So I’m moving to Tokyo in a couple weeks and where I live now I rarely use the expressway. My car is a 1992 model year so it doesn’t come pre-equipped with an ETC system. I have never looked into it getting an ETC system until now. Where is the best place to get this done? I imagine Autobacs overcharges like they usually do.
Can I just buy a used one on yahoo auction. Does it matter which brand or type?
Thanks.
3 comments
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Autobacs or YellowHat are perfectly fine to get it installed at. It’s not that expensive, and it’s a one time deal.
You’d be best off buying an ETC 2.0 unit for a number of reasons. Brand doesn’t matter, unless you’re after a certain style I guess.
If you really want to cheap-out you can even do the hardware install yourself (if you know what to do), but you’ll still need to take it to a garage to get registered, and that costs regardless.
Oh and you’ll need an ETC card of course.
If you don’t mind a little simple wiring, it’s not hard to install yourself. Just need ground, battery and acc power, then route your antenna cable under the trim of your A pillar and put the antenna head on the glass. Tidy it all up. Once it’s wired, you’ll still need to go to autobacs or somewhere of the like to do the activation/registration. As far as I can tell this basically does two things, enables the reader itself in the ETC system and sets the vehicle class as appropriate (kei, regular car, oogata truck, motorcycle, etc) for the toll rate.
I second getting ETC 2.0 as there is no reason not to. I did this DIY on my brand new Jimny and was about 8000 yen from amazon.jp instead of 5man from Suzuki.