Only 13 percent of the Japanese-made cars sold here last year had manual transmissions, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association.

Still, the United States Transportation Department reported recently that the North American content of Japanese-made cars this year is up 14 percent, compared with 1995 models.

Then she walked away to where she had parked her small Japanese-made car.

Conversely, Japanese-made cars exported to the United States roll off the ships into the fast lane to their dealers.

Now they are buying big cars - big Japanese-made cars.

They overturned Japanese-made cars, destroyed a Japanese restaurant and a Chinese restaurant and assaulted Japanese music students.

The increase reflected a narrowed price gap between foreign and Japanese-made cars and lower loan rates provided by foreign car dealers, the association said.

More worrying, the yen's 12 percent rise against the dollar since February presents problems because Japanese-made cars become more expensive to buyers paying in dollars.

To this day, Mr. Rosenthal harbors deep resentment against the Japanese and says he would not buy a Japanese-made car.

There is, in certain segments of the motoring press, a bias toward Japanese-made cars perhaps directly related to the amount of advertising space taken by specific auto makers.