One of the regular contributors to Curbside Classics is a writer currently based in Tokyo, who catches and snaps the best in Tokyo cars. And that’s a high bar, since ALL the interesting cars in the world, both old and new, have ended up in the hands of Tokyo collectors. (I haven’t figured out what this guy does for a living; he has worked all over the world and knows how to write up a storm, so maybe he’s a corporate PR rep?)
His latest offering stirs up a new thought. A few of these cars are familiar to American eyes, but most are WILDLY different from anything we can buy here. Toyota and Nissan make and sell an IMMENSE variety of vehicles in other places. They make and sell only one or two types here.
I’ve often observed that the “economies of scale” theory failed with US carmakers. Our manufacturers gave their Canadian and Brazilian and Argentine customers a WIDER variety of cars than they sold here. The foreign divisions constantly modified existing cars and occasionally developed their own totally new models. Local content laws encouraged local creativity. The first picture in the Tokyo set is a perfect example. Mitsubishi acquired the license for the original Willys wagon, then created their own 4-door version which Willys never built here.
The same rule holds true no matter where the carmaker is based. Americans receive the least interesting and least varied products.
In recent decades our complex and contradictory “environmental” and “safety” laws have forced rigid conformity, but this rule was observable long before Nixon clamped us into oblivion. It’s not scale, and it’s not our extreme tyranny.
We simply don’t like creativity.
Polistra's Mill 