Toyota-Lexus-Subaru-Honda Low Mileage Japanese Engines

I can’t know what the actual reality is regarding these supposedly low-mileage engines that get imported year after year, but I’m skeptical as to how they’re represented.

First of all, it has never struck me as credible that the Japanese government’s regulations are such that it requires their citizens to sell us their engines at a low price when they hit approximately 30,000 miles.

Secondly, the engines I’ve seen with their hard seals and such didn’t have the appearance of being low-mileage engines.
And finally, there’s the issue of being unable to control the final outcome to be a good outcome. The last engine I installed (years ago) ran on about two and a half cylinders out of four.

Who’s ever heard of a Toyota engine doing that with 30k on it? We called up the suppliers, and they said, “Oh, no problem. Just send the engine back to us and we’ll send you another one.” It may have been no problem for them, but it was a particularly labor intensive installation in and older Van and a significant setback for us.

I decided that they couldn’t control whether they were sending us good engines. This was further confirmed in that they weren’t confident enough in their product that they would warranty our labor if they sent us a bad engine. That being the case, I’m not willing to take part in the gamble with them when the risk is entirely on our customers and us.