good news for those who are waiting for the Z
 

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3/18 started radiation checks... sounds good.

i never even thought about the radiation getting on the car

Glow-in-the-dark Z? :ugh2:

Thats good to know. Mmm look at all those Z's

In a few months, pre-disaster Nissans may command a premium over these (that were built/shipped after March 18th). I wouldn't want to profit on Japan's misfortune -- but also, I would not want to buy a car that was "only slightly radioactive".

In the intermediate term I expect Nissan and the other Japanese manufacturers to step up production in Taiwan (for domestic Japanese consumption) and look to develop even more international assembly locations. Toyota/Lexus got bit particularly hard by this disaster, by having high value-add components like ECUs manufactured exclusively in Japan.

In the longer term, depending on how the auto-buying market reacts, we may see the subsistence of the Nissan logo and re-emergence of the Renault brand -- which after all, is (with the French government) approximately a 50% part-owner of Nissan.

You do know other forms of radiation occur naturally right? You also get a dose getting an X-ray or going thru airport security. I do fear most people will think as you do where they equate anything radioactive=death. I look at it this way.. Americans know what's healthy and what's not.... most just don't care. We have a tv show called man vs. food for God's sake. Do honestly thinks it's going to stop them from buying a car with very low levels of radiation, if any?

I want one of these Jukes for daily driving!

hey
 

I hope my Z will come soon. ordered it on 4th February and still waiting without to know if it will come or not. but i've got time an know the Japeneese people do their best the important is the the Z comes to me no matter when.

Yes, because people by and large are stupid and believe whatever the media or their chosen source of fear-mongering tells them. Radiation is one of the things the typical sheep is terrified of.

Let's put it this way.

I'm a doctor. I wouldn't buy a Japanese car right now. That's based mostly on skepticism when a company tests their own vehicles for radiation levels. I'd like to know how many cars failed screening.

well then, based on that line of thought i guess we shouldn't eat bananas either since the potassium in them is in fact a form of radioactive particle :ugh2: :rolleyes:

Don't know who you have been listening to but potassium is NOT a radioactive particle. Potassium Iodide (KI) is used to protect the thyroid from radioactive iodide if taken within a short period of time following exposure.

If even it fails screening, the vehicle can still be decontaminated. All of states/counties around US nuclear power plants have plans and procedures on how to monitor vehicles for contamination and how to decontaminate those vehicles. The Japanese authorities have the same type of procedures.

I've spent time online looking for radiation detectors, or, as they're known, "Geiger" counters. First -- the leftovers from the Cold War are not applicable, because they're designed to measure high doses occurring in wartime. To measure low doses you need modern, advanced equipment -- stuff that starts at ~$500 per machine (and needs periodic recalibration, too).

But there's still no documentation concerning acceptable long-term rates of accrual. (The Japanese plant workers wear dosage badges, which measure how much they've gotten in the period of time since the badge was activated.) They know when they've accumulated, say, 400 milliroentgens, they can't work again until the following month. (Or whatever the rules are.)

But we're talking about something else here. We're not nuclear plant workers, and we're not at war. How many cancers can we expect from being subjected to a slightly radioactive dashboard in a car over the period of ownership -- 3, six years? What is the risk of continuing exposure at the high-end of the "acceptable" daily figure? If you're one of those people who don't smoke, etc., you may feel that even a 0.01% chance of increased risk is unacceptable to your health, and that of your family. And that's why this whole situation is so awful. You don't even want products from these affected areas imported to the USA, further befouling your environment.

Remember Christine Christie, the former governor of NJ, who was appointed head of the EPA during the 9/11/2001 WTC disaster? She had the job of telling people in lower Manhattan it was safe to go out and breathe the asbestos dust. Turns out this was a lie. I would not accept the word of any governmental authority figure with respect to Fujiyama's released radiation until at least five years after his statement, when independent testing can prove his accuracy.