Take this at face value: In my day job, I get paid to notice things about cars.

One thing I’ve noticed in my few days here in O’ahu is the absolute prevalence of Japanese-brand vehicles. Of those – primarily Honda/Acura and Toyota/Lexus, with some Nissan thrown in – the fruits of Toyoda-san’s labors reign supreme. Camrys and Corollas are everywhere, and I’m not sure you could swing a dead house gecko without hitting a 4Runner or Pickup/Tacoma.

New, old, stock, modified. You name it. Craving the mini-truck craze from the 1980s? You’re covered. Modified Corollas à la The Fast and Furious that were probably built in 2001? Still here. Whatever they call that truck stance where the body is lifted and the tire/wheel combination appears square when viewed head-on? Yep, there’s a lot of that, too.

To give you an idea, from where I’m typing this, every vehicle I can see is a Toyota (and a silver first-generation Lexus IS300 just drove by).

Side note: Japanese domestic market (JDM) is huge here. Throughout the islands there are several dealers doing a brisk import business. It follows that just driving around random neighborhoods in Honolulu and Waikiki I spotted an early Nissan Stagea, a Nissan President (the JDM Infiniti Q45 version), and out by the beaches several Honda and Mitsubishi kei vans, some of which were miniature camping rigs.

If it’s not rusty, any Toyota product will probably be running around until the sun burns out. Which would be useful, since our nearest star is a cruel mistress to these vehicles. Unless it’s new or restored, keeping paint shiny and plastic headlights clear appears a challenge. That longevity (the vehicles’, not the Sun’s) also makes them not inexpensive, even with moonshot miles.

Therefore, it seems to me if you want to blend in you need a Toyota or Lexus. So we turn to the greater Hawai’ian used car lot in the sky. While I haven’t researched inter-island vehicle transportation, I have to figure that’s a thing around here. Is it expensive? To that I ask you: What price happiness?

Like many things here, including used cars and trucks, it’s more than you think.

1987 Toyota Pickup – $13,000

Precious little information is given about this cutie, and the information in the sidebar doesn’t exactly correlate to the pictures (I’m willing to bet the 280,000 miles and “title status: salvage” do, however). But so what? It’s a lowered XtraCab on lattice wheels in a great color with some superfluous chrome touches and an indestructible 22R four-banger.

Side note: The local O’Reilly auto parts store sells entire remanufactured Toyota 22R long blocks. Who knew? Call to order.

1998 Lexus SC400 – $3,800

A decent number of pictures but not a lot of information. The paint looks a bit faded on the top surfaces but the interior looks shockingly nice for a 1990s Lexus with 300,000 miles. The seller says everything works – ice-cold AC is double-plus good in this part of the world – and it passed a recent safety check. I’m not usually fond of the facelift SC cars but I’m kind of taken with this one. Maybe it’s the wheels?

2000 Toyota Tacoma 4×4 – $12,000

Here’s what appears to be a fairly clean Taco that ticks the right boxes; four-wheel drive, manual transmission, good colors, lots of maintenance, and good ownership history. Despite being “bone stock” the seller mentions the upgraded audio, 4Runner TRD wheels, and aftermarket lights. Sounds like it’s nice without being too nice (rusty rear bumper, dent in the driver’s side front fender) to drive around. Regarding that dent, apparently don’t go to Tiki Tacos in Kapaa.

1997 Toyota 4Runner – $8,500

The Taco Wagon, basically. You can take your pick as there are plenty around. I like this one for the condition and the V6. Many examples have gross cloth upholstery and no paint on the horizontal surfaces; this one appears to have neither of those flaws, and does have the OEM floor mats. It’s two-wheel-drive, but many of these – and their Pickup/Tacoma siblings – only route power to the rear axle. It’s probably fine unless you’re doing a lot of hillbilly off-roading. New tires, cold AC, and no modifications are all big plusses.

1968 Toyota Corona – $6,000

Who doesn’t love a two-fer? This Corona comes with a new carburetor and a parts car. The former is good because this car doesn’t currently run (bad carb), but when it did it “was running drives straight strong, stops and goes perfectly.” The latter is good because where the hell else are you going to get Corona parts on Kauai? (I don’t actually know the answer to that. Could be everywhere, could be nowhere). You’re pretty far out there – almost as west as you can go – but both cars have paperwork. So there’s that.

1974 Toyota Corolla SR5 – $35,000

What a lovely little Corolla! I don’t know what else to say about it, other than I haven’t seen one this nice since probably the 1970s when these were fairly new. I could be making that up since I grew up in Connecticut where Japanese cars rusted in the showrooms. The seller says it’s “very complete” and has only had one repaint, and currently sits with no rust. It’s all stock except for a Weber carburetor and AE86 Corolla front struts, which appear to also have some sort of adjustability. The interior looks great, and that’s why this entry has two pictures.

If that Corolla is a bit rich for you – and no judgement if it is – try this clean but rather pedestrian 1979 two-door at roughly one third of the price.

1997 Toyota Caldina GT-T – $13,200

Perhaps obviously, this second-generation Caldina is a Japanese import. Fully loaded with a 256-horsepower turbocharged engine and an all-wheel-drive system burgled from the Celica GT-Four, this little wagon comes with a bunch of upgrades (HKS, Blitz, and Rays are the appropriate names), fresh maintenance, and some new-in-the-box suspension hardware. The stock 0-60 time is around 6.5 seconds even with the wrong number of pedals; I suspect this one is a bit quicker. Relatively low miles, too. I love that the itty-bitty tailgate features a pet barrier, presumably for your Shiba Inu.

The seller says it has a clean Hawaii title, but I’d really want to see the import papers on top of that. It’s honestly not the handsomest thing, but who doesn’t love a small fast longroof? If it had seat heaters, it would be a great winter beater (in Minnesota, not here).

So what did I miss? Are you reading this from Hawaii? What else should I be looking at? Drop a note in the comments!