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Importing from Japan - before you buy an LHD read here

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  • Importing from Japan - before you buy an LHD read here

    Hi All,

    Firstly I wanted to illustrate how you as Z3M fans are being ripped off. Making a few quid on a car is nice, as a trader making profit is your living, nicer the cars, nicer the profit. but apart from offering finance on the car, these dealers are offering you nothing you cannot get VERY easily yourself.

    I keep seeing these cars come up for sale and the pictures that are posted with them all look the same, they are either outside what look like garage doors (roller shutter entrance for auction garage) and inside an empty concrete box (sometimes with a chap driving and hiding his face). inside the auction area.

    These are pictures from Japanese auction houses.

    The cars are low mileage, they are pretty good condition in a lot of cases, and they are available to YOU!

    Having come from a car scene involving large numbers of Japanese imports. Many of my personal friends have imported cars themselves along with a large quantity of forum members I used to associate with. I've seen the good and bad experiences that come with it. Bad experiences are almost exclusively down to bad agents buying shit cars and expectations not set correctly. So rule 1. Find the agent with the best reputation. I would suggest www.japaneseusedcars.com They have a good reputation.

    to get access to auctions, you simply send a deposit of about £1000. This is to cover fees, if you buy something, then never send payment. you then get access to daily auctions of thousands of cars. sometimes over 20000 a day.

    You select a couple of cars you want to bid on, have a look at the 3 pics, and the auction sheet. It's in Japanese but it's pretty straight forward. you ask the agent to view them. You can set any criteria you want. They go out, inspect the car, and tell you about it in an email. if it's a lemon they wont bid on it for you. they will refuse and email you. if it's all good, they may give you a call in person, i got a couple of phone calls from them (these will be about 4am lol).

    If you win, you wake up to an email that makes you happy, if not, your day will probably suck and you will be back glued to the auction site again.

    If you win, you pay the rest, and they put the car on a RORO (roll on roll off - like a ferry) and send it to you. you can pay for various levels of shipping on top, and insurance.

    before your car arrives this side, you instruct an agent this side to do all the paperwork, you pay your taxes (if you have to, you might be lucky and avoid VAT if the car was originally registered in the EU - some of them have been shipped to japan in the same way you are shipping it back) and then book an MOT.

    your lights should be RHD already as the Japanese drive on the same side as us. wire up a rear fog (easy enough to put in an existing light pod) maybe a band expander for the radio as their range is shorter, and or a speedo drive change on the box or some new clocks depending on how far you go.

    Now to some it may see like a bit of a pain, you'll just buy it when it gets here. Fine, crack on. to those who dont want to be exploited feel free to check the below link.

    http://exportcar.jp/en/component/auc...1UJrTuTyr9oljx

    for as long as it works it will list a 37000km Z3m that is being advertised in the UK for sale at £40k. For your information it was bought in Japan 6 days ago for £12226 and will cost the person who bought it, a total of £17k on the road in the Uk. You can purchase it from them. oh...... but with a £23000 mark up.

    you are welcome.

  • #2
    That's very useful information. Are you a trader?

    Thanks for the share.

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    • #3
      If you're a trader I've some questions. Another thing, surely in all aspects of commerce. There are people who are in business, it's what gives you and I a job. I was reading recently about how much money is made from tax on fuel. Wonder if we can buy direct from some place and cut out the middle man.

      Comment


      • #4
        Nope not a trader. I sell a few cars, mainly because I get bored easily, but occasionaly I'll pick up something broken and sell it. I make profit too. It's fun.

        Thought I'd pass on the benefit of my experience of the Japanese car scene to you all.

        Sales is fine. Margins are fine. If you think it's ok to get shafted for £23k profit, that's also fine. Personally I think that's a bit strong. Especially when the BMW guys seem massively naive to the Japanese market. It's strange considering it's been importing European cars for many years.

        If you are looking to cut out the middle man, read again. It's the whole point of this thread. You absolutely can cut out the middle man. There is no reason you couldn't have been driving that silver car for £17k.

        Edit: just got what you mean about cutting out middle man in fuel! I'm in! On a side note I buy oil from Tesco by bulk when they have offers. It's the best way. Keep an eye out ;)
        Last edited by jap-si; 10-08-2015, 10:01 PM.

        Comment


        • #5
          I'm done having my car smelling of a deep fat fryer. Nowadays it's not worth using bio fuel so much!

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          • #6
            With the oils I mean Tesco sell the decent gold bottle castrol stuff. It's about £8-9 a ltr. Various types. When they change packaging, they sell the older packaging stuff for £3 per ltr. Then I buy them out of it and store it in the garage. Sell it to work colleagues, mates etc. :)

            Back on topic. So there is another good think about the link I posted. It shows pics and auction sheets of the cars sold at various auctions in Japan. The cars sold in auction have export papers, dealer cars inside Japan generally don't and have to be applied for. They are also quite a lot more expensive than auction cars.

            So if a car has been imported from Japan 99% of the time it's been bought at auction. Back to the auction sheet. It shows you the mileage and the chassis numbers on the sheet.

            Common misconception - Japanese cars don't come with history. This is bullshit. There are plenty that do.
            Common misconception 2 - Japanese cars don't do many miles. Also bullshit. There are plenty of low mileage cars but also plenty with lots of miles on them.
            Common misconception 3 - they don't rust in Japan. Bullshit. Climate in Japan varies a lot. There are some crunchy crusty cars out there

            So if you went to look at an LHD car on the market that has come from Japan it should probably be on that list. it should probably have its mileage listed and its chassis number. So if you were to view the car, and it had say.... A lot less miles on it. And the seller could say something like it's common to get no history in Japan. Then you might say..... Question it's genuine appearance. Maybe.

            if you catch my cryptic drift you might go see a LHD car, check its chassis number against the ones on that list and see if it matches. Maybe
            Last edited by jap-si; 10-08-2015, 10:50 PM.

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            • #7
              I got my Z3 and Ferrari from japan, both a lot cheaper than UK prices.


              Also i will often browse the auctions and its not uncommon to see cars esp 911 that are about to come through the auctions already listed on more than 1 UK dealers web site,
              BMW e21 track car
              Z3M (S62)
              2.8 Z3 Coupe
              Ariel Atom
              GT86 race car
              Ferrari 348 Challenge
              Merc G500

              Comment


              • #8
                this is one of the problems. because all the dealers are 1 step ahead of most of the car scenes, they are there already doing this. You are bidding against people who will more than likely have more money than you.

                I was constantly being outbid by dealers on M3's that would end up on uk sales sites shortly after for big mark ups. I would be outbid by £100 most of the time, which would indicate just the 2 of us bidding each time.

                It used to be cheap cars that would make the cash, MX5's and starlets and corollas, Mazda Bongo's and MPV's etc. but not now, so many of them about here, and the prices aren't that great. it's now the exotics, that are rocketing here and the Japanese are just a bit behind.

                Ferrari's are cheap still but creeping up and 911's. When my car sells I will be importing one or other of those i think.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Why japaneseusedcars.com not exportcars.jp?

                  Jap-Si, I noted you referred to exportcars.jp site but recommended JapaneseUsedCars.com Is that due to some downside you saw to exportcars.jp? If so what? Or is it just that you had practical experience with the one you recommend?

                  Thanks for the very helpful information. BTW to others looking into this, Exportcars.jp has some useful help on decoding the inspection sheet codes- click the help tab, then click the link "How do I know a vehicle is in good condition?"

                  -Mak

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Mak Thorpe View Post
                    Jap-Si, I noted you referred to exportcars.jp site but recommended JapaneseUsedCars.com Is that due to some downside you saw to exportcars.jp? If so what? Or is it just that you had practical experience with the one you recommend?

                    Thanks for the very helpful information. BTW to others looking into this, Exportcars.jp has some useful help on decoding the inspection sheet codes- click the help tab, then click the link "How do I know a vehicle is in good condition?"

                    -Mak
                    Welcome to the forum

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      very good info!
                      But need to send US$1,500 to view the list of cars?
                      The are free option to see it?
                      www.fastdrive.org
                      S50 black/black-red In Rome
                      Front BBK Stoptech Red+Eibach Sway Bars+Kw Clubsport Whit Camber plates+Weichers Strutbar+Agk Urethane front Silent Block & differential Bushing+Tuner Motorposrt Alluminium Rear Mount+Hamann Exaust

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                      • #12
                        Be careful with exportcar.jp, i'm struggling to get my deposit back (flat out refused to refund) from them after trying to buy a car for 3 months. going down the route of seeing if the bank can help. £3k out of pocket at the moment

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by kiem3 View Post
                          Be careful with exportcar.jp, i'm struggling to get my deposit back (flat out refused to refund) from them after trying to buy a car for 3 months. going down the route of seeing if the bank can help. £3k out of pocket at the moment
                          Hi, can you please give me a update?

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