country has tons of signs like this around...some regarding staying courteous, some about drinking and driving, some about being attentive...

 

Pic1-is called the "Flat" bridge. Its one way and so low and flat during heavy rains its covered by the river and the road has to close.
Pic2-on the way to Ocho Rios we had to pass this mountain. They are building a road through it to cut the travel time by half.
Pic3-taken from on top the mountain..this is the new road to pass through..
Pic4-Some construction
Pic5-Some of the very liberal passing taking place

 

Nice pics of Jamaica

Anyways, aren't they also known for yummy Jamaican patties and reggae-type music?

 

Pic1-An area called "FernGully". Its amazing, it drops into the countryside and as you can see you are surrounded by ferns and shrubs etc. The temperature during this road felt 20 degrees lower, very cool. There are lot of workers picking up the leaves on the sides to keep it looking good for tourists.
Pic2-A fire truck in Ocho Rio's right before "Duns on the River"
Pic3-A rest stop...it was beautiful. What is sad is it is off the OLD highway. Since the new highway was built, traffic has been minimal here and its always slow here now.
Pic4-An Ad for a Jamaican race car driver at a Shell. I have no idea what van that is
Pic5-In Montego Bay......

 

Pic1-Yes the Toyota "Noah".....you have to be a bold brave man to rear end this vehicle.
Pic2-I honestly thought that was a GX and then I walked up to it and it pissed me off that it was a Nissan X-trail.....fooled me good
Pic3-The only newer Skyline I Saw. I saw a few older ones including sedans.
Pic4-In Negril.....no pics of cars but some boats....
Pic5-One of the main reasons we drove from Kingston to Negril....the sunset here is beyond breathtaking and a huge attraction.

 

Pic1-...the story is its from England and they shipped it here....Its a Toyota truck called the "california"....
Pic2-Toyota Probox..like a cross between a wagon, van 5 seater.
Pic3-JDM stickers I am assuming
Pic4-Toyota Hulix at the Bob Marley Home
Pic5-Bob Marley's actual Land Rover

Bob also had a BMW and he loved it b/c BMW stood for "Bob Marley and the Wailers"

 

Pic1-A Nissan Caravan..not a Dodge Caravan...

I might share pics of everything in another thread in the Clubhouse....just wanted to share some of the car scene there. Again there are a lot of modifed cars there and I wish I could have snapped pics of the ones I saw.

Indeed...and here the patties are so much better.....there are also patty shops off the roads so you can get some to eat on the way to where you are going.

Though the BEST chicken patties were at this place called the "Devon House"
http://www.devonhousejamaica.com/
With literal chunks of curry chicken inside..sold at "the brick oven" there....

Here is a pic of the selections at a patty shop....including Lobster and Shrimp patties!

 

look at the mirror on the rear window of the Nissan caravan. What's up with that?

 

That is really 1SICKTRIP. Congrats on your trip and thanks for sharing the pictures. I am from Jamaica and go back often. It is amazing to see all of the cars available to the country. What is seldom known is how expensive it is to import a car to JA. My aunt and unlce recently moved back and we were going through all the hasstle of shipping cars. The import taxes are anywhere from 100-200% the price of the car.

My uncle shipped his brand new Highlander, and it cost $45K US in order to get it there. What is even more amazing is that it was still cheaper than buying the new Highlander from a dealer in JA. Makes me wonder who the IS-F from D2 is going to!

 

Mike -- great pics and I really enjoyed the way you presented it, thank you.

I've never had the pleasure of going there but it looks like great place, with good food and goats!

As much as I love cars, this picture of the coastline is really nice.

 

Awesome Mike, looks like a wonderful time !! Looking forward to see more pics

I am sure that's good, but where's the goat head soup ?

 

I love Jamaica. I have been there a couple of times. Lots of fun. The jerk chicken was solid and the beaches decent. I still think Hawaii is a bit more beautiful and safer

 

Great perspective on Jamaica, much of it off the beaten path. Thanks for posting the pics, now I'm getting hungry.

My wife went to Jamaica once and loved it too.