{"id":298,"date":"2007-09-20T18:01:15","date_gmt":"2007-09-21T04:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.studionewmedia.com\/blog\/2007\/09\/20\/jdm\/"},"modified":"2007-09-20T18:01:15","modified_gmt":"2007-09-21T04:01:15","slug":"jdm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/2007\/09\/20\/jdm\/","title":{"rendered":"JDM"},"content":{"rendered":"

I got back from Japan on Monday morning, but have been too busy to post anything yet – and I still have to post Whistler MTB stuff too!\u00c2\u00a0 Anyway, here are a few tidbits for the car-fans out there.<\/p>\n

The most obviously numerous cars I saw out East\u00c2\u00a0were Toyota\u00c2\u00a0Vitzs and Suzuki Sprints.\u00c2\u00a0 The Vitz is known on\u00c2\u00a0the USDM as the “Yaris 3-door”, but occurs on the JDM as a 5-door only, and is not available with a M\/T.\u00c2\u00a0 Those up\u00c2\u00a0North of the border can get the Yaris\u00c2\u00a0in both 3 or 5-door\u00c2\u00a0versions (dammit!).\u00c2\u00a0 The Toyota Belta 4-door sedan was fairly common also.\u00c2\u00a0 This is available on the USDM as the “Yaris 4-door sedan”.\u00c2\u00a0 This car replaces the Platz\u00c2\u00a0 (USDM Echo) on the JDM.<\/p>\n

\"minipato.JPG\"<\/a>The Suzuki Sprint is not available on the USDM, but it’s “SUV” cousin, the SX4, is.\u00c2\u00a0 I did see a few SX4’s, but they weren’t as numerous.\u00c2\u00a0 The Sprint has\u00c2\u00a0the same floorpan, but less overhangs beyond the axles, especially in the rear.\u00c2\u00a0 The styling is very similar, but\u00c2\u00a0the windshield is more vertical, and there is no “minivan window” in\u00c2\u00a0front of the\u00c2\u00a0front\u00c2\u00a0door glass.\u00c2\u00a0 Assumedly,\u00c2\u00a0the\u00c2\u00a0Sprint\u00c2\u00a0engine is in the 1.3 to 1.5-liter range as in previous iterations.\u00c2\u00a0 the JDM SX4 probably doesn’t\u00c2\u00a0have the 2.0-liter engine shoehorned into it that the USDM model has, but I haven’t bothered to check.\u00c2\u00a0 Older generation Sprints were by and far the most common Police cars in rural areas, in particular, the 1.3-liter AWD version.<\/p>\n

I am wondering a little\u00c2\u00a0if the Sprints and\u00c2\u00a0Vitzs were rental cars and were therefore overrepresented in the touristy East – sort of like the Dodge Stratus or Chevy Cadavalier\u00c2\u00a0here in Hawaii.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"impreza.JPG\"<\/a>Got a good look at the new body Suby Impreza.\u00c2\u00a0 Up close and personal, it is not as offensively “Ford Fuckus” as the spy photos and early media release photos would indicate.\u00c2\u00a0 The grille pattern is\u00c2\u00a0ugly, but that cam probably be fixed in aftermarket.\u00c2\u00a0 I sort-of wish they had gone toward more of an upright, “station wagon” rear shape rather than the\u00c2\u00a0sloping “hatchback”\u00c2\u00a0design, but Imprezas have always tended to\u00c2\u00a0lean in that direction.<\/p>\n

I saw the TV CM for the new Toyota ist.\u00c2\u00a0 Interesting how\u00c2\u00a0the ads targeted toward certain market segments are done different ways.\u00c2\u00a0 This ad had an “in through the windshield” view of a series of shots of various caucasian\u00c2\u00a0people smiling in the seats.\u00c2\u00a0 I also saw a minivan ad with a caucasian family driving down their Western street in their Western neighborhood, pulling into their\u00c2\u00a0Western driveway in front of their Western home, and unloading stuff happily.\u00c2\u00a0 Odd how they’ll go through the\u00c2\u00a0trouble of shipping a\u00c2\u00a0car to a market where it isn’t available to film an ad, then ship it back.\u00c2\u00a0 I get a little salty seeing these, because they give the impression of “this car is used by happy American families”, but in reality, we don’t get all\u00c2\u00a0those good cars – we get stuck with various mechanically unsophisticated vehicles built in the USA off of the\u00c2\u00a0USDM Camry platform.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0At least in the case of the new ist, we do get it – in the form of the new Scion Xd.\u00c2\u00a0 Yup.\u00c2\u00a0 You heard me.\u00c2\u00a0 Go to the Toyota.co.jp site and see for yourself!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I got back from Japan on Monday morning, but have been too busy to post anything yet – and I still have to post Whistler MTB stuff too!\u00c2\u00a0 Anyway, here are a few tidbits for the car-fans out there. The most obviously numerous cars I saw out East\u00c2\u00a0were Toyota\u00c2\u00a0Vitzs and Suzuki Sprints.\u00c2\u00a0 The Vitz is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[6,18],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/saJYlx-jdm","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}