on 5/15/03 10:13 AM, David Breneman at idcb@airborne.com wrote:
> Eric SEZ -
>> MG ROVER GROUP RE-ENTERS THE JAPANESE MARKET
>>
>> In conjunction with their partner Autotrading Luft, MG Rover Group is
>> pleased to announce that it will shortly re-commence sales of MG and
>> Rover cars in Japan.
>
> I'd say this bodes well for the US. If anything, Japan's car
> regulations are even more onerous than the US. Aren't they
> required to replace engines every 50,000 miles or something
> crazy like that? That's why used Japanese-car engines are
> so plentiful. It means you need a good parts operation, too.
Well, that is a maintenance/inspection regulation, not a
manufacturing-related regulation, so I don't think it's relevant. It has
usually been interpreted as a subsidy to their domestic auto industry,
by forcing people to buy new cars more often.
Otherwise, their emission laws are similar to the US and EU, but I don't
think their crashworthiness standards are even close. There isn't much of a
problem with high-speed crashes on Japanese roads. Of course, most of their
models have to comply with US specs, anyway.
The part that bodes well is that they are willing to enter a large foreign
market, meaning they think their manufacturing and distribution is up to the
task. But population aside, the area of the US is so much vaster than Japan
that the distribution issue is not remotely comparable. I don't think they
could contract with a single dealer/distributor to cover the entire US
market, as they did in Japan. Even Morgan has a West Coast and an East Coast
distributor <g>.
--
Max Heim
'66 MGB GHN3L76149
If you're near Mountain View, CA,
it's the primer red one with chrome wires
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