America has long been known as the land of the automobiles. Look at old pictures in magazines, and you'll see that even forty years ago, American roads were always full of cars. Look carefully at these pictures, you'll have a hard time finding cars other than big American "gas guzzlers"; if you take a look at the same roads today, you will see almost as many imported cars as American. By far, most of these imports are Japanese. Despite the angry protests of economists who predict dollar deficit doom. Most people these days will have to decide between purchasing a Japanese and American car.

The first factor that these buyers must consider is purchase price. Due to currency fluctuations, the price of new Japanese cars does not remain constant. This can easily put the price of a moderately priced car up into the luxury range. On the other...