US Cars Cut Out of Japan’s Cash for Clunkers Program

The cash for clunkers program has had a great success in the United States, as about 677,000 vehicles have been sold. Though the “Buy only American built” philosophy has been promoted since the recession started, almost half of the cars sold through the cash for clunkers program were Japanese. And we are not only talking about American built cars, as 115,000 vehicles from the total of 319,342 Japanese vehicles sold in the US were imported.

Japan also decided to run its own program which would help boost fuel efficient car sales. The government created some rules for cars to qualify for the program. These rules which are meant to force people to buy fuel efficient cars, also shut out all US brand vehicles.

Such a policy seems to reflect less on the car sales, as US brands might have sold only a few hundreds, maybe thousands of cars through this program, but says a lot about the government’s ability to play dirty.  Japan officially banned American cars from its clunkers program because US cars aren’t tested and proven to meet or beat Japan’s 2010 fuel economy standards.

As Japanese fuel efficiency tests are not synchronized with European or American ones, a few years ago authorities permitted foreign vehicles to be sold in Japan without having to be retested under the Japanese standards. The only condition was that the vehicles met their home countries' emissions tests.

The Japanese cash for clunkers program offers ¥250,000 ($2,778) for every car older than 13 years. You can only buy vehicles which meet Japan’s 2010 emissions standards. If you don’t have an old car, you can still get $1,111 if the car you want to purchase beats Japan's 2010 emissions standards by 15 percent or more.