My Importing Journey

[R33GTRKid]

apart from the representation that he had all parts needed for the compliance which our mate here relied upon before entering into the contract - if the complaince dood then spent time and our guys money on getting stuff he previously represented he already had but did not, that is misrepresentation, a contravention of the trade practices act and our guy's measure of damages is the difference between what he would have paid if the representations were true and what he now needs to pay.....

[hanyou]

just abit of an update. i also called ben at j-spec to see where i stood and he played mediator between me and the compliance shop. after seeing both sides of the story he spoke to the compliance shop and they have come to the conclusion:

#1: rear seat belt buckles were missing - will be charged for time he was searching (2hours apparently)

#2: stock gtr exhaust missing - no charge other then refit/removal of aftermarket catback.

#3: stock r32 GTR rims don't fit with Brembo's - they will still be taking off my brakes from another gtr and swapping them around back and forth for rego to fit the 16's but this is done free of charge as it wasn't my fault; but was also an honest mistake for the compliance shop as they were unaware about the rims not fitting.

#4: left headlight had some wiring issues - this is getting fixed as planned.

i sent the rear seat belt buckles today which should get to the shop by COB today and there shouldn't be anymore hiccups. i just need to wait for the compliance shop to finish off the work, hand in the paperwork and wait for my import plate so i can get it registered.

the quote that was given was apparently a very high estimate, as the compliance shop and i were talking about doing other work which wasn't confirmed but he threw in the costs in with the estimate. so clearly the issue we had was just bad communication for the majority of the problems. i've got no update of an estimated cost now that everything is sorted so i guess ill just see towards the end of compliance.

big thumbs up to Ben at J-Spec for sorting out the wheels part for me cause that would've cost a fair bit for no reason!

hopefully my next update is when the car is in my garage!

[Iron Chef]

Props to J-Spec for getting it all sorted - another good reason why it's useful to use a broker rather than importing on your own

[AutoTrust]

Something everyone needs to keep in mind is that not everyones view is equally represented in a forum thread like this. There is always more to the story than is represented by lines of text.

Importing can be a complicated process and it is easy to have a small problem escalate, and in this case it seems to be worse than it really is just from others reactions.

Compliance workshops are bound by a strict set of rules that give them no leeway to bend and it looks to me that Hanyou is being looked after by J-Spec and the compliance shop considering the problems specific to this vehicle.

At the end it will be all worthwhile cruising in the GTR

[hanyou]

defintely, i always try to keep both sides of the story posted up for a non biased thread.

thanks guys im in no way sledging any company in this thread im just listing the problems i'm going through as a reference to other potential importers! im very happy with both my compliance shop and importer but these are the problems you have to go through.

everything is working out, ill be visiting my compliance guy tonight to straighten everything out so that should go quite well.

[Iron Chef]

A little early to be quoting final tallies...

Quoting myself for truth lol

[hanyou]

OK! after a long long talk everything is straightened out! top guys to deal with; both j-spec and macjap. as i said before i've always been happy with both

bad communication was definitely the cause of all of this + a few problems which were neither parties faults.

paperwork should go in this friday night or monday next week. its just a waiting game now

[UnCo]

Hey mate, glad to hear it's all been sorted!

Now you can look forward to getting that car in your hands and enjoying it

[ACTIVE-LSD]

You still havn't got the car yet? I'm suprised that your calm about this coz if i was in your position i'd be spewing!

So how long left till you get it bro? i wanna see ya post up pictures of this monster r32.

[hanyou]

ahha nah not yet, i really dont mind the wait as the longer i dont have it the more money i have LOL.

id prob say by end of month it should be with me

[UnCo]

So whats the latest on this?

I managed to pick mine up already, I love the car!! hope the wait isn't too much longer for you!

[hanyou]

oh nothing yet hahaha, paper work and evidence package is gna get handed in on wednesday this week. had to source a set of vspec rims for compliance lol.

so yeah almost LOL

[SSHatch]

#3: stock r32 GTR rims dont fit with Brembo's. he had already replaced my brake fluid before finding that out as well. so the resolution is his going to take the stock callipers off another gtr and replace them with mine so that they will fit. then after rego im free to put the brembo's back with my 18" wheels. now he is charging me for this too; including the labour on removing and refitting on the other car too + bleeding of brakes on both cars.

Pardon my ignorance here and please correct me if I am wrong but...

Didnt the V-SpecII come factory with Brembo Brakes??

I thought they also had 17 inch wheels as well to go over said brakes.

Which leads to the question, if they came from factory with those brakes and 17 inch wheels then why are they fitting standard GTR wheels and brakes for compliance. That all seems a bit irish to me.

Unless I am wrong and your car did in fact come out with 16 inch wheels and standard GTR brakes, in which case I wanna know what so damn special about the V-SpecII Model??

[kakimoto33]

The V-Spec II does have factory 17" wheels and Brembo brakes, however not many workshops have the compliance evidence for those parts because normal GTR models do not have them and it would have been a normal GTR used to build the evidence package initially. It's not too hard to do the paperwork and have these factory V-Spec II parts added to the compliance evidence once they have a V-Spec II model to comply (which is what is being done in this case) however many prefer to take the quicker and easier route which is to swap parts back to standard GTR spec as per their normal evidence package and get the car through compliance without any additional delays.

[hanyou]

^^

what he said haha

[ACTIVE-LSD]

Hanyou, don't tell me you still havn't got your car yet?!

[hanyou]

haha no not yet all good though im in no rush, interstate trips for work is keeping me busy lol. even if it was ready i wouldnt be able to pick it up till end of next week haha

[veecee]

haha no not yet all good though im in no rush, interstate trips for work is keeping me busy lol. even if it was ready i wouldnt be able to pick it up till end of next week haha

Man you've been pretty patient through this process. And your write up has been really informative. Thanks and good luck with the rest of your journey!

[funkymonkey]

We usually have about 5 cars at the workshop for compliance, so if a customer hands us a car like yours, we usually say take it somewhere else to fix it up then bring it back (headlight, seatbelts, etc.)

I hope DOTARS never reads that. Technically a car you import for compliance isn't supposed to be in anyone's hands other than the compliancer.

[carizma]

haha, I'd imagine they have better stuff to do.

If workshops followed the letter of the law, compliance would be a lot more expensive and there'd be a lot fewer workshops in the game.

Of course, we follow the exact letter of the law in all circumstances, including me contradicting what I earlier wrote.

Letter of the law also states aftermarket parts have to be destroyed, right? Ever heard of anyone (except us, I mean) that does this?

I hope DOTARS never reads that. Technically a car you import for compliance isn't supposed to be in anyone's hands other than the compliancer.