Once upon a time Japanese cars was seen as junk, at best. How times have changed!
I bought a brand new Toyota Corolla off the showroom floor in 1977 for 3000 dollars.
It lasted 15 years. (literally fell apart from rust..the older Jap cars did that..engine and everything else was still going strong)
This was right around the time laid off steelworkers here around Pittsburgh were selling raffle tickets to take sledgehammers to Jap cars they had collected in a parking lot.
I took a lot of flak for buying "That Jap Junk".
Two years later when the gas crunch hit, they were putting deposits down on Toyota's, Datsun's and Honda's, and waiting 4 months for them to make it across the ocean.
Couldn't even sell their unreliable gas guzzling Detroit poop buckets.
The Corolla had gone up to 8000 dollars by then. (and still was worth every penny)