Japan As The World’s Automotive Trendsetter
The world’s automotive culture has never been separated from the contribution of Japan in providing reputable automotive models and products. In terms of manufacturers, aftermarket products to motorsport have never been spared from the contributions of Japanese geniuses.
In the automotive world itself, products from Japan are known as JDM ( Japanese Domestic Market ). JDM has changed its meaning over time, now JDM itself has become a trend of modification in the “Japanese” style using parts and displays that are adapted to the modified characters that are cultivated in the land of Sakura.
JDM car trends, which are still very popular, often present terms that are characteristic of the JDM style. One of them is a term to distinguish old generation cars from the newest generation.
Zenki & Kouki
This term is taken from the words Zenki-gata and Kouki-gata , which denote a period of time. Zenki-gata means “the previous period” while Kouki-gata means “the final period”. From this meaning, Men of Intersport would already have an idea of these two terms.
Specifically, no specific description is used for this term. Some of the opinions and arguments of JDM automotive actors have still not reached agreement in interpreting the term.
But in general, the terms Zenki-gata and Kouki-gata are considered to represent pre-facelift and post-facelift on a vehicle model. Zenki-gata and Kouki-gata do not limit the styles or modification trends used, although they are considered to have different models, between pre- facelift and post- facelift , however, the two terms do not indicate or differentiate a particular aesthetic style.
Even though it was born from Japanese culture, it turns out that this term is not only used to describe Japanese cars. For example, the images above are “Zenki-gata” and “Kouki-gata” respectively which are intended for the exotic Italian car Lamborghini Aventador. (Pre and Post facelift ).
Terms of Zenki-gata & Kouki-gata Terms
As Intersport mentioned above, the terms “Zenki-gata” and “Kouki-gata” transcend car body styling by year of production. However, in some models this cannot be a definite benchmark for the use of the terms Zenki-gata or Kuoki-gata itself. Because some cars have not undergone significant body styling changes even though they have undergone a facelift , but have experienced internal improvements ranging from minor upgrades, adding accessories and improving the engine sector. The terms “Zenki-gata” and “Kouki-gata” also still apply and can be used to describe this difference.
It can also be said that “Zenki-gata” and “Kouki-gata” can be used to describe a car whose production process has not undergone any changes. In this case, the term is used to describe initial production and final production only.
However, it is not absolute to categorize the car Zenki-gata and Kouki-gata . Some cars have exceptions in this category. For example, “Zenki-gata” and “Kouki-gata” cannot be used to describe two cars with different chassis names or internal codes. The reason is, because the difference between the cars is quite significant, these two cars cannot be called the same 2 cars. For example, the Intersport Men cannot call the Mazda RX-7 FC3S “Zenki-gata” (pre-facelift) and the FD3S as “Kouki-gata” (post facelift).
As a simple example that we often encounter is the Kijang LGX 1997-2004 (capsule) car with its successor the first Kijang Innova Gen 2004-2015. Although both of them carry the appendage of “Kijang”, these two cars are cars that have significant differences, from the appearance (body), chassis, to the engine room.
The terms “Zenki-gata” and “Kouki-gata” are used to replace the terms pre-facelift, post-facelift, early model , or late model , which are used by the Japanese automotive media. It is “likely” to tone their articles to sound more JDM. But actually the term is not limited to describing Japanese cars, but can also be used to describe all cars from all countries.