Prestige Motorsport

Thanks yangys for your feedback on our website, however "they never answer phone calls" simply is not true. Please bear in mind that I get a lot of calls every day, and I spend considerable time explaining the import process and providing price estimates in order to provide the best service - I don't believe in asking for payment unless I can definitely assist. I am also busy with auction inspections and bidding for clients throughout the day, and this year post-covid has been the busiest time for imports in 20 years. Clients must come first on busy auction days, general enquiries second. If I am on the phone or busy, I'm sorry but your call will go to message. Being based in Perth, some early morning calls inevitably go to message with the 3 hour daylight savings time difference. Nevertheless I make sure to return all calls as soon as possible, and for clients I am available pretty much 24/7. For impartial feedback from clients, you can check our Facebook Reviews and Google Reviews. My number is on our website, and you are welcome to call me now if you want. You can also email me, I answer most mails within the day, if not within the hour. Just note that we will be closing up early this year on 19th Dec, it's been such a big year that we are taking a few extra days off. So, that being said... Regarding the Estima hybrid, you've made a good choice. They are great cars and will be one of the most popular imports to Aust in coming years as the petrol-only Estimas will be excluded from import with the new SEVS from about 2022. The Toyota Synergy Drive system is one of the best hybrid systems available, and these get impressive fuel economy as well as being very easy to drive and reliable. Most cost effective at the moment for Aust (as of Dec 2020) would be a higher km 2010 to 2014 model. These are in the sweet buying range for price, age, condition and features. Low km hybrids are still relatively expensive. I have lots of sales data I can send you if needed, and you're welcome to free trial our automated auction alerts system as well to receive daily updates of available Estima hybrids. Geoff

That site looks OK sin-, haven't heard of that one before but they don't seem to offer the auction report / pictures which I think is probably the most useful info. Most cars go through auction just prior to export from Japan so it can be very eye-opening to see the condition it was bought in (and find out the auction price as well). Good for checking whether your import agent is telling you the truth as well !

Hi R33gtst2016. As far as we are aware, there are no searchable records kept for vehicle kms in any State which is really odd. Japan requires cars to be physically checked for re-registration every two years after the first 3 year period from new, so at that time they note the kms. All Australia has is a box on the transfer form when you sell, to enter the kms at the time. Who knows what each State does with this data but it's certainly not available publicly. IMHO it should be added to the registration paper under Odo History. In Australia you should search the PPSR (Personal Property and Securities Register) which will tell you the details of the owner and any money owing etc. which is critical before you buy any local car (if you buy a car with money owing on it, it could be repossessed and you will lose everything). It costs about $4 per check and make sure you use the proper Govt. site at that price not some automated reseller website at a high mark-up. This can sometimes tell you which State the car was registered in and when, which can also be useful. The other thing you can do for imports is to get the name of the compliance workshop from the compliance plate, then contact them directly (if they are still around). Under SEVS they are required to hold the original Export Certificate on file for the vehicle, this may have some km records on it depending on the year exported from Japan.

haha, no worries Terry !

We've had some other feedback like the experience Dylan has had above, where they have been very quick and helpful. So it's good to see a service out there like this. As niZmO_Man says, it can't be easy to operate considering the number of people out there who don't want this information to be available to the end user... particularly the actual auction sale price in Japan. Regarding cars being registered twice, this would probably be to reset the kms on the Japanese Export Certificate which only shows the last two registration intervals, there's an article here on why that happens and also a few other ways the Export Certificate can be faked to trick a buyer which is interesting: http://japancarhistorycheck.com/japanese-export-certificate-what-is-it/ Dark26 - we are not sure how long they've been operating, a reasonable time we think as we've had quite a few people comment to us about their service and how impressed they were in terms of speed and info provided. We've also used them for a couple of checks ourselves recently. Some auction reports have been provided back within the day. They also seem well priced compared to other services which can take weeks to provide any info at all -- not much good if you have your eye on a car and need to make a quick decision before someone else snatches it. If anyone else uses them please report your experience for the benefit of all. Terry_GT-R34 - from our perspective we have been sourcing cars now since 1999, we find the kms at auction in Japan are very reliable, since Japan has a system in place to track the kms at auction and also at every re-registration inspection, it's virtually impossible to get away with odometer tampering in Japan as the buyer will know virtually right away. The auctions note inaccurate kms and also odometer replacements and the agents we use for inspections also check the condition matches the kms. In all these years we have never had a problem with kms, so our opinion would be that winding back kms happens at the request of the importer after they've bought it and before the car leaves Japan, or when it arrives in another country. There's a bit more about this in our FAQ. Japan Car History Check have some info here as well: http://japancarhistorycheck.com/odometer-repair-or-replacement/ and here: http://japancarhistorycheck.com/odometer-tampering-or-winding-back-the-kms/, plus some other articles in their News section.

Get past Japan Auction info and km history for most imports Hi All, just a quick one. Thought we would let you know about this site www.japancarhistorycheck.com which has recently been recommended to us for getting hold of past auction records including pictures and actual sale price in Japan going back to 2009. We've seen a few reports from those who've had checks done and in some cases it has saved them from an expensive mistake. This can be really handy for anyone who already owns an import or has their eye on one for sale, as you can find out the real condition it was in and the kms before it left Japan. With the high incidence of odometer tampering on imports by sellers, it's hard to know what's genuine these days. Most cars exported from Japan have gone through auction, as that's the cheapest source, so odds are they'll be able to track down the auction info for your car if it left Japan in the last 7 years. They can also supply the km readings at every re-registration going back to new in some cases which will give you a full Japan odometer record. There are a couple of other sites around where you can get hold of an export certificate copy but this will only give you the last two odo readings. Much better to have the auction report plus official Japan Transport Authority records going back as far as possible. They also have a quick turnaround time if you need the info fast before you buy. Anyway, we are all for services like this which help the consumer avoid being ripped off, so you might like to check it out if you need to do some detective work on a Japanese import to find out if it's the real deal. Cheers.

Thanks for the mention, I'm sure you'll love the car when it arrives. If anyone is interested to see some example auction inspections undertaken in Japan to understand the efforts we go to at auction to ensure we source only the best cars, you can check them out here: http://prestigemotorsport.com.au/inspection-examples/

Hi Tinytyrant. There's a link in our post above which explains the proposed changes in detail. A quick answer to your question is that many models currently excluded under SEVS may be allowed under the new criteria, and the removal of the compliance quota and acceptance of international safety standards should make compliance a lot cheaper and more viable for workshops with respect to rare models: 5 eligibility criteria High Performance Superior environmental performance / hybrids Disability features Rare vehicles Left Hand Drive, where right hand drive is not available

Hi Foibles. To answer you generally, we have been sourcing vehicles for import to Aust since 1999 and have seen a few import regulation changes in that time. I would say that any change of Govt. (or Minister within the same Govt.) is likely to be counter-productive to proposed legislation changes which will allow a greater range of vehicles to Aust for lower prices. We have already seen one change of Minister since the current Govt started looking at the regulations which probably delayed the process several months, and the recommendations of the Productivity Commission have been watered down such that instead of being able to import 4 to 5 year old cars meeting certain quality criteria we are now looking at new cars under 12 months old and under 500km. There's a HUGE difference right there in terms of what this would mean to Aust and the prices we pay. Not sure many realise how big that change was as 5 years of depreciation is very significant for price on what could otherwise be a very low km and near new vehicle in terms of condition. I can't imagine a change of Govt would result in more aggressive changes to the regulations than proposed by the previous one. Proposed changes are likely to be weakened further or there is the possibility they may be shelved altogether. From an enthusiasts standpoint the early election announcement was a disappointment, and personally with respect to this issue I'm hoping we see as few changes to the existing Govt. as possible, since they have committed to make changes which, while still not going far enough in my opinion, will at least be of some benefit to all motorists in terms of lower prices for better quality vehicles.

Following passage through parliament there will be a 12 month period before the 25 year rule takes affect. So if that happens in the next 6 months or so for example then we could be able to use the new 25 year rule from late 2017. Latest info which we will keep updated as things progress: New 25 Year Import Rule for Australia - Prestige Motorsport Vehicle Import Regulation Changes - Prestige Motorsport What's happening next ? Govt. has a meeting scheduled for 31 March with stakeholders to discuss the detail of how the regulation changes will actually be applied to SEVS etc. This will be interesting in terms of additional models that will be allowed onto the SEVS register, and some other critical issues such as independent checking of kms.

Also, depending on the build year you may "soon" be able to use the new 25 year rule for Australia, perhaps from about late 2017 (late 1992 and above models and so on). You'd still have the registration issues but if the rule is similar to the existing 1988 and older rule, then it should allow you to import your modified car at which point you could decide just to use it on the track. New 25 Year Import Rule for Australia - Prestige Motorsport

If you're really attached to the car then it's not technically difficult to import it to Australia. Firstly you can use the race import approval option, for which you would need a CAMS license. Contact a Customs Agent in Fiji to find out what it will cost to organise a container, as a rough guide you might be looking at $2,000 to $2,400 or so but it's variable depending on ex rates to the USD and also location and worldwide demand at any point in time. Clearance costs on the Aust side are also fairly expensive for containers so the shipping part won't be cheap. You have 5% import duty and 10% GST to factor in on top of the vehicle price and shipping. As mentioned above already, if you want to use the personal import option you could do that, but you'd need to factor in registering the car once here which may be a bit of a drama with all those mods. You'd also need to be legitimately living in Fiji with the car for more than 12 months and have it registered in your name etc. with all the paperwork. And you'd need to show that you're returning permanently to Australia with the car -- they are very strict on this and will require evidence of you moving. So it will depend how much you love that car as to whether you think it's worthwhile. Sometimes emotion is more important than final cost, sometimes only the $$ count ! Dollar wise, gut feel is that importing probably won't stack up compared to what you could buy something similar here for, as someone has already commented. Consider of course that you know your own car intimately, compared to buying another unknown vehicle.

Yes, that's a common question with any imports that have TV menus and sat / nav in Japanese. There are people that specialise in modifying them to English around (Chris at Audio Express in Brisbane for example) but the issue is the relatively low numbers of cars which need that work done. Technically the changes are not difficult IMHO and there are plug-in systems that can do the job available for relatively low cost, the main issue is the time it takes to learn how to remove and replace the console parts without damage, and what to do with the wiring when you get in there. With relatively few cars needing this work done, it means there are only a handful of people across Aust specialising in these sorts of conversions and therefore the cost is relatively high. With regard to spare parts, I know as soon as the Govt started talking about opening up imports that several large overseas companies came across to look at locations to site parts supply businesses in Aust. So you can bet your life that if there is money to be made from servicing and upgrades on a significant number of cars, then someone will set up to provide the service. My guess is that the cost of converting sat navs and other systems will come down significantly once more cars come in needing that done. Personally though these days, unless you love having the sat nav on the factory TV screen, it doesn't seem good value to sink that into the car (which you'll never get back) when portable systems are so cheap and the iPhone and others have their own systems which are virtually the same and won't cost you a cent. I always look at the best value and given that the TV menus on these cars usually only have a couple of features you may want to use daily (which you can easily learn), english translation is really not the big deal people like to make it out to be. The V36 for example -- once you work out the two buttons to push for your real time fuel economy, and you've set up your Music Box to copy CD's automatically on insert and bluetoothed your phone using the good english menu translation from Hardtuned.net, there really is nothing else you're going to need on a daily basis. I would imagine you're right on the warranty issue, the dealers are always quick to cry out about factory recalls and being unable to contact customers and how unsafe that could be, but in this information age I wonder how relevant that really is considering the Govt plans to have a database for imports using the chassis code. I always wonder at the double meaning of those sorts of statements from dealers as well, some of which seem as though their own company's product sold into Japan is inferior to what we are offered here (despite Japan getting traditionally much higher optioned cars compared to our poverty packs). As if we get somehow better and stronger cars sent to Australia for our "tough Australian conditions". If the import reg changes only make the dealer new prices here comparable to international pricing, then they have done their job. Whether it's cost effective / attractive to import secondhand or "new" yourself will be then decided by the market itself. There will always be those who prefer to pay more for a local car they can see, touch and drive straight away.

Police raid Edward Lees and three other importers for odo tampering. About bloody time too ! Parramatta Road... hmmm... If you missed the news a couple of weeks back, here's the video and more details: Prestige Motorsport https://www.facebook.com/PrestigeMotorsportAust/videos/1107318409290351/ If you're buying a Japanese import, the GOLDEN RULE is to make sure you get the original copy of the export certificate either as the first importer by importing direct, or a copy of this independently for only $50 if you're buying local. Can save you a lot of headaches (not to mention $$). Unfortunately it's not only odo tampering that's been rife with dealers for years, but plenty of accident damaged vehicles that should not pass SEVS criteria have been coming in as well. Well seriously, what do you think is going to happen when the SEVS regulations allow a dealer to comply their own vehicles, particularly in a struggling economy ? With that sort of conflict of interest, no independent checking system in place for damage or kms, and limited ability for authorities to hold dealers to account for their actions, it's no wonder imports to Australia have developed a bad reputation and lost all trust over the years. Allow it to continue long enough and you're basically left with only the dealers who bend the rules to their own advantage and to the detriment of the consumer, as no one who does it properly can compete on price. This is something that MUST change with the new import scheme (http://prestigemotorsport.com.au/faqs/vehicle-import-regulation-changes/) to eliminate poor condition and false km imports, and restore imports to where they should be in the public mind -- top quality, high optioned vehicles for very good prices. We don't see any reason to stop cars with incorrect mileage from coming into Australia (as NZ does), but there should be a public accessible database linked to the VIN which shows the important export certificate information and original auction sheet where available. There are plenty of legitimately repaired odometer cars available which come with dealer records showing when they were repaired and this is shown on auction sheets. These are often quite a bit cheaper as a result and can still have relatively low kms. Providing the consumer knows exactly what they are buying, they can decide whether they want to buy or not and a fair price. The Govt. will be holding a meeting in Canberra on 31 March 2016 with stakeholders to discuss the details of the upcoming import regulation changes.

I think you're pretty safe if you got such a good price initially (well done you !) and the car is a genuine clean example. Prices tend to be better with fewer mods as vehicles become more collectible. Either way, the main reason to own one is the enjoyment so I think you're getting that. And you can be sure it won't depreciate wildly like most other cars. At the very least it will retain it's value, and probably appreciate if you look after it.