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…
Posts tagged JDM
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…
Ford Festiva: The Cult Favorite
As is often the case with the cheapest new cars, nobody expected very much of the Ford Festiva. When new, it was a bottom-feeder. It was a cut above similarly cheap cars like the Hyundai…
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….
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…
Acura Integra Mk1: The Social Climber
It’s fair to say that nobody was quite sure how American customers would react to luxury cars from Japan in January of 1985. In the works since 1981, it was that month that Honda introduced…
The Malaise Mazda: Cosmo AP/RX-5
It was planned when Mazda was riding high on Rotary success in the early 1970s. That decade was the golden age of “personal coupes,” be they Toyota Celicas or Lincoln MkIVs, so it made perfect…
A Van By Any Other Name: Mitsubishi “Wagon”
The Mitsubishi Delica name dates back to 1968, but it was in the 1980s that the van became famous as a go-anywhere overlander. Today, 1980s and 1990s JDM AWD Diesel Delicas are popular enough in…
Nissan Figaro:
The Retro Ride
All four of Nissan’s March-based “Pike cars” had their origins in the 1980s revival in Japan of old cars still in production. The Mini, the 2CV, and the Autobianchi A112 were popular with young Japanese…