Are Import Buyers Are Getting D**cked?

[gexenon]

I just picked up a 93 GTR thats been complied under the new RAWS system which doesn't allow for any accident, rust cars to be imported. My car was the test car for the compliance shop. Although it toke nearly 5 months, i agreed to buy the test car because this is the car DOTARS checks & compliance shops won't risk importing a lemon because they won't get their compliance plates.

I've only had the car for 2 days but i can already tell that its been looked after.

It has 87 km on the odo, which i didn't believe at the start but after inspecting the car, it has a service sticker from Japan that says on the 10/5/04, it was serviced & 57 kms. This might not be as good as a log book but it does confirm that 87Km in late 2005 is fairly realistic.

[morgsj50]

i've just gone through this exact issue, i just bought a 97 r33, the reality is, even domestic cars have issues like clocks being wound back etc. sure you can get service books, but there only a rough guide and they aint hard to make up. All you can really do is get em mechanically checked but thats the same with domestic cars. Apparently compliance now is alot more stringent so i guess imports aren't as dodgey these days... however, you are still buying a car thats around 10 years old, so your gonna have a few issues.

[DaiOni]

the amount of bullshit and misinformation about imports, japanese cars, japanese regulations, and so on... absolutely staggering. It goes around and around and ends up like 'chinese whispers'.

* There are lots of issues with japanese cars at auction - odometer tampering is low on the list. It doesn't happen half as often as you think. Cars DO have significantly lower kms here (in japan): the country is geographically 26x smaller than oz, the overwhelming majority of people use (one of the world's best) public transport, in many places it snows heavily (and most people won't be driving a hi-po car in snow)... I could go on. Low kms are the way it is - you can't use typical australian examples in a japanese context. Get over it!

My FD has mazda logs showing that the first owner (a tokyo businessman) did 5k in the first 5 years of ownership. Typical kms for a city car that would never be daily driven. He probably cruised to the golf course once every couple of weeks or so.

* Registration: engines don't have to be changed at certain kms (if I had a $1 for every time I've heard that one), cars don't have to be scrapped at certain kms, you CAN register cars of any age, blah blah blah. I've shaken-ed a car that is over ten years old - only difference is that it cost an extra $100 or so (fack all when the whole thing costs around $1250 for 2-year rego).

You've all seen the prices of cars in Japan. If you lived here, would you really bother owning 10 year old+ car? For most people, the answer is NO - you'd trade it in. The best performance cars still have some demand - they will stay in the domestic market - the average and below-average get dumped at auction.

[Miller the hoon]

I d get your mechanic to look at wat ever you buy

but had you brought that car and on the otp you listed these things you needed 2 be fixed and he accepts this you pick up the car go to the mechanic see if he has fixed the things in the otp if not get them fixed and send him the bill as per otp

otps are proper contracts and are enforceable

james

[madbung]

To put it simply you buy the car not the odometer reading...let common sense prevail and you'll be fine.

It really makes me laugh when people say a 94-95 mdl car showing 120k with books is too high and they end up buying an import with 70k on the clock with no history, dubious condition at a higher price than the honest car with 120ks..

You might as well get wood duck tattoo'd on your forehead

Pfffffft

[momo]

i dont think its insurance, its getting it registered again when its done over 40K or something like that, cost alot more to get the car re-registered.

Not so. The shaken cost (compulsory bianual insurance) increases with the age of the car and every time you go for shaken the mechanic will recomend more things be replaced to keep it in top notch condition costing the owner a mint. Another reason people dont have older cars is cos this whole society is really flakey and superficial and no one wants to be seen in a car older than 5 years including people who know apsolutely nothing about cars.They buy them cos they look cool or have a pretty color so you can get any kind of person driving a skyline.And as almost everyone lives in the city there is little chance of giving it a good thrash cos you put the pedal down for 2 seconds and your lining up at another set of lights,its neverending. The number of ferraris i pass doing 30kms an hour with no hope of anything more in sight is crazy, but they dont care as long as they look cool. The fact of the matter is most people dont drive very often here. If youve seen the traffic youd understand, plus the public transport is incredible. I dont have a car here and would never bother. on a motorbike what takes me 30 minutes in resonable traffic and 1hour in peak hour would take you almost 2 hours if not more in a car. bumper to bumper traffic for one 10km stretch of my journey and i just fly streight down the middle. A train to kyoto express takes about 40minutes. i did the trip in a car and one way was almost 4 hours and return was 3. f#$k that thanks ill take the train. And so will 95% of the rest of the population which still leaves a heap of people to pack the roads. (Dont forget osaka is the 3rd most densly populated city in the world) ive been to plenty of auction and the kms are always low. Also I got offered a job certifying speedos on cars at the port before they are shipped and they get a little label. Just for some import companies though. Regardless these engines go forever in an average use situation whether its done 90 or 110 000 km isnt really gonna matter if its stock and in good nick.

The cost people advertise to get you an import are also usually a load of s#$t. I can tell you half of what they charge you for doesnt even exist. And if they are giving you an increadably low price they maybe writing their own reciepts so your pay extra on your auction price. The Industry is just full of scammers and its very difficult to convince people your not one of them so I only usually deal with people i know or someone has recomended me too.

Good example is some people importing wrxs cut in half and welded back together then using the rego from a wreck. People died when they started coming apart. In skylines check the fire wall. They will pull the whole lot out of one and weld it into an uncomplied(if not stolen) gtr.

always get a mechanic to check it.

end of rant.

Edited March 17, 2006 by momo

[R33TOM]

thanks for the info momo, good to hear someone tell the story from first hand experience

[Informer]

DaiOni well said!

[James Mramor]

Somthing that is a Problem that Canada has to adress is that we can get a GTR in Canada for 13K landed. But the biggest problem with that is that these $13K GTR's are cars that don't meet the standards that Japan has to have them re-insured. so they know that Canada is the newest market and you can get anything into the countery so they are all coming here, and some people are making a KILLING off the cars that are worn out and have had teh race track under the tires thier hole entire life.

So in canada the compliance issues are that they are too easy to bring BAD cars into Canada.I would say about 75% of GTR's that come into Canada should have or would have been crushed in Japan because of the emmisions and the accidents. I can across a guy with a GTR and he paid $18K for the car, but the car had been writen off 3 times in Japan. Is this a safe reliable car?Would this have gotten into AU?I think that you guys have to put up with some stuff but it is alot easier to come across a good import in AU then it is to get into a car like i just got in Canada. I just paid about $30K for my GTR and that is absolutly mint. Unfortunatly Canadians are being put off by these shitty cars that should never have gotten into Canada and they are getting a bad reputation for being unreliable cars.

Your Govenment is doing a great Job and i think that the Canadain Gonvernment should learn a thing or 2 from the Aussies.

Keeping in mind the Canadian dollar is with 18% more in AU. so my $30K GTR would have been $35,400AUD

I have no clue what the R32 GTR's go for in AU, but that is a good one in Canada.