
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 11, 1995                   TAG: 9505110086
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: BUSINESS   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TOKYO                                 LENGTH: Medium

THEY DO BUY A FEW U.S. CARS

DEALERS WORRY that trade negotiators may hurt the Japanese market for American vehicles, small though it is.

Sales of Jeep Cherokees quadrupled at one Tokyo dealership last year - from three vehicles to 12.

Almost imperceptibly to the average consumer, foreign vehicle sales are making inroads into the Japanese auto market.

As the Clinton administration announces tougher action to force open the Japanese auto market, some foreign auto dealers worry that an all-out trade war could harm their campaign to win the hearts and minds of Japanese car buyers.

``If the product is good and the price is right, you can do better and better selling imported cars in Japan these days,'' said Kaz Saitoh, a spokesman for Yanse and Co., Japan's largest car importer and dealer.

``Personally, I don't think what [the trade negotiators] are doing is so great,'' he said.

Though actual sales are small, foreign auto sales have been the only growth area in a stagnant Japanese auto market.

Gradually, Japanese automakers are allowing dealers to give showroom space to American vehicles. Honda sells Jeep Cherokees; Toyota sells some Fords.

Ford also has established a small dealership network of its own, but it doesn't begin to rival the more than 800 Honda dealerships in Japan.

At a Tokyo Honda dealership, a metallic-green Jeep Cherokee shares a brick riser with a comparable Honda utility vehicle, the Odyssey, under the dealership sign. Cherokee sales there rose significantly last year.

And salesman Yukitoshi Okamoto says sales have great potential to take off as Japanese consumers gain trust in American autos.

by CNB