OK,

Everyone has a different story. What is the REAL story about JDM engines.

Everyone says they are low mileage for many different reasons. Obviously they are going to be lower mileage because they live on an islan basically.

Some say that environment government restrictions make them replace their engines at a certain number of miles and others have different reasons.

Why the abundance of JDM engines?

 

they are required by law to replace the engine at 30,000mi (not sure how many km) from what i hear and thats been consistent from several people

 

not exactly...they just get taxed heavily over a certain amount of kilometres. People get rid of the cars to avoid the high taxes.

 

When I got my JDM it *appeared* as if someone had just replaced the timing belt, water pump, and clutch. As well, it apparently was a '92 model which would make me think that it had been driven much more than 30-50,000 miles.

Why in the hell would Japan require them to replace their engines? I mean the environment reasons dont even make sense, my old engine with 170,000 miles on it passed emissions with flying colors.

The other reason that I have heard is that labor rates in Japan are so high that people often times find it cheaper just to replace the whole engine when they are in fender benders.

 

does the ultimate truth really matter that much to you?

who knows why they feel as though they need to justify their environmental regulations. you can also make the same case as to why they have hp limits of 276hp or so on production cars. when it is not uncommon to have a 300-500whp beast.

the fact of the matter is, the regulations are there. we only benefit from them because there is a high demand for the motors so importers are willing to ship motors here. simple as that.

 

that and most places in japa have a speed limit of 60kph. which means you have a better chance of getting an engine that hasn't been ran at 120mph or been raged on too much.

 

people get tax breaks if they buy new cars. thats why you can buy entire front clips... because when you trade in your perfectly serviceable JDM car, they cut it in half to avoid anybody else using the car.

 

I heard that Japanese poeple in Japan don't even bother to chage their oil change or routine maintennace because they know they are going to get rid of their car in the future. So they might drive it until like 10K w/o even changing it.