I lived in Japan for three years in the early 90's. Japanese cars are not driven much when owned. At the three year anniversary of the vehicle a complete inspection is required which usually runs the owner about $2-3K per vehicle to put back on the road; at the five year mark it costs about $5K to be certified road worthy. In Japan, no vehicles are allowed to run in need or repairs or painting. Parts for each vehicle are sold by exact year only; the fact that the same spark plug is used year after year is not a Japanese concept as you are required by Law to purchase the sparkplug for your year and make of vehicle packaged as such. The same goes for mufflers, wipers, etc. Generic parts do not exist and are not allowed.
On another note, is it not gratifying to see in print that the US market is the largest in the world at 43M vehicles.... EUrope (where I am currently living) has 25% more people and less vehicles....
Oh, and those Japanese vehicles at three years typically only have about 20,000 miles on them:)
Very interesting. Thanks for this.