About Importing Japanese Car From Japan

[davezhang]

hello, everyone:

I am about to import a car form www.japaneseusedcars.com, however, I am not sure that I could trust this website, however, the company is the member of JUMUEA. does it mean that I could trust it.

if we import the car form them, we could save at least 3000 dallors. looks so good to us.

evo 8 MR in their data base has unbeatable price, so we could sale it after several months drive then sale it and still make profite on the car.

please give me some advance

thanks

[Blipman]

hello, everyone:

I am about to import a car form www.japaneseusedcars.com, however, I am not sure that I could trust this website, however, the company is the member of JUMUEA. does it mean that I could trust it.

if we import the car form them, we could save at least 3000 dallors. looks so good to us.

evo 8 MR in their data base has unbeatable price, so we could sale it after several months drive then sale it and still make profite on the car.

please give me some advance

thanks

Hi Dave,

Which is the car you're interested in? Although undisclosed, Japanese Used Cars charge a 180,000 yen FOB for dealer vehicles (the going rate is around 90,000 - 100,000 yen) which is very high, and they also don't provide a pre purchase inspection, which in my opinion is absolutely essential for dealer sourced cars... otherwise you are just taking the dealer's word for it, and that's never a great idea.

[Beer Baron]

lol, if you think you are going to import a car as a 'retail' importer and drive it for a few months and then profit on it I wish you the best of luck. it's hard enough these days for guys in the industry who have relationships with all the providers you need to deal with along the way. so if you think you can make the numbers work then knock yourself out, go chase that dream and make that fortune on importing used japanese cars retail....

[Brandon]

lol, if you think you are going to import a car as a 'retail' importer and drive it for a few months and then profit on it I wish you the best of luck. it's hard enough these days for guys in the industry who have relationships with all the providers you need to deal with along the way. so if you think you can make the numbers work then knock yourself out, go chase that dream and make that fortune on importing used japanese cars retail....

+1.

If what you said is workable, everyone would be importing and selling cars (I love your job Richard!) as most here love cars. Someone told me if something is too good to be true they normally are.

My advise is to go with Mark Hocking from mytrading or IronChef from the forum. Both are excellent bloke and I'm sure they can source the best car for your given budget.

Richard: Thanks for all those import advises you've provided me with when I was looking for the 34 but things didnt pan out the way it should be. =(

[Beer Baron]

lol, well people must think I'm the most negative mofo out but I'm just trying to give people some realism before they think that their fortune lies in the boot of some japanese car sitting on a wharf in osaka.

if there is one thing i know about, it's importing cars and I have imported cars into this country by all means I can think of, pesonal import, old LVIS scheme, new SEVS scheme, old 15yo rule, new pre-89 rule, test cars, race cars about the only one I haven't done is cars for the disabled. and in the past I've used brokers, acted as a broker, used exporters/agents, acted as a exporter/agent. and used importers and yes been the importer.

the simple fact is, you are a RETAIL buyer whose knowledge of the importing world is very small. wholesale importers and I mean good ones, have connections with other importers, they have strong relationships with buyers in japan or maybe even have their own buyers, the know how to get the cheapest shipping and transfer costs, and the best treatment, they know how to get cars cleared quickly and have a great customs broker who they use all the time (or even are one themselves), they do stuff in bulk and save time and money as they buy many cars, and they have good base of clients and even they are stuggling to make money in this current climate.

importing cars relies heavily on a number of things.

exchange rate. this is simple, the worse our dollar does against the yen the more it costs to buy, and this increase is compounded further by taxes (GST and Duty down the line).

demand in japan. this one is a bit against us at the moment on some models as japanese people are not upgrading cars as quickly or as often as they used to, so local competition is high atm.

demand from other importing countries. don't forget you are competing against guys exporting to canada, UK, new guinea, NZ, nigeria, etc etc. this goes up and down a lot.

demand from other aussie importers. this matters a lot as they will be after the same models of car as you.

Local demand in aus for imported cars. at the moment it's pretty low, things are still pretty tough here right now, and the cars already in aus are heavily discounted. boom years of healthy importing means there is lots of stock in aus.

these are the main ones and they are the factors that you can't really change.

if it was that easy to just buy a car from it's website at the retail price, bring it to aus, pay retail compliance, register it, drive it for 6 months and sell it at a profit then pretty much every import enthusiast I know would be doing it. we'd all be driving and owning cars for free. the reality is the moment you import and drive a car it's value goes down in most cases. unless you can source cars at auction and know what you're doing (ie know what price to bid on cars for good profit) and have a buyer who knows what he's doing inspection wise (to ensure you get the pick of the crop) and have a relationship with him so he gives you cheap FOB for all this work (since he knows you'll buy dozens of cars per year), and you must then comply them yourself or have a contra deal with other compliers or at the least a wholesale deal with other compliers. if you can't have all that, you can't expect to make money from importing and selling cars.

8 years ago you could do it. not many people had the balls to import back then. people were scared of risking $10s of thousands sending money to people in japan. but guys who did were buying cars retail, from auctions and even off yahoo, half the time sight unseen, and some of them were rubbish. they could then get them complied cheap as and sell them quick as demand was crazy back then, lots of dough around and no p plate restrictions. you could make $20,000 on a supra back then that you bought for $10K. these days guys are lucky and happy to make $3-$5,000 on a R34 GTR. and remember they have to invest say $40,000 of their money, plus loads of their time and hard work, and it's high risk and they still only make around 10% profit. hardly great money.

you are about 10 years to late to jump on the importation bandwagon my friend.

the only reason to import cars these days is for your personal use, and go into it knowing you may even pay MORE that a similar local car, but you get wider choice, and if you have a good exporter you can get a nice quality car. just don't expect to save $10,000 by doing it.

[Blipman]

I don't want this to get into an argument as this is simply a matter of opinion and I'm not having a go at you Beer Baron, but actually I disagree. We have customers who bring in cars to make some money and the vast majority make a decent profit on them. True you can't make the sort of cash you could half a dozen years ago, but we have plenty of customers who do it (often unintentionally... they want to upgrade their car a year after importing it and sell it for more than what they paid) so it's possible. I would say however that NOW is a tricky time since demand in Australia is low, so that's something you would want to take into consideration, especially if it's a car of which there are already many in Australia. And unless it's one hell of a bargain an expensive car like an EVO 8 MR with the current Australian economic climate could be hard.

In terms of dealers prices vs. 'retail' prices, using a broker these days (yes I'm a broker so assume I'm as biased as you'd like) will cost you pretty much what a dealer would pay, plus a broker's service fee, so compared to a dealer you're usually not paying a whole lot more than $1,000 extra. As an example if I import a car for myself or a family member it pretty much costs $1,000 less (my service fee) than if they were a member of the general public, there are no further mates rates or special things I can do to make it any cheaper, and I certainly do a lot more cars than your average dealer (it's ALL I do).

Comparing various prices along the way:

- FOB cost: some dealers will pay $100 - $200 less, but often because they are getting less info about a car... they don't want 100 photos and detailed condition reports since this isn't going to be their one off pride and joy... it's just another car.

- transport within Japan: no savings to be made there

- ocean freight: everyone pays pretty much the same, you have to do HUGE numbers to get cheaper rates.

- customs clearance and related: if you have a quarantine controlled area (rare) you can save a little bit, doing your own customs clearance saves a little bit of cash but not much

- transport within Australia: if a dealer has their own truck obvoiusly that's a bonus

- taxes: some dealers devalue their cars for tax reasons, some get caught doing it

- compliance: we get trade prices where available and pass them on to customers so no saving there, if a dealer is a compliance workshop themselves then yes they can save money there.

There is one area where dealers DO save a lot of money, and that's in the car they buy. Dealers tend to buy the poorer condition (ie cheaper) cars since they DO have good contacts at painting panels, fixing up little bits and pieces, and generally making so-so cars look better.

Case in point: I was at Yokohama port the other week and the cars bound for Australia are all a little bit rougher than I'd normally buy, yet you go to a dealer lot in Austrlaia and they all look nice.... that's what dealers are good at

There's other stuff invovled in that quickie breakdown above so I'm sure someone will jump down my throat and say I missed htis or that, but trying to keep this simple and relatively short

Want further evidence? There are a couple of dealers who use us from time to time if we have the right car who run import only dealerships and bring in a large volume of cars each year themselves. They are usually happy for us to take care of everything since they know the cost is the same than if they were using their own contacts.

Having been involved in the import/export well over 1,000 cars I know every trick in the book that people try and I talk to a lot of people and how they do things, and your average dealer is not paying much less if any to bring in a car compared to using an experienced broker.

So, I'm not saying Beer Baron is wrong, but I am offering a different view as I see things a little differently. BB you're in Nishi Shinjuku? Don't suppose you saw the GTR that crashed into a taxi near Shinjuku eki nishi guchi (across from Bic Camera) at about 9 this morning? The poor guy was almost in tears...

[Brandon]

The fact that the person who posted www.japaneseusedcars.com pretty much shows he doesnt have much import experience. Considering the risk and knowledge involved would you advise such a person to do it? Answer is NO. As detailed both in Richard's post and yours, theres a lot to importing than just picking a car online like ebay or yahoo. You will have to know people or have contact to inspect the car properly as well as doing the middleman bit. When the car reaches Aus, thats another story. You will have to get it quarantined, cleaned and complied. If quarantine/clean isnt organized properly your car's gonna sit at the wharf with you paying the "rental" each day. Its not funny when I've seen people posting these. Like you've said you'll only be saving that 1000 if you get the car for yourself but the thing that differentiate importers are the quality of service, advise and contacts.

I'm not saying its not good to import yourself (I have looked into this option before), but at least do your research SUFFICIENTLY enough to ask people question. Most people here are very helpful IF you ask the right question. At the end of the day, everything is possible but considering the majority and the current situation, it will definately be more advisable to buy local unless you're after something more exclusive. Saving money in this case is definitely not the main concern.

[Autospecs]

J-Spec Imports please do not make erroneous statements - "japaneseusedcars.com don't carry out pre purchase inspections" - as we do in fact inspect vehicles prior to auction and are one of the few companies that does as opposed to just buying over the internet like others.

Our Fees are not 180,000yen either so please refrain from making statements that are untrue or we will forced to pursue you through legal means.

By the way J-Spec Imports from our understanding is not even a registered company in Japan so be careful

Japaneseusedcars.com is one of the original exporters with membership to all auctions, registered with JUMVEA and licensed with the Japanese police, we are reliable and trusted how about j-spec? are you even in japan or just another middle man operating out of another country??

[?UESTLOVE]

Interesting!

[Blipman]

J-Spec Imports please do not make erroneous statements - "japaneseusedcars.com don't carry out pre purchase inspections" - as we do in fact inspect vehicles prior to auction and are one of the few companies that does as opposed to just buying over the internet like others.

Our Fees are not 180,000yen either so please refrain from making statements that are untrue or we will forced to pursue you through legal means.

By the way J-Spec Imports from our understanding is not even a registered company in Japan so be careful

Japaneseusedcars.com is one of the original exporters with membership to all auctions, registered with JUMVEA and licensed with the Japanese police, we are reliable and trusted how about j-spec? are you even in japan or just another middle man operating out of another country??

Sigh. You will note I made these statements specifically in reference to the dealer sourced cars on your site.

- compared with the listed sale price with the dealers themselves, the exact same cars on your site are typically listed at around 180,000 yen higher than the asking price, hence my comment.

- so you're saying that you do pre purchase inspections on the dealer cars on your site? 2 customers who had been in contact with you in the past have previously told me that you did not

- J-Spec Imports has never claimed to be a company based in Japan, we have been based in Australia for close to 10 years.

- I live in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

[Beer Baron]

I live in west shinjuku coco ichi. I make curry there. any strength you want from 1 if you just want little flavour up to 10 if you want your eyes to water.... and not just your eyes either.... they give me a room in the back for sleeping. it's quite nice.

anyway, I think this thread has run it's course. Ben makes some good points. Sure if a broker charges $1000 then all you pay it $1000 over what the other costs are, and if they are good there are places they can save you money. I know just from relationships I have built with various providers of services I can get lower prices with higher volumes and as a broker your customer can take advantage of that and sometimes save more than the fee they paid you. but I'm sure you agree there most certainly is 'retail' compliance cost and 'wholesale' compliance costs, and many car buyers/exporters will have 'retail' or 'one off' FOB price and 'wholesale/dealer' FOB price for their services. even things like customs brokers, tow truck drivers, alarm installers etc will all lower their prices if you do a lot of business with them, and a few bucks saved here and there sure does add up. especially on the cheap cars.

anyway, you do at least agree with me that in this current climate the average joe with know real knowledge of car importation or automotive business as a whole has little chance in buying a car RETAIL from japan and then bringing it out here to drive for 6 months(!!!) then sell for a profit. it's very unlikely in the current market.

and I didn't take any offence to your post. maybe I am a bit pessimistic sometimes. but when I see people like the original poster who thinks he must be the first guy to discover a japanese website that exports cars and is going to bring some in and make a fortune, well I can't help but want to lay out a little bit of harsh reality for them.

it's hard enough right now for guys who are smart, experienced, passionate, and have good contacts to make a decent living importing cars. so for most others the only way to do it as a one off is a fluke.

the biggest barrier right now is the used car market here in aus. it doesn't matter how cheap he reckons this evo is in japan (plus if it already has an extra 180,000JPY on it as you point out then it's not really 'cheap' anyway) if he cannot easily sell it here in aus.

[Blipman]

I think I know a Coco Ichi in Nishi Shinjuku kind of across from Yodobashi Camera. That one?

[Fauzer]

// We have customers who bring in cars to make some money and the vast majority make a decent profit on them.

if your customers were in WA they would be breaking the law, as buying a car with the intention of making a profit is illegal if you are not a licensed dealer. how about other states?

-fauzer.