Job Discussion Forums

[JimDunlop2]

I know I've seen this before on the forum and I've had some limited success with finding what I want, but not entirely. The most luck I've had has been with this website: http://web.kyoto-inet.or.jp/org/hi-sense/index-e.html which is an outfit in Kyoto that specializes in cheap shaken... But I really don't want to have to go all the way to Kyoto for it... (A bit expensive from Yamanashi Pref.)

Here's my conundrum... Friends are offering us an OLD (read: 1989) Nissan Vanette. about 60,000km on it. Never had any mechanical problems..... The price is right: free. Shaken is up in Aug., and apprently there are no outstanding reasons why it wouldn't pass the inspection. I've calculated that including gas, road tax, parking, etc., I can expect to pay about 20,000/month to keep this beast -- which is a tad pricey (but what isn't in Japan?) ....

Anyway, I guess one option is for me to drive this beast down to Kyoto in August (I'm on holidays all month long) and shaken it through the aforementioned company.... I suspect that with road tolls, gas, etc... and the shaken stuff itself, I can expect to pay somewhere in the neighbourhood of 70 to 80,000 yen...... Shaken from a regular local shop will run me about 100,000... But then again, I'd get a trip (read: holiday) to Kyoto out of it if I do it the first way -- and that can't be a bad thing....

What do you guys figure..... ? Any advice?

(P.S. The reason for the van being gotten rid of: they want a new one, and can't have another registered parking space.... They also want to have a newer vehicle before they start to see mechanical problems on the old one -- even though they say it's been great until now)...


Oh yeah.... One other thing... Since we make frequent trips to Tokyo, if anyone knows of a good CHEAP place to shaken your car in the Big Mikan, please let me know!

[Gordon]

100,000 sounds a little expensive to me for shaken. Your car has white plates right? I have one with yellow plates and it cost me 45,000 yen for 2 years of shaken. Remember that if your car doesn't pass shaken or is expensive to fix, you will have to pay money to get rid of it, maybe 30,000. You might be doing your friends a big favour by taking it off their hands.

[JimDunlop2]

Well, Gordon... You'd think so, but from my research, 100,000 is definitely within range of average shaken (although on the higher end of it)... Yeah, it's a white plate car, but many shops will just rape you on the fees without telling you... I know it was that much because my friends showed me their last two shaken (shop) receipts....

To dispose of the beast isn't too bad -- 10,000 I've been told... But I would hate to do that. I'm still trying to figure things out....

I spent ALL afternoon trying to find sites on the Internet to help with this issue -- but you know what? I came up with next to ZERO! I even did a google search in Nihongo, using the kanji for "shaken" "yasui" and various locations like Tokyo, and Yamanashi... I came up with maybe 1 or 2 sites but that's it.....

[Gordon]

Most of the car shops won't be on the net. Ask some Japanese people where they go. I must be pretty fortunate as this shop is only a 15 minute walk from my house. They even gave a courtesy car for 2 days too at no extra charge.

[G Cthulhu]

There will almost certainly be a shop that will do it for around 80,000 yen all up (barring major work being needed), as in all the paperwork and a basic tuneup - competition is making these 'discount' fixed price shops quite common. Newpapers and the NTT yellow pages are good places to look, or ask Japanese friends.

Or you can do it yourself for about 25-30,000 yen and a day running about. Go search the archives at Big Daikon - there are posts there that detail how to do it all for yourself.


Me, I think 80,000 yen including a tune up and no hassles or time lost is not too bad. :)