To listen to Japanese consumers, Russian drivers are getting a free ride -- or at least a subsidized ride -- as a result of Japanese laws that encourage owners to sell their cars after three years, giving an artificial lift to the Japanese automakers.

''In Japan, the older the car gets, the more expensive it is to register it,'' Christopher Richter, an HSBC auto analyst, said in Tokyo. ''In reality, it is a subsidy of the car industry.''

After three years on the road, Japanese cars face a formidable safety inspection that usually costs around $1,200. This is then repeated every two years for the life of the car.

''Increasingly, after your fifth year, you have to ask yourself, 'Is it worth it to keep the car?' '' Kurt Sanger, an auto analyst for ING Financial, said in Tokyo.

Still, Japan's economic stagnation is squeezing this bounty of used cars. More and more drivers are resisting the government's hint to go out and buy a new car. In 2002, sales dropped 2.3 percent, to 5.8 million vehicles, the lowest level since 1986, and there were 40 percent more sales of used cars than of new ones.

Japanese are holding on to their cars longer, about six years today, compared with four and a half years in 1990.

Still, there are plenty of good-quality 'driven only on Sundays'' Japanese cars left over to keep Russia rolling. As many as 200,000 used Japanese cars were exported to Russia in 2002, according to an estimate by Toshio Kimura, an executive with the Japan Used Motor Vehicles Export Association, a trade group.