Most Americans buy their cars off the lot, but in Japan built-to-order is the norm. Customers tailor what they want from a wide array of models and buy them from an equally wide array of…
Browsing Category Japanese Cars
Acura Integra Type R: JDM Hot Rods Come To America
Now that many are 25 years old, Americans can enjoy a large swath of amazing now-classic JDM cars, but in the Dot-Com era the very hottest JDM rides were often unobtanium due to the cost…
Honda Accord Aerodeck: The Shooting Brake Experiment
At the end of the eighties the Honda Accord became America’s best-selling car, the first foreign car to achieve that title, though this Accord Aerodeck wasn’t involved in that particular quest. It was 1989. Honda…
Isuzu I-Mark RS Twin-Cam: Party Like It’s 1989
This monochrome Isuzu is as red, and as rad, as they come, complete with fender badges advertising its “Lotus-tuned handling” and even larger stickers alerting passersby to its high-winding DOHC 16-VALVE engine, a big deal…
Honda Beat: Slave to the Rhythm
By itself it doesn’t look so small – but when it’s parked next to something like that towering Vanagon, you realize how tiny the Honda Beat really is. Taken with a wide angle lens (10mm),…
1987-1990 Nissan Vanette: Total Recall
If you’re involved in almost any way with new and late-model cars, then you know that the past decade has seen a tidal wave of recalls, most infamously Dieselgate and the Takata airbag mess. Individual…
Mk3 Honda Prelude: The Prelude Perfected
When the second-generation Honda Prelude came along, it defined the car. Sure, the first generation had been modestly successful, but the sedate Mk1 Prelude always drew complaints that it wasn’t fast enough or sharp enough….
Nissan Stanza T11: The Wallflower
First things first. 1. “Sport” is definitely a misnomer here. 2. No, you can’t save this yellow car, these are old photos and this car has long since shuffled off to beer-can land. Too bad…
1991-97 Toyota Previa: Minivan or Shuttlecraft?
Space. In a minivan, you want to be in the top tier. These are the voyages of the Starship Previa. It’s ongoing mission? To seek out strange new worlds and … new shops at the…
Toyota Sports 800: Toyota’s Little Lotus
Like many cheap sports cars, the Toyota Sports 800 was only possible because it piggy-backed onto the architecture of a mainstream car. In this case, the ratio of “pedestrian origins” to “exciting results” was almost…
Infiniti M30: The Leopard’s Different Spots
It was new to Americans, but the Infiniti M30 was almost half a decade old when it first appeared in what were then brand new Infiniti showrooms in 1990. Baseball-loving Japanese would refer to the…
Flashback: The Yaki Imo Man’s Suzuki
Feeling down? Need some comfort food? Don’t worry, the Yaki Imo man is here to help. In this flashback, we take a trip through the OldMotors archives to Japan, circa 1976, and this Suzuki Carry…