One of my main aims in creating this website is to provide quality information on the range of Japanese import cars available. You’ll find that some of the posts in this section are based on real life ownership experience and some are more of a review of information about the car.
I’m going to focus on cars over 10 years old for most of the reviews because the registration process becomes cheaper and more straightforward once cars pass their 10th birthday. At this age you are also at an advantageous point on the car’s depreciation curve in many cases.
Worried about buying a 10 year old car? I think a lot of the concerns that might apply to a UK car are less relevant/prominent in the case of a car imported from Japan. I’ve written a post called why are imported Japanese cars better which explains this in more detail.
Click on the categories to see my Japanese import car reviews
I’ve come up with the following categories in an attempt to organise my reviews. Not every car is covered but these are the categories I’ll focus on for now, with the aim of expanding the range later. There are so many other potential ways to organise the cars: coolness, speed, rarity. I hope you like the way I’ve chosen to do it – I’m hoping to feature performance, luxury and quirky in equal measure.
Fast estate cars
You want high performance but find yourself at a stage in life where you need to transport lots of stuff. There are quite a few Japanese imports that excel in delivering this combination.
Example cars: Subaru Forester STi, Nissan Stagea.
Luxury MPVs
Want a luxury day van? Perhaps you have a large family? Transporter not doing it for you? Several of the Japanese car manufacturers have some really fantastic offerings in this segment of the market.
Example cars: Toyota Alphard, Nissan Elgrand.
Super saloons
This is a big category: Japan has a lot to offer here, from high performance to luxury barge.
Example cars: Toyota Century (luxury barge), Subaru Impreza STi (high performance).
Practical box cars
Small wagon. Box-shaped mini MPV. The nomenclature remains unclear to me. These cars offer flexible, well-considered practicality. Sometimes there is with a large helping of cool thrown in too.
Example cars: Nissan Cubic, Toyota bB.
Pocket-sized Kei cars
Undesirable death trap shoe boxes or a practical, modern solution to congestion, rising fuel prices and single occupant journeys? Or are they so quirky and cool that nothing in that last sentence matters? I’ve written more about kei cars here.
Example cars: Suzuki Lapin, Honda N-Box.
Hot hatchbacks & coupes
A lot of the ‘classics’ of the Japanese import car scene fall into this category.
Example cars: Nissan Skyline GTR, Honda Integra Type R.
SUV & Off-road
Some of the Japanese vehicles featured here will have ‘proper’ off road capability, whilst others will be more of a crossover type. Note that many cars in the other categories are available with 4WD, even the small kei cars. So you don’t need an off road vehicle or SUV to get 4WD when looking at Japanese import cars.
Example cars: Toyota Land Cruiser, Honda Crossroad, Mitsubishi Delica.
Can’t find the car you’re looking for here?
I hope you’ve found some useful and interesting Japanese import car reviews here. If you can’t find information about the car you’re looking for, please let me know and I’ll add it.