Pretty sure they were the 2l-T turbo diesel. Not the most exciting rig to drive.

Hey oyaji! (sorry couldn't resist), I think you guys get off easier the rest of us. There are actually 2 taxes, each of which are due yearly. Rusty - I think people start tossing out cars after that start having to do the safetly inspection.

1. "car tax" (jidosha-zei) based on engine size, a 1.5-2.0 liter is about 39,000 yen, about $350US, maybe a bit less. 2.0-2.5 is 45,000. This is paid to the local governments

2. "weight tax" (juryo-zei) which I hear a lot of people call road tax, since it's for the roads, which is based on car weight. This is often paid (to national govt.) at the same time people do shaken

The shaken (safety inspection) is due 3 years after you first buy a car, then every other year after that. At some point it may become mandatory every year, but I am not sure about that.

A lot of Japanese get rid of their cars after they have to start paying for shaken because until recently, it was stupidly expensive. A lot of books were published on - get this - how to actually take the car to the inspection station and get it inspected yourself for 10s of dollars, as opposed to paying a dealer *thousands* of dollars to take it their for you. So the dealer shaken prices have been (according to wikipedia) coming down.

These 2 were gasoline, which surpised me because I was under the impression that most were diesel. There should (probably is) a lot of good diesels available for export since you can't drive the older one's in Tokyo any more.

You may be right about the tax that gets payed with shaken. For shaken, I just take it to the inspector, turn in the paperwork my wife filled out, buy the stamp for the amount the little lady behind the desk tells me to pay and be on with it. You're spot on for the car tax (we call road tax erroneously) amounts. It's pretty much universal throughout the country...

Good to see more people here that are over here. I really want to go wheeling and can't wait to get back in my Raider.

Yeah always good find "locals", though I'm only over there as of late for about half the year. We are almost as far apart as possible in Japan, sasebo to akita (obviously not as far as okinawa to hokkaido)

I found links to the 2 surfs I found. Both are 1988.

One has 120,000 km and The other has only 69,000 km but has a completely unnecessary body lift

Are you kidding? I'd drive that second one in a hearbeat!!!!

When this tour is up, I'll have a total 7-1/2 years on this side of the world. Been stationed in Sasebo for the entirety, though I've been all over the country. I like the pace down here.

As far as that truck is concerned, the body lift is 100% unnecessary here(or anywhere for that matter IMO). I don't think I'd touch that one...

I guess I should have qualified that with unnecessary for Japan where you would exclude yourself from many roads, parking lots, etc. Not a lot of places to really go wheeling so most of these rigs are mainly on the street which is often very very narrow.

Ummm... there is a body lift because those tires wouldnt fit on a stock truck...
So what you're really trying to say, is that a lifted truck is impractical in japan, which is something i could agree with. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Your right, but I feel that the body lift on that truck is asking for trouble. It must be 5" tall and, in my opinion, is too much. There are other ways to lift a truck, as you know, and Toyota's have more options than others. I feel the stress on the joining materials holding that thing together have got to be extreme. Therefor, I personally wouldn't do that to my rig, nor would I buy a rig that had that done to it. I'm not sure what kind of stress damage is done to the body panels where those pucks are at.

Disclaimer: this is purely my opinion. To each his own, of course.