Pearls from Land of the Rising Sun

Oct 13 2008 Ian Johnson

Pearls from Land of the Rising Sun

BACK in the late 1960s and early 70s the Japanese car was treated with almost disdain in Britain.

What were these Datsuns and Toyotas doing, eroding the firm foothold of fine marques such as Austin and Morris?

To many they would be a nine-day wonder, but to the motoring pundits of the time they were a revelation.

Firstly they were tremendously reliable, they were well priced and they drove very well. The downside was that they corroded as fast as any British car and in some cases spares were a difficulty. And many British drivers did not like their Oriental styling.

But the wheels were in motion and the rapid development in technical excellence and quality of the Japanese car left the rest of the world agape.

Soon we were seeing more and more Japanese names supplying cars to most market sectors. Names like Mitubishi and Honda rapidly found friends and they are here to this day supplying cars that are high on quality and specification.

Now the older Japanese car is driving into the refined world of the classic car and there is an amazing amount of interest.

Recently, a one-owner 1980 Honda Accord with 26,000 miles on the clock was sold for £3,025 to a Cheshire collector, bidding on the phone at an auction in Dorset.

And I know of one collector who has had a garage built with full heating and ventilation to house his trio of early Lexus LS400s which he treats with almost reverence.

There's no doubt about it, the Japanese classic is on the up. They can be fiddly to restore - some early models of the cheaper marques were constructed of very thin metal and on many the paintwork displays more bubbles than a bar of Aero. And some spares can be difficult, because the older ones are now a rare find in the scrapyards.

But if you persevere and buy a car that has been restored to its former glory, you will have a classic to be proud of.

So what are the better options? My advice is not to look for something too old like a 70s Datsun or Mazda Montrose because the restoration costs may far outweigh the value of the car when it is complete.

I would look at cars like the 1984 Honda CRX Coupe, an exciting little 112mph hatch.

Or there is the amazing Nissan Figaro, a retro design from the late 1980s that the celebrities love.

Nifty buys from Toyota are the original MR2 sports car of 1985 which was one of the company's most outstanding products. And if you fancy something a little faster there is the lively 137mph Corolla GT of the 1980s.

And then there is the daddy of them all - the superb Lexus LS400 , the car that took Mercedes and Jaguar on at their own game and was a major success.