Goodbye Honda Sports Cars

In 2005 Honda ceased production of the fantastic NSX super-car. In December 2008 the company announced that plans to produce a new generation NSX had been cancelled.  In the same month Honda also announced it was leaving F1 racing.

This summer Honda ceased production of the S2000 sports car. This was another truly great sports car, and that’s not just my opinion,  it was ranked number 1 three years in a row on the BBC’s Top Gear Survey (2004, 2005, 2006).  Honda no longer make a true sports car. The company’s Japanese website still carries the above sketch of  two Honda S-cars on the homepage, but it’s just a little sad that, when it comes to sports cars, nostalgia seems to be the only thing that remains.

Harley Riders in Okinawa

Along with the presence of Dr Pepper, A&W and Spam, the military presence in Okinawa has led to the popularity of another American icon – the Harley. On weekends there are often groups of bikers cruising up route 58 towards Cape Hedo, and once a year many of the riders parade along Gate 2 street as part of the local festival.

Fantastic bikes, but as a Brit, I’d rather have a Triumph.

Eco Police

Earlier this year I wrote a post titled Police Performance about the use of high performance Japanese sports cars by police.

It turns out however that another Japanese motoring icon, the electric Mitsubishi I-MiEV, will be soon helping the boys in blue.

Calton Hill, Edinburgh

Today in my inbox was an email announcing the latest pictures by Stephen Wiltshire. Stephen’s an amazing artist whose work I admire and whose career I have followed since I was about 8 years old.

One of his latest drawings is  the view from Calton Hill, Edinburgh.

View of Edinburgh from Calton Hill by Stephen Wiltshire

Made me smile as I was there just a few years earlier.

View of Edinburgh from Calton Hill by Chris Willson

The original of Stephen’s drawing  is available for purchase on his website at £8250.

And even Jeremy Clarkson’s been to Calton Hill. He drove there from London and back on a single tank of gas. Impossible? It appears not…..

Suzuki Swift Sport – A quick review

Now that I have had my car for a couple of months, I thought I would make a few brief comments.

Exterior:

The motoring press has made a lot of comparisons between the Swift and the Mini. Many comment that the new body shape of the Swift is a copy of (or homage to) the Mini. I am not so sure. If anything, it looks like Suzuki have been borrowing from (inspired by)  the designers at Audi. Compare the front of the Swift and the TT.

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Perhaps my favorite external feature of the car, are the subtle twin exhausts. It may seem like a strange pet peeve, but the asymmetry of a single exhaust on a car niggles me. However, a single central exhaust like on the Porsche Boxster just looks a little odd. Of course no exhaust would be even better, but the Tesla Roadster is a little out of my price range.

Interior:

One of the best features of the Japanese spec car is the option for  grey Recaro sports seats rather than the bright red generic seats that come as standard. Firm and supportive it took a few days to get used to being clamped, but now I love them.

Economy:

The official figures for the car are 15 km/l. I am not driving the car aggressively, but it’s summertime in Okinawa and the air conditioner is blasting away most of the time. On average the car is doing 12.2 km/l.

Performance:

The Swift Sport has a similar 1.6 liter engine, the same amount of power, and is a comparable weight to my previous car, a 20 year old Mazda Miata MX-5. It is nimble and quick, but doesn’t feel as fast or as well planted . The first reason is that Swift is simply much quieter. The thin canvas roof of the MX-5 meant you were far more aware of the engine and exhaust. The second reason is that the Swift sits much higher on the road, compared with the low slung roadster. Another big difference is that the Swift is front rather than rear wheel drive. I would have to agree with purists that rear wheel drive is more engaging, but for everyday driving the Swift is still a great car to be in.

Overall:

Fantastic little car. Motorists around the world are beginning to realize that bigger isn’t always better. If you want a fun, practical, small car it doesn’t have to be Mini.

And the comments from Fifth Gear…

Gran Turismo 5 – the trailer

Gran Turismo is a car racing simulator for the Sony Playstation. As the Playstation evolved from PS1 to Ps3, the game also grew in size and complexity, each time amazing gamers with super realistic graphics and incredibly realistic driving.  The popularity and importance of this game to Sony is huge, over 50 million units have been sold.

The release of Gran Turismo 5 is comparable to that of a hollywood blockbuster. Although there is no set release date, the first trailers have appeared.

Things have certainly come along way since the days of Pong.

 

3rd Generation Toyota Prius

  

3rd generation Toyota Prius

 

Toyota announced the arrival of the latest version of the Prius hybrid car on May 18th. You see quite a few of the new Honda Insight hybrids as rental cars on Okinawa at the moment. It will be interesting to see how the sales of the new Prius compare to the new Insight.

The Toyota Prius is a fantastic bit of technology, it’s just a little bit too big, and a little too ugly plain for me.

On a related note, I just read on the Guardian website:

“America’s gas-guzzling automobiles were heading towards extinction yesterday as Barack Obama set strict limits on car exhaust emissions and directed producers to make a more fuel-efficient vehicle fleet. The policy requires US auto makers to produce cars and trucks that achieve an average 35.5mpg by 2016, and will reduce America’s carbon dioxide emissions by 30%.”

After a bit of time with a calculator. I managed to work out 35.5mpg is 15km per liter. 15 kilometers a liter is what my little Suzuki Swift is meant to do. 

The articles don’t make it clear as to whether all cars will have to have fuel efficiencies above 35.5mpg or if the motor companies only have to produce some cars in their range that meet this new standard. Hopefully it won’t be the latter.

Tokyo Mater

What do you get if you cross the Pixar movie Carswith the high octane thrills of Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift?

Six minutes and thirty five seconds of pure brilliance.

There are numerous clever cameos by Japanese cars: Mazda Miatas (brings a tear to my eye), the Toyota (Lexus) Crown, the Nissan Skyline ninjas.

It was very interesting to see that the restaurant the truck flies through was called Harryhausen (it was written in Japanese script). Nice nod to the film making genius Harryhausen who created one of the most fantastic movie scenes I’ve ever seen, but will leave that for my next blog.

Buying a Car in Japan – Stage 2

Once you have chosen the car you need to do some paperwork…

First the car dealership takes a photocopy of your Japanese driver’s license and, in my case, my gaikokujin toroku shomeisho (certificate of alien registration – a.k.a gaijin card).

You then need to get an inkan (personal seal) made, register it at the city office, then bring the inkan and the inkan toroku shomeisho (certificate of name stamp registration) to the car dealership.

Also bring your gaikokujin toroku genpyo kisai jiko shomeisho (certified copy of registration) which shows your official address.

Fill out the parking application paper, drawing a diagram of your local streets and the exact dimensions of the parking area at your house or apartment. If you are not the owner of the house you must also produce a piece of paper from the housing office with their official stamp to show you have parking permission. Parking applications must be taken to the local police station for processing although your car dealer may do this for you. This is all done to get a shako shoumei (parking space certificate).

Then fill out the ininjo (letter of guarantee) and you are almost done…

unless you are dumping your old car with them, and then you will also need a second ininjo, a second inkan toroku shomeisho and the cars shakensho (vehicle inspection certificate), the  jibai seki hoken (compulsory third-party automobile liability insurance certificate) the road tax certificate, and the recycle fee certificate.

Finally give them a wad of cash to hold the vehicle. The balance will be due when you pick up the car. Now all you have to do is wait for the paperwork to be processed. I am told this can take around a week or longer.

While you wait for your new (or newer) car you may still need to get around, and in my case my previous car no longer has a valid shakensho. I was lent a Suzuki Kei, so for the next few days I will be pootling around the island in this little 660cc car.

The loaner a Suzuki Kei 660cc

After only driving through town and back up the expressway to my home I have discovered some interesting things about these 660cc kei jidosha.

The steering is really light. They are a great city car, able to squeeze through tight spaces. With only a driver there is plenty of power, I imagine it would struggle if there were an extra 3 large passengers but I had no problem accelerating or cruising along the expressway.

However, kei jidosha are limited not only in their engine size but also in their width and length. K-cars must be less than 3.4 metres long and 1.48 metres wide.  There is no regulation for height. The narrow width makes them great when parking or escaping from the police down narrow alleyways, but there is a reason why sports cars are wide and low.  At the extreme end of the spectrum you have 4×4 off-roader K-cars such as the Suzuki Jimny and the Mitsubish Pajero Mini, these look like they are going to roll-over at any moment, and at least one of Seiko’s friends had to extricate herself and her 4×4 k-car from a ditch in Hokkaido. Driving back on the expressway, and with a bit of a sidewind, the Suzuki Kei felt decidedly wobbly. Overtaking trucks caused a sudden change in the wind, making the car skittish. Things are not helped by the fact that the tyres are not much wider than you would find on a mountain bike.

As I do both a lot of expressway driving, and because I don’t ride the bicycle during wind and rain, and as Okinawa is hit by several typhoons each year,  I am now sure I made the right decision of the Swift over the Cervo.

Buying a car in Japan – Stage 1

Stage 1 – Find a car

The first thing you will notice when trying to buy a used car in Japan is that almost nobody sells their own car. Old cars are scrapped or tend to be given away to a friend or relative. Cars that still have some value, are usually traded in when purchasing a new (or newer) model.  

Outside of the foreign community, there seem to be very few private sales.  You don’t see cars with the Japanese equivalent of  FOR SALE signs in the window. Used car magazines and even internet auctions are almost entirely filled with cars being sold by dealers rather than individuals.

Having to purchase from a used car dealer makes things more expensive, but does mean they can help you with Stage 2 – the labyrinthine process of producing and filling out the correct paperwork.

I browsed through the various internet sites and a few cars caught my attention. These are a few of the cars that were of interest, but not quite what I wanted:

Honda NSX

1991 Honda NSX 133,000 km ¥1,980,000

Advantages: Aluminum (The world’s first all-aluminum and aluminum monocoque chassis production car)  so doesn’t rust – perfect for the salty island breezes.  Designed with the assistance of Ayrton Senna. Looks fantastic.

Disadvantages: Almost no luggage space. The cheapest cars are still 2 million yen, and these are high mileage automatics with dodgy black leather seats.  If I wanted an NSX it would have to be the type R which were all manual with non-leather seats, but the cheapest examples are over 5 million yen.

Nissan Skyline GTR

1996 Nissan Skyline GTR 51000km ¥1,750,000

Advantages: Speed and power that make other road users (or other competitors in motorsport)  tremble in its wake. Nicknamed Godzilla, the GTRs  are brutish supercars.

Disadvantages: 80 KPH speed limit on expressways in Okinawa, 50 KPH on main roads. You would never be able to unleash Godzilla. Four wheel drive, four wheel steering, dual turbos, titanium exhaust systems and the like are all fantastic but I’m pretty sure will cost a fortune when they need to be fixed or replaced.

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution

2003 Mitsubishi Evolution VIII GSR 43000 km ¥1,780,000

 

Advantages: Rally car thinly disguised as a basic family 4 door sedan. A technological marvel. 

Disadvantages: Rather thirsty. Not too many rally stages in Okinawa. (Would seriously consider this however if I was living in Hokkaido where 4WD and things like Super Active Yaw Control might come in handy.)

Suzuki Cervo

2009 Suzuki Cervo SR 7km ¥1,550,000

Advantages:  A new car and therefore 3 full years before shaken.  66occ engine means it is a Kei Jidosha and will be have cheaper road tax. Turbo charged engine gives it some power  (64PS) while the CVT gearbox means it can do 23 km per liter. Gearbox has a “manual mode” allowing you to select from 7 gears. Small cars are perfect for Okinawa’s narrow streets and tiny parking spaces.

Disadvantages: The small engine means that you would be thrashing it to make any progress. I’d prefer a manual gearbox rather than an  automatic gearbox with a  ”Manual mode”.

Finally I found what I was looking for:

Suzuki Swift Sport

2009 Suzuki Swift Sport 98 km ¥1,650,000

 Advantages: An almost new car. A manual gearbox. Very similar to a Mini Cooper, but without the exorbitant import charges. Fun to drive, but still quite frugal at 15km/L. This car also comes with the Japanese set options of Recaro seats and HID lights.

Disadvantages: The standard Suzuki Swift is perhaps the most common rental car on Okinawa. You may therefore struggle to find your car if you visit the aquarium or Shuri Castle.  The luggage space is quite small when the rear seats are up. Never had a new car before so will probably go through a stage of new car paranoia where I am afraid to let dogs, people or dirt anywhere near it. 

So the decision has been made. Time to move on to stage 2.