I don't think the mileage readings on most of the cars imported from Japan is true. Especially the ones in the used-car lots. Some of them are ridiculously low! Yet when you check established Japanese exporters (IBC, Papera etc), you see a different story.

Most of the importers reverse the mileage to suit the local buyers.Most of the cars have done at least 80000-110000km before importation.Toyotas are worse.

In many cases the odometer reading is true. However, some Kenyan dealers wants to please their customers (and future custormers, in that matter) by rewinding the readings. It is true that IBC Japan will give you more details of the car u want to buy than many other dealers (including a cigarette burn on the seat).

Imagining a person in Japan doing a daily commute of 30km a day to and from work (a distance like Safaripark to Nbi city center and back) would have covered 87,500km in 8yrs. If you throw in a weekend getaway of 100km once a month (a distance like nairobi to naivasha), which is very common in the developed world, then that's another 19,200km. So a mileage of 80,000 - 100,000km in a car makes perfect sense.

Some people argue that the Japanese families have more than one car and hence the supposedly low mileage in cars. It's true that many families in the developed world have 2 cars, however both spouses work and each one uses their car to work. So in the end the two cars would still have covered the 80,000km each.