Importing An R34? My Experience...

[OzanMakinaci]

Hi All,

I have finally reached the end of the long importing process and thought I would post up a summary of how everything went for two reasons:-

1. I’ve seen a lot of others ready to bring in an R34 and they are welcome to use the same companies I did as I would recommend them highly!
   
2. A shameless plug for the companies that helped me so much throughout the whole process.
   

I won’t get into the details about importing as all the details about the importing process including costs, procedure etc. can be found on this forum. However please remember to not take everything you read to heart as at the end of the day it varies greatly based on what you want. I am happy to answer any questions you have if you are about to import an R34 yourself.

Firstly, finding your car and getting it to Australia. I chose to go with Mark Hocking from My Trading and I would have to say that everything you hear about this man is without a doubt true! He is, in my opinion, the best person out there when it comes to finding exactly the car you are looking for. Mark made the whole process so easy and clear and would not settle for any vehicle other than the best. There were points when I was getting impatient and was willing to settle for second best but he made sure we kept looking and found the car that I was looking for.

Mark is very happy to talk and provides you with his mobile number so you can reach him whenever you need to. In all the time I was searching the auctions and calling him to get cars inspected he was always patient and helpful and kept things on track. I cannot express how important this part of the importing process is as if you don’t get the car you want, it doesn’t matter how well the rest of the process goes you will not be happy. You need to make sure that the person buying your car from the auctions knows exactly what you want, hence the reason why working with Mark is so good as he is the one you talk to and he is the one that buys your car from the auctions (after inspecting the vehicle personally).

My one bit of advice here is, get involved in the process. Call your import borker or exporter A LOT! The more you keep in contact the more they will think of you when vehicles come up for auction. Sure it may cost you a lot in phone calls but it can make the difference between getting an alright car and a fantastic car. Search the forums for Mark’s name and you will not find one bad word about him. That was the reason why I chose to import my R34 through him.

After the car gets to Australia you will need someone here to handle the wharf paperwork and get it to the compliance workshop. Although you can do all this paperwork yourself, I would recommend strongly against it. Simply because it isn’t really that much of a cost when compared to the price of an R34 and it will ensure that your car leaves the wharves as soon as possible. Customs brokers have been doing this for a living for ages and they know exactly where things can go wrong and get on top of any issues that arise.

I chose Sunstate Customs & Cargo as my customs broker and I couldn’t be happier with the service. Adam at Sunstate was very helpful and informed me of everything I needed to provide along the way as well as doing everything on time to make sure I got the car quickly without incurring any storage. Once again I recommend getting involved and getting on the phone to the customs broker as often as you can. Basically I found that if I was very polite but persistent they were always happy to help me out and update me on the status. I have to emphasise however, be polite, it is hard as you may get anxious and frustrated as delays occur but anger isn’t going to resolve anything. Just keep updated and do everything you can to make sure you never hold up the process.

Once you have cleared the wharves you need to get your car complied. There is a lot of talk about what you can and can’t have on your car with regard to compliance and how you can keep your Xenons etc. Those issues are a discussion for another topic so I won’t go into them here, but all I can say is search the forums. Whenever I wanted an answer I found it in the forums.

I have said it many times but I will say it again, please remember to get on the phone and get involved in the process. This will make sure that you will find out about any issues quickly and get them resolved before they cause major problems. I followed this rule and I have come out of the process very happy with an impression that the importing process is smooth and trouble free if you keep on top of it.

Apologies for the freaking long post, but I have come out of the whole process so happy that I had to give credit to all those who helped me out along the way. Once again, many thanks to Mark Hocking (the most important person in the whole process). Adam Kemp from Sunstate Customs & Cargo (who kept everything under control at the wharves). Last but not least, all the great people at Shogun Car Company (who performed mechanical surgery on my R34, fantastic job!!).

I may have missed parts of information and I know I haven’t answered everything but please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Cheers,

Ozan.

P.S. If you got this far, thanks for reading the whole post

Edited July 3, 2006 by OzanMakinaci

[fretwekk]

What's the difference between using a service like mytrading to say prestige imports?

[siddr20]

thats not a summary lol..

Congrats on your new car..

[mrgilly]

I used Prestige for my R34 and couldn't be happier with their service. Geoff will get more business from me personally and my recommendation in the future - Immediate friends have totalled over 10 vehicles collectively and not a bad word could be said about Prestige.

Ozan's picked up a VERY nice '34, post some pics mate!

[R34GTX]

No excuses now Ozan, track day is on July 4th. I think it is booked out, but you can always come on the the August track day!!!! See you out there.

Pics or ban!!!

[OzanMakinaci]

haha, yeah give me time. Gotta get a digital camera first, I work in IT and I have none of the gadgets... how lame of me.

Fretwekk:

My Trading is just an exporter in Japan, whereas Prestige is an import broker in Australia. You pay an bit extra for an import broker but they will take care of all the organisation for you so you only have one company to deal with.

If you use an exporter from Japan you will need to organise customs clearance (yourself or through a customs broker) and compliance as well, but you save the import broker fee.

It's all about which ever suits you better. Geoff at Prestige has been doing this for many, many years and I have heard great things about him. Mark has great rep also, so it's up to your preferences.

Cheers,

Ozan.

[noise]

  fretwekk said:

What's the difference between using a service like mytrading to say prestige imports?

prestige is in australia, while mark hocking is in japan.

prestige is for noobs who want to spend more and mark hocking is for the little more clued-in to spend less.

I have imported both ways, through an australian broker like prestige and also through a japanese exporter like mark hocking.

The only reason I used the broker was because friends told me that was how you import a vehicle, after doing it that way first I realised it was the stupid noob more epensive way to import a vehicle.

well done the orignal poster for importing the right way

Edited July 4, 2006 by noise

[mrgilly]

Noise: You're certainly generalising a lot there. Having had some involvement in importing at least 8 vehicles from Japan there is no evidence suggesting that Prestige are more expensive than J-Spec, Meisei or Mark H or anyone else. I'm not putting anything against any of them, each have (at worst) a reasonably reputation.

Prestige offer a complete service which requires little real effort, if you've done your homework and know what to look for there's no reason you can't pick up a bargain (say a sub-20K R34 GTT, auction grade 4.0)

[Iron Chef]

Noise - you're saying Prestige charges too much?? You obviously don't remember the days when we used to pay $40,000 for a twin turbo Soarer or $50,000 for a Eunos Cosmo. If it weren't for brokers like Geoff, you'd all still be paying those prices.

There are many people happy to pay Prestige to do the legwork - there are others who prefer to save a few dollars and do it themselves. There is no right and wrong about it.

[raz0r$harP.UK]

  noise said:

prestige is in australia, while mark hocking is in japan.

prestige is for noobs who want to spend more and mark hocking is for the little more clued-in to spend less.

I have imported both ways, through an australian broker like prestige and also through a japanese exporter like mark hocking.

The only reason I used the broker was because friends told me that was how you import a vehicle, after doing it that way first I realised it was the stupid noob more epensive way to import a vehicle.

well done the orignal poster for importing the right way

Tre your comments about Prestige are starting to tire me. Why must you jump into every thread where Prestige is named? Fair enough you may have had a bad experience with Geoff but there is no need to force your opinion on everyone each time his business is mentioned.

Each method has it's own merits, and what may be good for someone may not be for another. Please keep that in mind.

Just in case you didn't understand, let me point you to the Board Rules. Read them again and keep them in mind prior to posting. You've had previous warningsa lready.