Imorting A Car Via Prestigemotorsport.com

[mrgilly]

I've brought 2 R34's in through Prestige and Geoff has been most helpful, couldn't recommend him highly enough

[writeoff]

I bought three cars from Geoff at Prestige. The estimates he gave me were a long way off. Each car ended up going $6,000 over budget (for a total of $18,000). Some of the expenses could not have been foreseen and therefore I don't hold Prestige responsible. Some were. For example the airconditioners hadn't been degassed on any of the cars. I had paid for this to be done on two and the other was purchased and put in storage before the law came into effect (but was not exempt from it).

Prestige did refund the amount I had paid for the a/c to be degassed but the Dept of Environment and Heritage (SA) held the car back for 4-5 weeks in customs. This ended up costing me $1,200 in storage fees. The degassing and regassing cost about $350 in Australia as opposed to the $120 I had paid for it to be done in Japan.

Geoff also told me it was imposssible to degass the car which was already in storage but someone managed to get to the car and post the stereo headunit and GReddy Profec B Boost controller (I was appreciative of this) before it was loaded on a ship.

Having said all this all three cars are great cars - one R32 GTR being brilliant. The whole exercisde just cost a $hitload more than I had budgetted for. Would I use Prestige again... probably not. But I do check their website and look at the cars available.

PS - if you go on the mailing lists for J-Spec & Prestige you will find that they send out emails on the same cars most of the time.

Edited January 1, 2007 by writeoff

[JZX91-2JZ]

Thats a good summary of services right there.

[baltik5]

Hey Dude,

Thanks for all the info man! yeah few other people also told me that they had bad experiences with prestiege. Hmmm.. sounds like prestiege is not the best option

Few guys pm me about some good brokers. So I might ring them up and cut a deal. I did lot of homework on this. Since the aussie dolllar is doin good in these days it should be even cheaper to import one. one dollar is like 93 yen now. so looks like it is a good time for a purchase.

Do u know any good brokers u can recommend? i have a few but not decided which one im gonna go for.

its a risky thing. did u read the otehr post about With Kiwi Car Carriers? man i don wann endup in that situation. thats wy me lookin for a broker who can take the reponsibilty for all that.

anyways thanks again for all the info man. would appriciate if u can recommend few ppl to me.

cheers

I bought three cars from Geoff at Prestige. The estimates he gave me were a long way off. Each car ended up going $6,000 over budget (for a total of $18,000). Some of the expenses could not have been foreseen and therefore I don't hold Prestige responsible. Some were. For example the airconditioners hadn't been degassed on any of the cars. I had paid for this to be done on two and the other was purchased and put in storage before the law came into effect (but was not exempt from it).

Prestige did refund the amount I had paid for the a/c to be degassed but the Dept of Environment and Heritage (SA) held the car back for 4-5 weeks in customs. This ended up costing me $1,200 in storage fees. The degassing and regassing cost about $350 in Australia as opposed to the $120 I had paid for it to be done in Japan.

Geoff also told me it was imposssible to degass the car which was already in storage but someone managed to get to the car and post the stereo headunit and GReddy Profec B Boost controller (I was appreciative of this) before it was loaded on a ship.

Having said all this all three cars are great cars - one R32 GTR being brilliant. The whole exercisde just cost a $hitload more than I had budgetted for. Would I use Prestige again... probably not. But I do check their website and look at the cars available.

PS - if you go on the mailing lists for J-Spec & Prestige you will find that they send out emails on the same cars most of the time.

Edited January 10, 2007 by baltik5

[ShadowKnyght]

I have imported 3 cars from prestige - My dad 1, My Oldest Bro - 1 and my youngest 1, - We should get a family discount!!

He is a nice bloke to deal with, and really the condition of the car is not up to him - he just handles the paper work - the risk is always on the buyers shoulders...

So far the estimates have been fine on his part - it has been the compliance and the repairs due to shipping etc that have bloated prices.

And one time I also had a car stuck in customs in SA and that cost me huge $$ based on A/C as well - was mostly the Jap suppliers fault so he paid 70% of the cost... but still the remaining 30% was painful!!

[djr81]

He is a nice bloke to deal with, and really the condition of the car is not up to him - he just handles the paper work - the risk is always on the buyers shoulders...

Which entirely misses the poijnt of using a broker. he should be using his contacts & relationships in Japan to ensure you get a car in good condition. It is not just about paperwork...

[SS8_Gohan]

^ bingo

[godzl1975]

i went thru prestige as well...and the final estimate was a little over...also came without a couple of things either! He was helpful to a certain point and then that was it. But in the end the car came was great deal still. I'd go thru with Prestige again but id ask different questions and make sure that what I see is what iam going to get!.....Missing TE37's and nismo dash as qouted. Hope that helps. Its a bit of a risk but did end ok in the end.

Taxes into australia is abit of a killer tho!

[SS8_Gohan]

missing TE37's is MASSIVE!!

[baltik5]

hmm okay guys i think im gonna go with imports101. got fairly good reviews about these guys and most the guys inthis forum recomended them. So i think im gonna go with them. anyways i'll keep u guys updated!

cheers

[djr81]

hmm okay guys i think im gonna go with imports101. got fairly good reviews about these guys and most the guys inthis forum recomended them. So i think im gonna go with them. anyways i'll keep u guys updated!

cheers

Good choice. Just a tip, Danny is a busy bloke so it helps all concerned if you think carefully about what you want & specify it to him. Saves everyone alot of trouble that way. Note: This is true of all brokers.

[JZX91-2JZ]

Also with Imports101 I have noticed its best if you just ring up and not bother with emails. Also check out their forums we are a friendly bunch!!

[ShadowKnyght]

Do you find craig from J-spec responds to emails?

I have sent him around 10 emails over the last 6 months about various cars and have only ever had a response once - asking for $1,100 so he can start looking at Auctions for me...

I have just found that Geoff from Prestige seems to have more time to talk things through before asking for $$$.

I know they must get a lot of enquiries but... I like to talk a purchase through before handing over the cash.

[djr81]

Do you find craig from J-spec responds to emails?

I have sent him around 10 emails over the last 6 months about various cars and have only ever had a response once - asking for $1,100 so he can start looking at Auctions for me...

I have just found that Geoff from Prestige seems to have more time to talk things through before asking for $$$.

I know they must get a lot of enquiries but... I like to talk a purchase through before handing over the cash.

To be fair they all get alot of dreamers, especially emails from the same. Also, the stuff the email out is just the tip of what is available - you are invariably better off not buying one off the stock lists

[32vspecII]

i have had the same experience from jspec

one response ages late that the car had already gone

not even a response after that

its not hard to make a prepared response and change a thing here and there for the specific car , at least it makes potential customers not think their talking to the infinite void

[GTR-90D]

I've bought 2 GTRs from Geoff from Prestige Motorsports.

Top service.

A good idea if you can understand japanese os you can translate the car report on its accident history if any.

[baltik5]

no man! i had few enquiries via emails. but no one botherd reply me. where prestiege and imports101 were very keen to reply with all the information i needed. so wasn't really happy with jspec.

Do you find craig from J-spec responds to emails?

I have sent him around 10 emails over the last 6 months about various cars and have only ever had a response once - asking for $1,100 so he can start looking at Auctions for me...

I have just found that Geoff from Prestige seems to have more time to talk things through before asking for $$$.

I know they must get a lot of enquiries but... I like to talk a purchase through before handing over the cash.

[slow13dude]

To be fair they all get alot of dreamers, especially emails from the same. Also, the stuff the email out is just the tip of what is available - you are invariably better off not buying one off the stock lists

What's wrong with the stock lists?

[djr81]

Well approximately 6 billion people get spammed the email so you aren't going to get much of chance to get the thing checked out properly.

Secondly if you know what you want to buy then invariably you can get a car more suited to your good self.

Thirdly if you understand how the auctions work you will recongnise that alot of cars get passed in. So what is on the list is only scraping the surface of whats available.

But, no there isn't necessarily anything wrong with the cars. Although they do tend to be at the cheap/nasty end of the range.