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Toyota And Nissan Admit Their American-Made Vehicles Aren't Up To Japanese Standards
(www.motor1.com)
this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2026
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Yes, that's how national standards work.
You also can't import a Japanese-made vehicle to the US until it's 25 or more years old because the safety specs are different.
And almost all US market vehicles are not up to Canadian standards - starting with the Canadian requirement to have driver adjustable headlight elevation trim...
Man...that would be an awesome feature...
I could swear my 80s accord had that feature
Those were some of the best cars I've ever seen. My dad got 400K miles out of his
Especially for vehicles that tow trailers and the trailer tongue weight pushes the angle of the whole vehicle up...
Of course we don't have them in the US because, unlike Canada, we have far too many drivers who would adjust them up just to be jerks blinding other drivers on purpose.
That's just what they want you to believe. Cars have to be 25 years old before they can be imported, because Mercedes dealerships where butthurt about ⅕ beamers being imports four decades ago.
Technology connections on YouTube touched on it in a video, if I recall right domestic sales went up a couple percent for Mercedes dealerships, no where remotely close to +20%.
It used to be a thing where you could get a job driving brand new BMWs around Europe until it hit like 6,000km so they could be imported to the US cheaper as a "used" car.
Why wouldn't they just put them up on a dyno and just spin the tires?
I would expect the job wasn't just "we'll pay you drive around non-stop for 9 hours/day". I bet it was probably more like "use this car for your commute and stuff, but be sure to have it up to 6km in X weeks" or something like that.
It would probably take a long time to run up 6k on a dyno, completely occupying that dyno for just one car. Doubt that would have been worth the cost of one (or multiple) dynos.
That makes sense. Or even as simple as perhaps renting out the car or something like that. But with extreme restrictions about cleanliness and such or something, I don't know. Thank you, your ideas absolutely helped
Because it's more fun!
Not only that but Toyota as an example does a lot to localize their products. So for example, a Toyota built in the Northern parts of North America will have better winterizing. Whereas a Toyota built in a coastal area like much of Japan will be resistant to salt water spray.
While OP is trying to imply that Toyota is selling crap to American's because they think Americans are so stupid they'll never noticed, the fact is that a car built for Japan will not last as long in America as a car built for Americans.
This was really noticeable with 1970's japanese vehicles. They weren't great. But they improved.
If that's true, it's dumb, Not like Americans ever move from one region of the nation to the other and take their vehicles with them.
I doubt it is.