Hikaru has come to Araga again with mostly the same stuff.
Hikaru didn’t do awfully well with its weird little utility thing last time, so no more of that. It’s back again now, this time with a selection of four cars, and a music player. They still have pride in what they make, although the ‘simple’ and ‘affordable’ part may have fallen by the wayside. Safety regulations have considerably increased in Japan, alongside the expectations surrounding fuel economy in the microcar market, so Hikaru has been working hard to maximise forward-thinking features while remaining somewhat affordable (not).
Once again, we’re not promising that you’ll like our cars, but we hope that at least someone out there does.
First, once again, the small car.
1980 Hikaru Uribo NET V3 Kachi
Equipped with a relatively small 900CC engine and having to run on relatively expensive E10 fuel, this is Hikaru’s attempt at making an economy car. It is relatively affordable in Japan due to the availability of E10 fuel being high, but we do not know whether it will be affordable in Araga. It is somewhat safe, drives okay, and doesn’t weigh anything so don’t crash it. It will cost you 8060AMU and then likely a considerable amount more after a while.
And now once again for the everyday person:
Hikaru Katana NCT V5 Kachi
We may have moved a bit out of the market of the original Katana with this new model. If you’re an 18 year old Aragan in 1980, you’re probably not going to be able to afford this, but if you wait a few years, get yourself a semi-decent job, you can certainly afford it. We’ve slapped a real rip-roarer of an engine that carries the car in there where both the engine and the transmission are tuned by DCMW. It doesn’t just go a bit faster, it goes a lot faster than the original Katana HT thanks to that upgrade. We’ve even added a little driving aid to make driving it easier - ABS. The thing costs 12000AMU as a baseline, but I sense that the operating costs will add up quickly from the stuff we’ve slapped on. Needless to say, the DCMW-tuned engine and transmission are worth 11000AMU out of that, so make of that what you will.
But what if you can’t stand having to cram yourself into those tiny rear seats?
Hikaru Katana NST V5 Kachi
This is quite literally the exact same as the NCT V5 Katana, just with four doors instead of two. It has five seats in total, and to differentiate it from the other saloons on the market, we’ve slapped a badge to boast about the DCMW engine on the back! It’s kind of hard to drive, admittedly, and not overly comfortable, and the fuel economy leaves a lot to be desired, but those people who turned down the HT Katana in the 70s because it had two seats, your wishes have been answered. Frankly, you are buying the engine and transmission, because those are the only well-tuned parts of the car.
And now for the main event, even though it’s still a slow dog.
Hikaru Katana NCT V5 Hizamurai
So, same deal as back in the seventies. It has new rims, it has some hood scoops to feed that fat old turbocharger it has under the bonnet. Apart from that, it’s just a Kachi with cut springs. It goes sort of fast, arguably? It relies entirely on being tuned by DCMW to be fast, so you can be assured that it is, but in order to keep it somewhat cheap, the penny pinchers at Hikaru have had to cut corners elsewhere. To be frank, if you get this, you know what you’re getting. There were a few of them in the road in the 70s, and this is just the same thing but 80s. It’s probably far more expensive than all of its competitors, so buy it at your own risk, I won’t even get into how much the damn thing costs to fuel and maintain, it will give me a small aneurysm. You get 245HP for 16000AMU, so if you take that deal, you get what you deserve.
And now for the obligatory Hikaru Electric Industrial part.
Hikaru Electric Industrial J.K.G AudioStar A83
See, this thing is so damn expensive and so ahead of its time that we know for a fact it won’t sell well, but we’ll sell it anyway because its funny to watch the company burn in debt. I have nothing else to say, it’s a ‘portable’ CD player, and portable is very much up for debate. It lasts thirty minutes on battery, and it isn’t exactly pocket sized, and if you so much as breathe on it wrong the CD will skip. Well, at least we’re selling it, pick it up for the price of a Kyrios or something, we have no idea how much the electronics stores in Araga will mark it up. Unlike the other Hikaru stuff this round, we’re releasing this in ‘83 so hopefully there’s an economic boom or something at the time.
Your Hikaru salesman, Hikari Mayumoto, doesn’t have much to work with this time, peace out.
