Big In Japan … Small In America

Duncan Imports Brings The Cool JDM Rides We Never Got Here.

- Dan Carney

Sadly for car aficionados, the federal government’s regulations have kept us from enjoying the world’s coolest rides. A right-hand-drive car, or a vehicle too small to pass crash-safety tests, or one with an engine that would not pass emissions—all are viable reasons to not give a free pass for cars never meant to be sold here.

But time—enemy of yellow bananas and pop music stardom—is the friend of gray-market car enthusiasts with an appreciation for Japan’s coolest cars of the 1990s. Cars like the Nissan Figaro, Suzuki Cappuccino, and the head-turning gull-winged Autozam AZ-1 weren’t designed to meet U.S. government requirements, so they were never sold here. It wasn’t even legal to buy one in Japan and bring it home yourself.

However, after 25 years, it turns out there is now an end to the prejudice against these irresistible baubles—that’s when the U.S. government issues a pardon. All sins are forgiven, and for 2019, cars built in 1994 or earlier can be imported.

That’s where Gary Duncan comes in. He has navigated the inscrutable Japanese export bureaucracy and figured out the myriad U.S. government regulations nonetheless still in place to hinder importing a classic JDM vehicle into America. If you want a quirky old Japanese car, Duncan can get it for you. In fact, he likely already has one in stock.

His venture started in 2016, when the 1991 Nissan Figaro boutique car became eligible, and Duncan, a car dealer in Christiansburg, Virginia, became motivated to start bringing in the almost indescribably cute pastel-colored convertibles. Duncan fell in love with the little car at its 1989 Tokyo Motor Show introduction. He suffered more than two decades of unrequited love until today, when Duncan Imports & Classic Cars is a titan of Japanese Domestic Market right-hand-drive cars, trucks, and vans.