JDM cars better specs?

[broadspeed1]

What was the rationale behind the JDM cars always getting better specs then the cars made for the UK?

[TommoAE86]

Why flog nice cars to a country that's too busy huffing their own farts and swallowing the bull that "German = amazing" when they haven't been for years, yes it's bitter experience that makes me think that way

[samoht]

By and large these cars were sold in far greater numbers in the home market. This meant that it was worth homologating and selling a wider range of different model grades, and in many cases cars continued to be sold and facelifted with significant improvements after export sales had ceased.


Export sales were limited by import tariffs, less prestigious brands, limited dealer networks & parts supply and smaller marketing budgets. So the UK importer would be more likely to pick only a few models from the parent company's range that they thought would be profitable, get them homologated and on sale, and stick with them, rather than trying to get every single variant road-legal and promote it.

Conversely, the Japanese companies are hyper-competitive in their home markets, and the struggle for market share drives them to introduce ever more variants and features to try and claw out an advantage with the domestic buyer.


The wider variants naturally often included higher specs with more power, although they do also include less desirable derivatives like the GR Yaris with a 1.5L normally aspirated engine, CVT gearbox and front-wheel drive.

[youngsyr]

broadspeed1 said:

What was the rationale behind the JDM cars always getting better specs then the cars made for the UK?

It's mainly a US vs JDM thing, in my experience. Not a UK vs JDM thing.

US has big markets, notably California, with tight emissions standards, so some JDM cars made for that market were detuned, e.g Evos.