Tuner Cars

Import Tuner is a pejorative used initially to describe Asian-made-specifically Japanese-made automobiles. Many variations have also been used, such as rice rocket for Japanese sport bikes.

More contemporary use of the term Import Tuner, along with the prefix rice, has taken on an alternate pejorative meaning for an automobile that has been modified to give impression of high performance, but does not necessarily have any high-performance capabilities.

This practice is in contrast to the "stealth" or "sleeper" style of automotive modification, where a tuner car may have major performance modifications, but the appearance remains similar to that of a stock model. In this manner, the appellation can apply to any vehicle regardless of country of origin. The most commonly modified cars are import cars, but the term can apply to any class of vehicle, including cars.

In some circles, or even entire regions of the U.S., the term rice car imports is used exclusively to describe Asian-made vehicles, modified or not. However, as more types of cars began being used as a platform for modification, including German and American-made cars, use of the term rice is no longer restricted to tuner cars.

"Import Models" is used chiefly as a noun. Variations of this usage include ricer (both vehicle and driver), rice car, rice cooker, rice boy (used for the driver, a reference to the usual age demographic in question), rice mobile, rice rocket (for motorcycles), etc. As an adjective, rice alone is primarily used and can apply to both vehicle and driver. Alternates include riced, riced out, riced up, and ricey. Ricing is the present progressive of modifying a tuner car in the described manner.

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