Some of us already knew

[A^K^T]

The part about being able to import second hand cars from Japan is interesting .
Second hand cars being imported from Japan used to happen (early 90's from memory) in WA but was stopped (or restricted) by regulation .
An aunt of mine had a second hand Jap import Corola 1.8l diesel that wasn't available locally . Was a great little car , cheap to run and i think she got 300,000 km out of it.

I think it was just personal imports that were restricted. There are still car yards around Perth that import used cars from Japan - probably at a very large mark up.

Unless its changed and it was a while back that I researched it, in Japan once a car reaches 3 years old it becomes expensive to keep them due to licencing requirements. They can then be picked up very cheaply.

Oh and yes, we need that election!

Ok , i do remember the second hand jap imports flooding the market and the second hand car dealers not being happy about it.
I also remember seeing a few magazines that an uncle of mine bought back from Japan , similar to auto trader , Like you said fairly new cars could be had cheaply , and if they had a little damage (slight panel damage) very cheap.