About right-hand drive Japanese cars, arriving at Russian market, there are two opposing views regarding their actual runs.
The first opinion is that Japanese drivers practically do not walk or even go to the store nearby, but use a car for this, so Japanese cars big runs.
The second misconception is that Japan is a relatively small country, so mileage of their cars small.
In this regard, we can unequivocally say that both the first and second statements are erroneous. In Japan you can find cars manufactured in 1990. With mileage 20 thousand kilometers, and sometimes there are cars from 2000 with a mileage of 200 thousand. Japanese motorists are not at all unusual people who use their cars equally a lot or a little. Some cars are used for everyday trips to work in a neighboring town, while other cars can be used by pensioners who use the car once a week to go shopping at a supermarket located a two-minute walk from home.
More often, high runs can be found near company vehicles (trucks, utility station wagons and various minibuses and taxis). That is why, in most cases, TOYOTA CALDINA cargo-passenger spring vehicles the mileage is much longer than those of the “super” Kaldins, which are owned by private motorists.
Now a little about what kind of cars are included in Russian car markets. In Japan, at high mileage car two ways: either for scrap metal (if the car is quite old) or sale at a low price to resellers or at a car auction (if the car is a relatively “fresh” release). And right here, car suppliers to the Russian car market have a great desire to purchase at a low price high mileage car, reducing the mileage and selling the car is no longer cheap. I note that the Japanese “twist” the mileage very rarely; this manipulation is mainly performed in parking lots in port cities (where mainly Russians or Pakistanis work), or this procedure is already done directly in Russia. 
How to decide if you want to buy Japanese used car, not exceeding, for example, 100 thousand kilometers? First of all, you shouldn’t be doomed to think that all cars brought to Russia have exorbitant mileage. At Japanese auctions, for reasonable money, it’s possible buy a used car 70-80 thousand kilometers. Secondly, if you have the opportunity to purchase a car at an auction, you should not miss such a chance, since the mileage on them is usually real.
At purchasing a Japanese car in Russia, consider the following tips
- electronic odometers, can be “twisted” just as easily as mechanical ones;
If the odometer on the car mechanical and the numbers are uneven, this indicates outside interference;
Closely inspect all places where there might be stickers about maintenance in Japan, such as oil change, timing belt, etc., if they are scratched or missing, this is a bad sign. Most often they are located on the engine compartment, dashboard, and the back of the gas tank door.
Two cars of the same year of manufacture, but with different mileage, can look equally “vigorous”. However, pay attention to inspecting the steering wheel rim and the condition of the brake pedal and clutch linings - used cars about 100 thousand kilometers there cannot be any “polished” parts! The entire surface of the steering wheel should be equally rough everywhere. Based on these details, you can judge the condition of the car, since sellers, as a rule, do not undertake to change the linings and steering wheel. 
There are two opposing opinions regarding Japanese right-hand drive cars entering our market regarding their actual mileage.
Opinion one: “The Japanese don’t get out of their cars, they even drive to the next store by car, and that’s why cars from Japan have long mileage.”
Second opinion: “Japan is a small country and therefore, compared to cars from Europe and America, their mileage is low”
Here we can immediately say that neither the first nor the second opinion is correct. In Japan, there are cars made in 1990 with a mileage of 20 thousand km, and cars made in 2000 with a mileage of 200 thousand km. The Japanese are not at all some special people who travel equally a lot or a little. Some cars are used for daily trips to work in a neighboring city, while others are driven by retirees who need to go shopping once a week to a store located two blocks from home.
As a rule, company vehicles (trucks, utility station wagons and minibuses, taxis) have high mileage. Therefore, in most cases, the passenger-and-freight spring TOYOTA CALDINA has more mileage than the “super” Kaldinas, which are mainly owned by private owners.
Now about what cars are hitting the Russian market. In Japan, a car with high mileage has two options: either to a landfill (if the car is old), or to be sold at a low price to resellers or at auction (if the car is a relatively “fresh” year of manufacture).
And this is where car suppliers to the Russian market have a great temptation to buy a car with high mileage for pennies, reduce the mileage and sell the car no longer at a penny price. I note that the Japanese themselves “twist” mileage extremely rarely; basically, this, to put it mildly, dishonest manipulation is carried out at parking lots in port cities (where, for the most part, Russians or Pakistanis work), or directly in Russia.
What to do if you want to buy a car with a mileage not exceeding, say, 100 thousand km?
Firstly, you shouldn’t be doomed to think that all cars brought to Russia have exorbitant mileage. In Japan, at auctions, for quite reasonable money, you can buy a car with a mileage of 70 - 80 thousand km.
Secondly, if possible, the car should be purchased at an auction, where almost all the mileage of the cars is real.
And finally, if you are buying a car in Russia, remember the following points:
Electronic odometers can also be “twisted”, like mechanical ones;
If the odometer is mechanical and the numbers on it are uneven, then this indicates outside interference;
Carefully inspect all the places where there could be stickers about maintenance in Japan (oil change, timing belt, etc.), their absence or “scratching” does not mean anything good.
Possible locations for stickers: engine compartment, on the dashboard (right side, at the level of the driver’s feet), back side of the gas tank flap;
Two cars of the same year, but with different mileage, can look equally “fresh”.
However, pay attention to the steering wheel rim and the condition of the brake and clutch pedal linings - for cars with mileage up to 100 thousand km. There should be no abrasions ("polished" surfaces)!
The entire rim of the steering wheel should be equally rough, without “bald patches”. Exceptions are very rare. Sellers usually do not undertake to change pedal pads or steering wheels.
The Japanese are very practical about cars. They use them mainly for their intended purpose - traveling to work, to the store and taking their children to school. They go on long journeys by train. The average Japanese family usually has two cars: one for the husband and one for the wife. It is not surprising that a car's mileage in this country is only about 15 thousand km per year.
In Russia, drivers may prefer a car for a trip over a distance of 500 km, but in Japan they will definitely use the railway for this purpose. This is not surprising if you compare the speed and comfort of their trains, as well as compare the cost of fuel. When choosing a car, our compatriots rely on its versatility: so that it proves itself in the city and does not let us down outside the city. In Japan, compact compact models or city models (such as Honda Fit, Toyota Vitz, Toyota Corolla, etc.) have long been among the sales leaders - this is how problems with parking, fuel consumption and maneuvering in traffic are solved.
The length of roads in Japan reaches more than 1.2 million km, and this figure is growing every year - new tunnels, bridges and highways are being built. For comparison, Russia has almost half as many roads. Although many of them do not dare to be called full-fledged routes for the movement of cars. But even with so many roads, the Japanese prefer to travel outside the city by public transport. Moreover, travelers who know how to count their money travel in groups in order to distribute expenses among everyone.
Most Japanese-made cars for the domestic market (right-hand drive) come to us through auction. Every year there are more than a million cars that find their new owner in Russia. If among the examples put up for sale there is a car with many thousands of miles, then we can assume that it was used for commercial purposes - taxis, cargo transportation, etc. They are valued lower and cost, accordingly, less. According to official data, there are less than 20% of such cars in the country. These four-wheeled workhorses may end up in the hands of car buyers. Their workshops and parking lots are located on the coast, from where restored cars with damaged mileage are sent by sea for export for decent money. And it’s mostly Russians and Pakistanis who work there. And the rest of the cars are sent under pressure to a landfill.
Many people wonder why the Japanese sell their cars without driving them for even 8-10 years? Most often, the reason for the sale is the expiration of the technical inspection (shaken). Inspection in this country is carried out every two years (for new cars - every three years). The cost of this procedure for a passenger car is about $800, and the rules for passing the technical inspection are very strict.
If the car does not meet accepted standards, it will need to be worked on in a car service center. And in Japan such services are quite expensive (they prefer to replace the part completely than to pull it out and putty it), so the cost of a technical inspection can cost a Japanese $2000 or more. The car can still pass the first two or three technical inspections without any special costs for the owner, but, approaching the age of 5-7 years, most cars are sent to buyers or scrapped. By the way, the cost of the car decreases if the shaken expires. In this case, the car is not allowed to drive on Japanese roads. Rather, you should be wary if there is more than a year left before the expiration date of the technical inspection. Perhaps the car is damaged and the owner wants to get rid of it.
You can read the date of the next technical inspection by looking at the sticker on the windshield: on the reverse side (it is visible to the driver and passengers from the passenger compartment) there are three numbers written, corresponding to the day, the serial number of the month and the year. And from the outside, you can only determine the year by the color of the sticker: 2008 - red, 2009 - green, 2010 - yellow, 2011 - blue, 2012 - red again, etc. In the center of the color sticker is the month in which the car will have its next technical inspection: January – 1, February – 2, etc.
According to the rules of Japanese auctions, mileage twisting is prohibited. You can only replace the odometer, but in this case this must be noted in the vehicle information. Next, the inspector makes a note about this on the lot sheet. However, he has the right to put such a mark, even if he is not sure of the reliability of the mileage for other reasons. Some sellers of right-hand drive cars do not waste time falsifying data on kilometers traveled, they sell cars as is, and the mileage is already calculated in Russia; this procedure costs a penny. In addition to mileage data, auction sheets are also falsified - a damaged car is restored, and the most similar sheet is selected for it. Some data is replaced, and a “clean” car appears before the buyer’s eyes, which has received good ratings.
It is almost impossible to determine the exact mileage of a car that came from Japan. There are different situations. Maybe a bank clerk drove a Honda Civic to work in a neighboring city, or perhaps a Toyota Corolla was used only on weekends by an elderly Japanese woman for trips to the nearest store and back. And their mileage will, accordingly, be different: the first one can “roll up” 150 thousand km, while the second one won’t even get 20 thousand km. When buying a right-hand drive car from Japan, you need to take several things into account: the electronic odometer does not guarantee against curling; its readings can be “twisted”. Take a closer look at the numbers on the mechanical odometer - if they are uneven, then the wrong hands almost certainly got into this system.
In Japan, they stick papers on the maintenance - changing the oil, timing belt and other consumables. Check the condition of these stickers; they can be found in the engine compartment, on the dashboard at the bottom right (at the driver's feet) and on the back of the gas filler flap. Reason for suspicion may be their wear or complete absence. The linings on the brake and clutch pedals can tell about the mileage of the car; their polished shine indicates repeated use. Run your hands over the steering wheel - its surface should be rough, this indicates that it has not been worn for years.
website
Oct-Nov 2003
We all know about the great advantage of right-hand drive Japanese cars compared to vehicles of various Europeans, Americans and other highly mechanized nations - it is an axiom that the mileage of an average native car is much less than that of its counterpart from autobahns, autoroutes or highways. But it also doesn’t hurt to think about the extent to which this is fair...
1. "Gasoline in veins"?
First, a few words about why most cars from Japan actually have relatively low mileage:
- strict speed limits (not everyone can handle 50 km/h on municipal highways, and covering more or less a significant distance at that pace will take too much time)
- expensive toll roads (do you want to go faster? Do you need tunnels, bridges and other overpasses? - be so kind as to fork out the cash)
- no time for long-distance road trips (work, work and more work, and vacations should be spent wisely and best of all behind the border)
- developed railway transport (in the metropolis it’s faster by metro, from the suburbs it’s easier by “train”, for intercity there are “hikari” and other real working high-speed lines)
- a small country (indeed, the population is almost the size of the entire Russian Federation, concentrated on an area half the size of the Khabarovsk Territory).
Yes, it is difficult in this situation for the Japanese to adopt the cult of the car from their man-made American idols. It turns out that a city dweller in the land of the rising sun should not drive a car at all, so as not to get caught in the legendary giant traffic jams. And the average suburban resident is simply obliged to go every morning by car only to the nearest station, park and then go to work by public transport. At the same time, his wife takes the children to schools, stops at the supermarket, and then goes home to support the family hearth. This is such an idyll...
2. Worm of Doubt
But there is no peace from the doubt ingrained in the depths of our souls, nurtured by the exorbitant mileage of European devices, which fifteen years ago began to actively enter our lives. And the personal experience of a city resident, who by no means made rally raids his hobby, suggests something else...
No, we won’t blame anyone specifically, why? But we have the right to ask some rhetorical questions. Still, any, even the most joyful harmony should sometimes be “verified by algebra” - is it really a ghost before us? Because you wonder why the Japanese need cars at all, and in such gigantic quantities: if they practically don’t drive them anyway, but only think about how to quickly reduce the price and sell them to the suffering gaijin from sunny Australia, wild Asia and even harsh Russia???
And the thought haunts me that the “rewinding industry” of odometers is no less developed on the islands than here or among our closest western neighbors from the shores of the Baltic.
3. At the district hospital
And it all usually begins at the stage of the first service of a newly acquired trouble-free car somewhere in the vast expanses of our homeland.
The intensity of passions among a certain part of the public is such that under no circumstances should you repeat out loud in front of them what the mechanics from a private specialized service tell you after looking at the car. Well, of course... Firstly, those non-officials authorized by the manufacturer, only about five cars pass through them every day - can they really be considered authorities in matters of mileage and technical condition. Secondly, they had not been to Japan, did not drive cars from Primorye and did not live by selling them. Thirdly, they simply must be misanthropes by nature and very envious (in relation to the owners of wonderful and “practically new” Japanese cars). Therefore, what can they understand from the condition of the chassis, brakes and other structural elements? Especially if the master claims that a car that arrived from an auction, just about to cross the 100,000th mileage mark (according to the odometer), has, according to a number of external signs, successfully changed not the second, but the third round of the meter. Or if a car taken from a respected (among his friends) trader, which ran “on the instruments” for only a little over fifty dollars, turns out to have already passed TO-100 30 thousand ago.
But here is a trader (“seller” when it comes to paying for the car and a fee, or “supplier” when it comes to problems with the car) of cars from Japan or Primorye - this is honesty itself :)! No, in order not to be upset, in the matter of mileage you should only trust the auction map, the instrument cluster and the trader himself (after all, for example, some “Anatoly from Rudolf Abel Street” is a network name with a capital letter, and what is his unknown opponent like “Uncle Sanya from Motor-Tech”, who is not on the Internet, does not trade, but for some reason still turns the nuts on wonderful Japanese cars - probably a “looser”?), isn’t it :)?
4. Lawyers and prosecutors
As soon as you bring this issue up for public discussion with slight doubt, a chorus of voices is heard from different parts of the country in support of traders, auctioneers and the Japanese automotive industry as a whole - “The Japanese do not buy cars to drive them!”, “It doesn’t matter how many she ran, for a Japanese woman one and a half hundred is just a run-in!”, “yes, she’ll run another million!”, “and the supplier is not responsible for anything at all!” and so on.
Well, really, what’s so bad about a twisted run - it’s just little things? Although not entirely - in this case, the most valuable thread of previous scheduled maintenance is mediocrely lost. It’s good that Japanese equipment and consumables have a fair supply of resources. But traders really don’t need six-digit numbers on the odometer at all, because such a wonderful reason for a gradual increase in prices for Japanese cars, with a nod towards Europe - “they say, look - there the car is already rolled into zero, and ours are brand new.” , begins to float slightly. Thirdly, feeling like famous bovid artiodactyls, eating a carefully placed product with a fair appetite, does not bring much pleasure.
And yet - the “undignified” mercantile side. Let's make some analogy. For example, a large seller, like the one mentioned above, delivers to the buyer an “auction machine with a rating of 4,” and it’s not too expensive - everything is great, everyone is happy. But quite a bit of time passes - and oops, and the car turns out to be broken - someone may have caught up with one in a past life, the other personally tested the front end for strength... And when it comes to complaints - the chorus begins again - “to them “Everything is broken and in general these are little things.” Yes, in general, little things, unless it is guaranteed that the geometry of the body has not changed (at least greatly) from the chassis. In general, little things, if you don’t think about selling this car in the future on the secondary market. Little things, if you forget that with a well-deserved rating of "R" or "RA" this car would have cost much less there (and by the way - the imagination of the unfortunate owner paints terrible pictures - maybe it cost less? What guarantees that the car was sold for exactly as much as indicated in the received papers, and didn’t an “extra” piece or two spill out between the Japanese dealer and the local trader?). It’s about the same thing with mileage - every thousand kilometers rewound “to the past” turns into, albeit not gigantic, but still tangible amounts in dollars, which, unfortunately, do not grow on trees for most Japanese owners.
5. Entomology
This is the right place to remember the science of “catching insects,” which are interesting to look for at Japanese auctions. As the classic wrote, pump them up with indirect ones... And there is enough of this goodness there, here is at least one striking example.
I think everyone is aware that such a class of cars as minibuses, delivery microtrucks, wagons and other specific vehicles, especially in “wooden” configurations, are purchased specifically for the purpose of active constant driving, and not standing in the garage. Let's look at their declared mileage (according to the list of a large auction, like USS). Here the numbers, although small, are more easily consistent with logic - 30-40 thousand a year, sometimes 60. But - what is this? A third of the selected samples ran on average less than 10,000 km per year, and ten percent - generally 2000-4000. I wonder if these fully-fledged trucks and acceleration vehicles were not used as monuments dedicated to the achievements of the Japanese automotive industry, like our ZiS-5 and GAZ-AAA? Can we believe such fantastically wonderful figures? Did the famous “auction experts” understand this? Or was their function only to record the mileage on the meter, list visible damage and record notes from the seller? Can such “auction experts” be trusted for other items, cars and kilometers? And who benefits from defending their rightness?
6. Having lied once...
And now we’ll pick up a calculator... We immediately warn you that you can’t do this formally, it’s wrong and generally looks like quackery - you need to build Weibull distributions, say smart words like “they don’t take old cars to auctions”, stretch your hand towards “hundreds” happy owners"... But in our case, it’s not so much the numbers themselves that are important, but their dynamics and general trends. So, we open the list of cars put up simultaneously for one of the largest auctions (more than 10,000 items in total - so it turns out to be quite representative) with the declared characteristics. “From the top,” we calculate the average mileage of cars for each year of production and its increase. Let's put it in a table and think a little...
|
Average stated mileage |
Average gain |
The forecast is optimistic |
The forecast is pessimistic |
|
- So, let’s say with cars up to 3-4 years old, it’s more or less clean and good. The estimated average annual mileage is 16-17 thousand, which is more than optimistic.
- But for some reason, before the car turns 4 years old, the driving intensity drops by half. Why? Isn’t this connected with the tradition of shaken (technical inspection) after 3,5,7 or more years? If we assume that such an “improvement” in mileage indicators exactly corresponds to the first, second and subsequent mass visits of resales on the secondary market, some bad thoughts appear :).
- And now a slightly older vehicle (5-6 years old) is again actively driving along the roads of Honshu or Hokkaido. But - happiness does not last long, by a strange coincidence, before the next shaken the intensity drops again, already threefold.
- Then it’s just an orgy of generosity and accuracy - the annual increase in mileage is almost imperceptible. Increasing slightly in the 9th-10th year, in the 11th year it cheerfully goes into the negative (statistics, however, are a terrible thing).
So what conclusions can be drawn from this mathematics?
1) or the Japanese discovered the happiness of motorization and began to drive actively only after the “millennium”,
2) or the pre-sale preparation of many auction cars still includes a number of operations that require a high-speed drill or a soldering iron with a thin tip.
So let everyone decide for themselves which option is closer to them - optimistic or pessimistic...
A frequently discussed topic and question asked by potential buyers is: “ Have the odometer readings of a car for sale without mileage in Russia been changed?» It is impossible to determine this visually, and if there is no auction list and/or sales statistics for a given car are not up to date, then in fact it is impossible to do this. Some experienced specialists try to judge the general condition of the machine by the condition of individual components and assemblies and compare it with the declared characteristics. However, most ordinary buyers have little understanding of this.
There are a huge number of tricks besides changing the odometer reading (the so-called “ twisting run"), which can hide (correct) comments characterizing the general condition of the car being sold, for example:
Small and medium scratches on the body (the most common complaint on almost all auction lots) can be polished out;
Service stickers on components and assemblies confirming the change of process fluids or replacement of parts can be removed;
The interior of the car may be subjected to dry cleaning, either professional or household;
The state of the inscriptions on various buttons, levers, switches, which characterize the duration of use of the vehicle, can be completely removed (erased);
The condition of the surfaces of the accelerator and brake pedals can be covered with various iron linings, which gives them an excellent aesthetic appearance and much more.
But the most common one is changing odometer readings (twisting the actual mileage of the car). Based on this fact, many potential buyers are asking the question: “Can the odometer readings change in Japan?” Let's try to figure out how true this is.
1. Some “experts” claim that in Japan there are car parks that belong to Pakistanis and they change the odometer readings (and not only) and sell these cars on auction sites.
This topic was widely discussed in the first half of the 2000s, when many people traveled to Japan on their own (so-called "auto tours") and purchased cars from various car lots that were owned by Pakistanis. Let's make a reservation right away - parking lots and auction sites are two different places where cars are sold and their main difference is that in the parking lot the price of the car is fixed, and you have the opportunity to bargain and reduce it, but at auctions you buy the car at case if you offered a higher price for it compared to other participants.
Can cars from parking lots be traded on auction sites? Absolutely yes. But to do this, car owners need to pay a commission for participating in auctions (which ultimately affects the final cost of the lot). Before a car is put up for auction, it is inspected by an expert who writes down all comments on the auction sheet. The overall assessment of the auction lot depends on the number of comments, which directly affects the possible sale price of the car. What an ordinary buyer may not see will definitely be seen and appreciated by an auction expert, since he is personally responsible for the results reflected in the auction sheet.
Let us repeat once again - the parking lot and the auction site are completely different places for selling cars. This must be clearly understood.
2. Can auction experts enter incorrect information about the condition of the car into the auction sheet - inflate the estimate, fail to note a repaired part, incorrectly indicate the actual mileage, etc.?
We will not say that experts cannot make mistakes. Anyone who has purchased a car from a Japanese auction may have encountered the fact that upon personal inspection, some remark was not noted on the auction sheet. Yes, this happens, we confirm. But these are isolated cases that do not affect the overall assessment of the car. We cannot give examples where, let’s say, the spar was replaced, but this is not noted in the auction sheet, or there are oil leaks near the engine, and this is not reflected in the auction, or the car was after a serious accident, but its overall rating is not “RA” , and for example “4”.
The work of an auction expert is well paid, and he is personally responsible for assessing the results of the examination, which he reflects on the auction sheet. If an expert is caught falsifying information, he will be deprived of the right to engage in this work for life, and the auction itself will suffer serious reputational losses. And for the Japanese, the most negative aspect in business is “losing face,” i.e. lose the trust of potential and actual clients.
If we talk about the possible " twisting mileage" in Japan and subsequent sale of the car at auction, we would like to note the following: firstly, changing the odometer readings is prohibited on Japanese auction sites; secondly, the only option for changing the actual mileage is to replace the odometer itself, but this must be indicated in the car’s documents, and when it is sold at auction, the expert puts a special mark on the auction sheet; thirdly, if the expert is not sure of the reality of the odometer readings, then he also makes a special note on the auction sheet.
3. How can it be that the car is 3-4 years old, but its actual mileage does not exceed 7-10 thousand kilometers?
For most domestic car owners this will seem very strange. For example, the average monthly mileage of most domestic motorists is just over 1000 kilometers, so the annual mileage ranges from 12 to 15 thousand kilometers. Taking this into account, in 3-4 years the car should travel from 40 to 60 thousand kilometers. However, in Japan, the average Japanese spends little time driving a personal car, and most often, in a Japanese family, as a rule, there are two cars. It's all about the rhythm of life of Japanese society. Most often, they use public transport (high-speed trains) to get around, because it is cheaper and they can get to their destination comfortably. The car is used exclusively within the city - home, store, work (if it is located in the same city). Therefore, if the car was for personal and not commercial use, then during the year it can travel very short distances.
To summarize what has been said, I would like to note that you can be deceived anywhere, but if you decide to purchase a car from auction sites in Japan, then the probability of this fact tends to zero, and when purchasing Japanese cars without mileage in Russia in our country, the probability of this fact tends to zero .
It is important to remember: the decision is up to you. We wish you success!
