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Say what you will, the Japanese did/do a much better job of protecting their car industry than we do. They "inspect" their cars every year for safety/pollution/running violations, after about 5 years or so, it is cheaper to buy a new car than pay to have an older one brought up to snuff, thereby ensuring a large demand for new cars every year. They have a strict size "proportioning" system for their cars, so that if a car is so long, it can only be so wide, or pay a huge tariff. Another thing they do is to decrease insurance & licensing fees on cars that get better mileage, so that a car that gets 40 MPG only has to pay, say, a third or half as much for insurance & licensing as one that gets 15-20 MPG...and the more efficient cars also have higher speed limits than the gas-guzzlers. Japan also drives on the right, like the Brits do. We complain that American cars are systematically shut out of Japanese markets, & that is partly true, but THEY studied OUR market, & developed cars to fit it, LHD & all, why couldn't Detroit have done the same thing ? Plus, their government has/had a ministry that is specifically designed to help their mfgers deal w/the problems of trade w/other countries-Can you see the antagonistic Washington establishment ever going for something like that ? Too bad, because that's one of the things that helped Japan dismantle our consumer electronics industry-and pretty much wreck our car industry, too. But it takes government, management & labor working together-Something that is like holy water to Dracula in this country...
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