What is the obsession with Jap cars?

[r5gttgaz]

Now let me just don the flame suit! Ahh thats better, now this is in no way meant to rile the Jap car owners or cause trouble and being posted on PH I can be confident it will stay pretty stable once the posts come in. (I hope)

We have a lot of Jap car owners on our local forums and all they talk about is Jap Jap Jap, any discussion is always "Jap is best" "Jap is fastest" "Jap is the most powerful" So like the best supercar will be a Supra TT and the best hot hatch will be a Pulsar etc. When mentioning any other alternatives you are immediately shot down or they dont even know what car you are talking about because they have their Jap blinkers on and to hell with you if you suggest their car may have flaws or that you dont like it. Another thing is all this drift stuff, if you get a 200SX you are instantly elevated to Dori Master as you own a RWD car it means you can instantly go and win at D1, doesnt look like the case on here as the members seem more educated and mature but it sure as hell is pi$$ing me off. Arguments in a latest hot hatch post is that one Jap car had EFi before another car so that makes it great.

So is it a case watching Fast And The Furious on repeat for 8 Hrs a day or what?









>> Edited by r5gttgaz on Tuesday 9th May 09:12

>> Edited by r5gttgaz on Tuesday 9th May 09:16

[Paul-C]

r5gttgaz said:

Now let me just don the flame suit! Ahh thats better, now this is in no way meant to rile the Jap car owners or cause trouble and being posted on PH I can be confident it will stay pretty stable once the posts come in. (I hope) We have a lot of Jap car owners on our local forums and all they talk about is Jap Jap Jap, any discussion is always "Jap is best" "Jap is fastest" "Jap is the most powerful" So like the best supercar will be a Supra TT and the best hot hatch will be a Pulsar etc. When mentioning any other alternatives you are immediately shot down or they dont even know what car you are talking about because they have their Jap blinkers on and to hell with you if you suggest their car may have flaws or that you dont like it. Another thing is all this drift stuff, if you get a 200SX you are instantly elevated to Dori Master as you own a RWD car it means you car instantly go and win at D1, doesnt look like the case on here as the members seem more educated and mature but it sure as hell is pi$$ing me off. Arguments in a latest hot hatch post is that one Jap car had EFi before another car so that makes it great. So is it a case watching Fast And The Furious on repeat for 8 Hrs a day or what? >> Edited by r5gttgaz on Tuesday 9th May 09:12

They do appear to be a bit blinkered dont they Something to do with the Skyliars and Suprass compact and bijou Japanese Horsepower compared to British ones I think

They are right about RWD tho.

[Parrot of Doom]

When I see a Jap car with a decent interior that isn't made from wheely-bin plastic, then I'll like Jap cars

[Andyb_WRX]

I've not noticed this myself on here and I thought Jap Chat was quite a small forum. It doesn't matter what country or marquee, theres always going to be people like that.

[_Batty_]

Parrot of Doom said:

When I see a Jap car with a decent interior that isn't made from wheely-bin plastic, then I'll like Jap cars

don't think they where that bad to be honest, for the time.
you have to think that Supra was made 93 IIRC so the interior was typical for the time...

[Marquis_Rex]

I think it's just like any other type of car, certain narrow minded types will get blinkered toward that type.
I can totally empathise.
Alot of American boards are very Pro japanese. Does my head in. Locked into a certain way of thinking. Alot of the classic car fraternity will only concentrate on British marques. Anything German doesn't have character, even though it has an aircooled burbley flat six has the engine in the wrong place, but still zero character.

Guess it does stem from ignorance. No, actually it's usually more to do with bias.
I've never got into the Japanese car thing, but only a fool would say they're crap or dismiss them out of hand. They're usually very accomplished and when I see a mean wide arched Supra ( that isn't chaved) I'll always roll down the window to have a listen. Sadly "lack of character" is often cited against Jap cars also, alot in part because they usually quite dependable.

[LuS1fer]

Nothing wrong with Japanese cars. I recall the test of the Supra TT in the early 90's proclaiming it to be the fastest A to B car and much faster than the Ferrari of the time which I think was the 328 which was no great shakes anyway. They still said it was lacking in character though. Myths grow, time moves on but still some people glean knowledge from contemporaneous reports. Road tests of the 200SX at the time were no better than average and I aprticularly recall the later 200SX being pitted against the 1998 Camaro Z28 and coming a distant second.

The difficulty is everyone believes what they read to some extent and no-one has driven every car in the world so you judge by what you know. To be honest, who cares? If someone tells me their 200SX is the greatest car in the world, I'm not going to try and convince them otherwise as we'd all have the same cars. I'm sure they are good in many ways but best is always what you like or think you'd like.

[_Batty_]

Andyb_WRX said:

I've not noticed this myself on here and I thought Jap Chat was quite a small forum. It doesn't matter what country or marquee, theres always going to be people like that.

but Jap chat is for all makes of Jap cars, which is actually quiet a few marques.
If we where to group Italians etc im sure the concensus would be the same.
After all no-one points out that there is a huge following of german cars (dubbers etc)


>> Edited by _Batty_ on Tuesday 9th May 09:41

[Davi]

I reckon it has a lot to do with the Playstation et al games you get - they are nearly all centred around this kind of car. In fact, my 15 year old Cousin is very much of the same ethos, because it's all he and his mates talk about in the playground - who did the longest drift on level blah blah blah in a car they've customised from drop down menus... I think it's just that the games have been out long enough now for some of these to actually be old enough to drive!!

I have nothing against Jap cars at all - in fact I love em, the wife's Civic Esi is a loony fun car to drive, especially considering even flat out the MPG is excellent, corners like it's on rails and the engineering of it is frankly utterly superb. Reliability has been excellent, though tis getting on a bit now, but working on it isn't too much of a chore (with the exception of changing the clutch which is a total whore of a job)

[r5gttgaz]

I have absolutley no problem with Jap cars, I even had a Starlet GTT for a bit and a friend has a Supra TT great cars in their own right, our meets are organised for Jap cars only and any trips out to places will be to go to Jap only meets, posts about Euro cars are ignored and you are encouraged to purchase Jap or you are not part of the "in crowd" its all very sad. I'd love to abandon this forum but we are a bit stuck in Lincolnshire for local car clubs and we dont have a section on PH either. Looking at the members map it looks like there arnt many of us anyway .

>> Edited by r5gttgaz on Tuesday 9th May 09:48

[_Batty_]

r5gttgaz said:

I have absolutley no problem with Jap cars, I even had a Starlet GTT for a bit and a friend has a Supra TT great cars in their own right, our meets are organised for Jap cars only and any trips out to places will be to go to Jap only meets, posts about Euro cars are ignored and you are encouraged to purchase Jap or you are not part of the "in crowd" its all very sad. I'd love to abandon this forum but we are a bit stuck in Lincolnshire for local car clubs and we dont have a section on PH either. Looking at the members map it looks like there arnt many of us anyway . >> Edited by r5gttgaz on Tuesday 9th May 09:48

tis a shame, but its like turning up in a Porsche @ a Fezza meet.
Jap cars are being imported left right and center, amking them very affordable performance cars, with little rival for Performance vs money vs reliablity.
think of GTO's 300zx's Liners and Supra's, all with over 300 bhp
no wonder the owners get alittle blinkered

[DieselJohn]

r5gttgaz said:

I have absolutley no problem with Jap cars, I even had a Starlet GTT for a bit and a friend has a Supra TT great cars in their own right, our meets are organised for Jap cars only and any trips out to places will be to go to Jap only meets, posts about Euro cars are ignored and you are encouraged to purchase Jap or you are not part of the "in crowd" its all very sad. I'd love to abandon this forum but we are a bit stuck in Lincolnshire for local car clubs and we dont have a section on PH either. Looking at the members map it looks like there arnt many of us anyway . >> Edited by r5gttgaz on Tuesday 9th May 09:48

Sorry, are you claiming there is a large Jap biase on PH?

I can't see it at all to be honest. I just went into general gassing and the first thread which mentions a japanese car in the title was on page 4.

[Podie]

I like Jap cars... not owned one (yet)... just wish they could do interiors without them looking like the "house of plastics"

[r5gttgaz]

DieselJohn said:

r5gttgaz said: I have absolutley no problem with Jap cars, I even had a Starlet GTT for a bit and a friend has a Supra TT great cars in their own right, our meets are organised for Jap cars only and any trips out to places will be to go to Jap only meets, posts about Euro cars are ignored and you are encouraged to purchase Jap or you are not part of the "in crowd" its all very sad. I'd love to abandon this forum but we are a bit stuck in Lincolnshire for local car clubs and we dont have a section on PH either. Looking at the members map it looks like there arnt many of us anyway . >> Edited by r5gttgaz on Tuesday 9th May 09:48 Sorry, are you claiming there is a large Jap biase on PH? I can't see it at all to be honest. I just went into general gassing and the first thread which mentions a japanese car in the title was on page 4.

No its on my local car forum as stated in the 1st post.

[tinman0]

Davi said:

I have nothing against Jap cars at all - in fact I love em, the wife's Civic Esi is a loony fun car to drive, especially considering even flat out the MPG is excellent, corners like it's on rails and the engineering of it is frankly utterly superb. Reliability has been excellent, though tis getting on a bit now, but working on it isn't too much of a chore (with the exception of changing the clutch which is a total whore of a job)

are civics made in Swindon?

[DieselJohn]

r5gttgaz said:

DieselJohn said: r5gttgaz said: I have absolutley no problem with Jap cars, I even had a Starlet GTT for a bit and a friend has a Supra TT great cars in their own right, our meets are organised for Jap cars only and any trips out to places will be to go to Jap only meets, posts about Euro cars are ignored and you are encouraged to purchase Jap or you are not part of the "in crowd" its all very sad. I'd love to abandon this forum but we are a bit stuck in Lincolnshire for local car clubs and we dont have a section on PH either. Looking at the members map it looks like there arnt many of us anyway . >> Edited by r5gttgaz on Tuesday 9th May 09:48 Sorry, are you claiming there is a large Jap biase on PH? I can't see it at all to be honest. I just went into general gassing and the first thread which mentions a japanese car in the title was on page 4. No its on my local car forum as stated in the 1st post.

Oh ok, sorry. I took 'we' and 'our local forums' to mean PH.



I've recently entered the world of Japanese performance motoring, going from a Fiat Coupe 20vT to a MR2 turbo. I have to say that performance comparissons aside the interior of the FIAT was streets ahead of the Toyota. It's made up for by the quality of the engineering though. I got my hands dirty on it for the first time last week and I was very pleasantly surprised by how well made everything was.

[lanciachris]

Honda is the only Japanese car company that was started by someone who wanted to make cars, the rest set out to make money. Enough said

[bad_roo]

lanciachris said:

Honda is the only Japanese car company that was started by someone who wanted to make cars, the rest set out to make money. Enough said

That's quite possibly the most idiotic thing I've read all day.

[DennisTheMenace]

_Batty_ said:

Parrot of Doom said: When I see a Jap car with a decent interior that isn't made from wheely-bin plastic, then I'll like Jap cars don't think they where that bad to be honest, for the time. you have to think that Supra was made 93 IIRC so the interior was typical for the time...

Try the new mazda 6 , honda civic , and accord , kensington wheelie bin plastic , slightly posher than your normal bin , but still built out of cheap easy mark/scratch plastics

[_Batty_]

DennisTheMenace said:

_Batty_ said: Parrot of Doom said: When I see a Jap car with a decent interior that isn't made from wheely-bin plastic, then I'll like Jap cars don't think they where that bad to be honest, for the time. you have to think that Supra was made 93 IIRC so the interior was typical for the time... Try the new mazda 6 , honda civic , and accord , kensington wheelie bin plastic , slightly posher than your normal bin , but still built out of cheap easy mark/scratch plastics

probably true. was the Renault much better?
to be honest not sampled much new Jap interiors...