Any 350gt Coupe Import That Failed Compliance?

[jarthel]

I was reading OCAU and the importing section here and it seems there are possibilities that a car cannot be complied by a shop (sometimes depends on the shop as well).

so the question is: has anyone experienced (or know of anyone) who failed compliance?

Did the shop repaired/replaced parts to get it complied? if yes, can you name them?

thank you very much for the reply

ps. I searched the forums but nothing came up about failing compliance for a v35

[rs73]

That's why you should use a good import broker that will advise you which car in Japan that would not pass compliance (e.g. heavily modified cars - certain accident repair - rust, etc). If you buy yourself from yahoo auctions (like a japanese ebay) then you are taking a big gamble.

[jarthel]

That's why you should use a good import broker that will advise you which car in Japan that would not pass compliance (e.g. heavily modified cars - certain accident repair - rust, etc). If you buy yourself from yahoo auctions (like a japanese ebay) then you are taking a big gamble.

I was reading a thread in OCAU where the guy's GF imported a supra through the supposed "reliable" and known broker and the car was denied compliance. there's a thread here in SAU where a stagea was also denied compliance due to emission problems for the particular model and this was imported through a broker who is one of the sponsors (old thread so the company may not be a sponsor now).

there will always be risk in importing and I suppose I created the thread to know people's experience on importing coupes. it's quite possible that certain year's model is different from a previous one and this difference would make it fail during compliance.

ps. I'm talking about stock 350gt

Edited March 29, 2008 by jarthel

[MFC05]

I was reading a thread in OCAU where the guy's GF imported a supra through the supposed "reliable" and known broker and the car was denied compliance. there's a thread here in SAU where a stagea was also denied compliance due to emission problems for the particular model and this was imported through a broker who is one of the sponsors (old thread so the company may not be a sponsor now).

there will always be risk in importing and I suppose I created the thread to know people's experience on importing coupes. it's quite possible that certain year's model is different from a previous one and this difference would make it fail during compliance.

ps. I'm talking about stock 350gt

I know people who has imported vehicles from Japan and has failed compliance because they are accident damage vehicles. They were told by the Japanese suppilers that the car were non accident, but further inspection by the compliance shop the car auctally had a frontend smash. Its the risk you will have to take importing, personally i think it safer,easier to buy one locally.

[G7]

Jarthel,

I think you spend too much time on the internet and not enough time testing a car at the dealers.

[jarthel]

Jarthel,

I think you spend too much time on the internet and not enough time testing a car at the dealers.

driving a v35 from a local dealer tell me nothing in relation to compliance if I decided to import the car myself.

[rs73]

Jarthel, I agreed what G7 said. From the look of it, at the end of the story you're still gonna worry like hell even if you decide to import one from Japan yourself with or without the help of a local trusted import broker or going direct to a well known exporter. Imagine this: as soon as you buy a car in a japanese auction, for a V35 you're gonna hand over at least $20-25k of your money to some guy/supplier in Japan and you just have to get your fingers crossed that supplier is not gonna screw you over.

Second, if you don't get screwed in the first place, the car will be sitting on the dock in Japan for maybe a couple of weeks depending which nearest port to the place of purchase, and what ship is scheduled to go to that port and whatever space left on the ship. It's gonna be about a week to 2 weeks wait and its not something that you can ring your broker or supplier on a daily basis and ask them 'is the car on the boat yet?'. You just gotta sit back and "forget about it" that you have a $20+k of your money sitting in Japan doing nothing for 1-2 weeks, can you not worry about that?

Once the car got on the ship, all cars are tied down but there are no guarantee that damage won't happen. The open sea is rough, waves can be 10-15m high or more. ocassionally something got loose and bump or scratch. bad luck.

If the ship got caught into bad weather it could even sink. It happened in real life - a ship bound to sth africa sank with lots of cars on it -was all over the news a few yrs ago. When the shipping company spend money to salvage the ship & load from the bottom of the ocean, they have the right to charge whoever owns the load (that is you, if your car is on that boat) with a proportional share of the cost to salvage the ship. E.g. cost $2million to salvage, there are 3,000 cars on board and you gotta pay your share of $600+ for an example, and you still end up with a car drenched with salt water that you're gonna have to write off anyhow - cos all the electricals would've been shot and all metal rusted depending how long it was in the bottom of the ocean. The risk is real and it's there.

Once the car landed, you may incurr additional charges. For example my car didn't make it to the first boat available because of the documentation delay on Japan side. Could be anything, not a brokers' or exporters' fault, the japanese owner of the car didn't deliver the keys or documents to the auction house immediately after transaction, or could be the deregistration office in japan was late in processing the deregistration documents. So my car arrived on the Australia day long weekend - and as there was no one working, I incurred a couple of days extra of dock fee. Bad luck. Lucky it's not as much as $1000+, only $100 or so. But I got a friend who imported his R33 a few years ago and he incurred $1000+ in dock fee because no one knows when his car landed and on which dock. Bad luck for him but they found his car eventually 10 days after it landed.

All these extra unforeseen costs are not included in your initial estimation from your import broker as these are items that is outside anyone's control. (Including if a wharf staff misplaced your car onto a wrong area and no one can find it). Although shipping has improved over the recent years but the risk is still there. Then there is a risk the car is broken into while sitting at the docks, cases where stereos are stolen and dashboard damaged, alloy rims stolen and car left with 4 space saver rims (these are all real stories).

If your car survived the ordeals above, then you send it to your workshop which may discover that a car have accident repair beyond what's allowed for compliance. Then it's another risk. You're left with a choice of dismantling the car and send for parts or re-export the car back to Japan at your own cost of shipping and hopefully you'll get a buyer in Japan but either way you will lost a lot of money. So far I haven't heard any V35 that failed compliance from those people I know, but the risk is always there when you are importing. As best as your broker can describe there is minimised risk when using a trusted import brokers. But there are always things that might accidentally got overlooked as not all car conditions are equal, the amount of time vs amount of cars ppl have to inspect on a daily basis in Japan is enormous.

After compliance then you can get your car ready for local registration in your state, and the whole process can take a month or 2. In my case it took 2 months.

Then you have your car sitting in your garage, all dirty from the trip and you gotta spend time to wash it all up top to bottom, inside out. A lot of effort. Then get some SA Roadworthy Certificate as it's not included in compliance, and bring it over to your SA rego office (called Regency?) and hope they don't give you trouble trying to register an import. This is where getting your compliance done properly is very important, as if you end up with some workshop that cuts corner, they may not do certain things and if the staff at regency is smart to notice things are not as suppose to be you may get problem registering.

Looking at all those risk above, you can ask yourself is it worth for you saving $2000-3000 and getting very worried for about 2 months? If not then probably it's time to stop reading of the horror stories on various forums, get out there, and test drive a car that has landed with compliance plate fitted. That way you know the condition of the car as you can see it in flesh, test drive it, listen to anything wrong, and if all good - why not buy it for the right price? If you think it's all worth it and you dare to take the risk - then go for it. Call up one of the brokers and get it all started.

Sorry for the long write up - not trying to scare you off, but I'm just speaking from my own experience importing one myself. It's a long process - may worth the money saved - but it's not everyone's cup of tea and not recommended for the faint hearted if anything goes wrong.

[jarthel]

in life, there are always risks involved. buying stocks, getting a new job and etc.

I suppose I'm trying to minimise risks by asking questions/people's experiences. is that bad?

Edited March 30, 2008 by jarthel

[WazR32GTSt]

sounds like that movie with ben stiller..

also sounds like generalised anxiety disorder

what's the bst way to minimise risk? go to an import dealer that has already gone through the hassle of doing the importing process and buy a freshly imported car off their yard. yes it might cost you a few thousand more but that's the price to pay to reduce risk. the car will already be complied and ready to register in this case.

[jarthel]

I have a feeling this thread is going off-topic.

this is not about buying from a yard/private seller vs personal import.

I would appreciate it very much if we keep to the topic

Edited March 30, 2008 by jarthel

[rs73]

ok, back to topic;

the only few reasons a v35 failed compliance is:

- previous accident repair that wasn't visible during pre auction inspection because it could have been hidden under the wheel shroud or bumper. during compliance workshop removed bumper to get access to remove xenons. this is a point where something not right (eg chassis rail been cut and re-welded poorly) and was hidden under the front under tray in a way that can't be detected during auction inspection because no one will remove bumpers for every car inspected.

- buyer buys the wrong car, e.g buying a model that's not approved for compliance, e.g a diesel variant. this comes down to buyer lacks/not seeking expert advice as to what variant is allowed.

- car was extremely modified and compliance workshop can't comply a modified car. by law they're suppose to destroy non approved modified parts, and if they don't have standard parts lying around then it can't be complied untill rectified.

- buyer accidentally buys an early model v36, thinking it's a late Model v35. v36 compliance is Not available yet at this time, but will be soon, Not sure when.

- something really wrong with the engine it didn't passed emissions regardless new cat converter, air fikter, plugs, etc replaced.

can't think of anything else. but so far I haven't personally see/heard one that fails.