Negatives of importing Japanese car?
Discussion
Well, make sure you price it correctly, all charges, fees, insurances, shipping (inland and to here), there are various items to consider, youll learn this the first time
Once its here, the usual things to watch:
Insurance can be expensive depending on how well known the model is
Parts may be more expensive and harder to source (again, depends on the car)
Condition is usually decent but as you've said, depending on climate
Also remember you are essentially bidding blind, you get minimum info and little to no comeback
Once its here, youll have the usual expenses of new tyres, service etc and any repairs (sometimes lucky)
However, its a great experience, good fun and the choice of madness is impressive
If you let me know what car is of interest, I can let you know what sort of price you should pay all in, to see if it matches what you are expecting
Once its here, the usual things to watch:
Insurance can be expensive depending on how well known the model is
Parts may be more expensive and harder to source (again, depends on the car)
Condition is usually decent but as you've said, depending on climate
Also remember you are essentially bidding blind, you get minimum info and little to no comeback
Once its here, youll have the usual expenses of new tyres, service etc and any repairs (sometimes lucky)
However, its a great experience, good fun and the choice of madness is impressive
If you let me know what car is of interest, I can let you know what sort of price you should pay all in, to see if it matches what you are expecting
I used an importer (Torque GT) to source my Skyline and defo preferred it for my first import as I knew nothing. From the above you'll need the following:
- Alarm fitted (with certificate) depending on model
- Undersealing (as Adam said, most important) don't do it yourself
- Pick it up from the port and fit UK specific stuff, like the fog light // Speedo/Odo converter (I wouldn't do this again but you do fall foul of the construction and use regs iirc)
- Get it MOT'd etc
When I did it I paid a £500 deposit then a chunk when Torque won the car due before it left Japan then import duty when it landed and finally the balance once it was ready. They took a lot of the pain out of the process and worked out at the price of UK car +£1,000 (that was including everything that needed doing), all I had to do was choose the car and select the bidding amount before finally collecting it.
Insurance hasn't been too much of an issue but if you go against the grain it can be a problem.
- Alarm fitted (with certificate) depending on model
- Undersealing (as Adam said, most important) don't do it yourself
- Pick it up from the port and fit UK specific stuff, like the fog light // Speedo/Odo converter (I wouldn't do this again but you do fall foul of the construction and use regs iirc)
- Get it MOT'd etc
When I did it I paid a £500 deposit then a chunk when Torque won the car due before it left Japan then import duty when it landed and finally the balance once it was ready. They took a lot of the pain out of the process and worked out at the price of UK car +£1,000 (that was including everything that needed doing), all I had to do was choose the car and select the bidding amount before finally collecting it.
Insurance hasn't been too much of an issue but if you go against the grain it can be a problem.
Depends on what you buy and where you buy it and who you buy it via. Stick to the "main" importers - while their rates seem expensive to some, they will look after. One of my friends got bitten using an importer who were a fraction of the cost of someone like Torque GT, but the supposed grade 4 car that she bought was a mess and has needed several thousand spent to put it right.
Not unheard of for nice aftermarket bits to go missing between between the auction house and arriving in the UK. The previously mentioned friend had the HKS boost controller ripped out amongst other things.
Not unheard of for nice aftermarket bits to go missing between between the auction house and arriving in the UK. The previously mentioned friend had the HKS boost controller ripped out amongst other things.
As above you do tend to see stuff missing when in transit. My car had its tyres swapped out at some point after the auction. You are buying blind and while some big name importers are good (as mentioned Torque) there's some others that have had pretty poor imports. A fairly recent example was an Rx7 FD that was imported, looked mint condition but had a blown engine, I don't recall how the situation ended but it was rather messy.
As for rust proofing the majority of the cars get the same treatment as uk cars and contrary to popular belief Japan do use salt on their roads in some regions.
Also you'll need to buy a new stereo, usually they're stripped out but if they're not they're not usually that great and barely works here (radio/gps frequencies don't work here)
I've personally never had an issue with insurance, my Subaru and Rx7 are £350 each per year with mods and commuting listed.
I'm planning on importing a few cars for myself and the missus in a year or so as the imported cars have ended up a lot better than our UK sourced cars.
As for rust proofing the majority of the cars get the same treatment as uk cars and contrary to popular belief Japan do use salt on their roads in some regions.
Also you'll need to buy a new stereo, usually they're stripped out but if they're not they're not usually that great and barely works here (radio/gps frequencies don't work here)
I've personally never had an issue with insurance, my Subaru and Rx7 are £350 each per year with mods and commuting listed.
I'm planning on importing a few cars for myself and the missus in a year or so as the imported cars have ended up a lot better than our UK sourced cars.
Used Torque last year. You get what you pay for and they don't bid on cars that do not meet their standards. They refused to bid on a car for me due to rust.
Also (what I was impressed with) it took a good 6/7 months from seeing my car, bidding, import, registration and even on the day I went to collect they would have been happy to give me a full refund minus their £90 admin fee.
I would use them again and more on topic, I would import another Jap motor again.
Also (what I was impressed with) it took a good 6/7 months from seeing my car, bidding, import, registration and even on the day I went to collect they would have been happy to give me a full refund minus their £90 admin fee.
I would use them again and more on topic, I would import another Jap motor again.
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