[snowsislander]

And they drive around in wrecks. In 2003, when my partner and I took his teenage brother to New York - his first trip outside of Europe - he stared boggle-eyed at the cars in the Newark Airport parking lot, as mesmerized as Robin Williams in a New York grocery store in "Moscow on the Hudson."

If they want a real shock, they should visit Tokyo. The average Japanese car on the street in Tokyo is much nicer than anywhere else I have visited.

[William Tell]

snowsislander said: "The average Japanese car on the street in Tokyo is much nicer than anywhere else I have visited."

I have heard that it is illegal in Japan to allow one's auto to appear much less than in new condition. Is that not so?