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Buying A Car In Australia While Living In Japan Help


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This may have a better home in another forum but I only seem to get replies in the Japan one so here goes. I am looking at expanding my rare VL wagon collection (I only have one at the moment - a genuine Berlina manual turbo wagon- possibly only 5 ever made) by buying an A9Y Calais wagz. I am looking at sending the money from my Aussie bank account and then having it shipped interstate all with me still being in Japan. I havent done anything like this before so am more than a bit nervous about it - any hints, tips or suggestions greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

well we trade and supply cars within Japan, to the US Military bases, etc

so could help acquire one , is that what your after?

Read the topic heading !!

Roach wants to buy an Australian made car in Australia and send it to another State in Australia

Read the topic heading !!

Roach wants to buy an Australian made car in Australia and send it to another State in Australia

Yeah elrodeo666 is right (thanks mate). I want to buy a car in Victoria and send it to NSW. Sorry I could have been clearer. In the future I may be interested in importing a car to Japan but not right now, thanks anyway.

Something which I have never seen before just happened - the bids on ebay went backwards. It was up to over $2000 with 30+ bids yesterday and today its got 20+ bids and down to about $1000. I am in love with this car but am scared I am will make a big mistake by buying it. Any ideas?

if you can get someone on the ground in aus to help you. if the car was in nsw I could do it or get someone to help you but being in VIC I don't know. it's really much safer if you can have someone on the ground to supervise the purchase for you. even better if they can inspect the car for you before purchase too. good luck. :)

if you can get someone on the ground in aus to help you. if the car was in nsw I could do it or get someone to help you but being in VIC I don't know. it's really much safer if you can have someone on the ground to supervise the purchase for you. even better if they can inspect the car for you before purchase too. good luck. :)

Thanks enormously Beer Baron especially for the offer of help should it have been in NSW. Sadly I didn't end up buying it. Seller decided to increase how much he wanted for it after we made an agreement. Also from the photo he sent of the plates it looks like it may be possible that they were put on more recently. Then someone else retracted their bids on ebay. So I am thinking it is possible that someone had a look at it after bidding and either decided it was a Berlina with Calais plates (ripped from a wrecked car) or it was otherwise not as the ad listed. As I am in Japan at the moment I couldn't take a look myself.

If however I ever find out that it was all genuine and the bodykit was factory fitted I may spend the rest of my life deepening in regret until such time as I finally crack and climb the nearest bell tower and start shooting innocents - I dont even need a rifle - just a water pistol - its so cold my goosebumps have goosebumps - or maybe its not the weather maybe its just the lack of warmth in my heart due to missing a certain cardinal red A9Y wagz - damn she was gorgeous.

Sorry but im going to have to say it....your in japan and your worried about a Vl station wagon....please just buy a evo 9 mr or something rare and bring it back as a personal import lol.

Thanks for the comments but....

First of all I have owned a Mitsubishi engined car and my father has owned 2 Pajeros and I never want anything to do with them again however cool they look or their specs are.

Secondly I have done a fair bit of net research and there is not really anything that fits everything I want - Stagea is too big, older cars are high priced here and worthless in Australia, newer cars are difficult for me to work on.

I love my current VL wagz, I loved that I bought a genuine rare car that was a bit of a mess for $2700 and every week I would work on it and fix something or mod something and during the week I would drive it to work and notice the improvement. Got the back end suspension set up now so it handles like a decent sedan. Parts interchangeability is great genuine 19inch wheels bolt straight on, 20s can be machined to fit and it it makes a difference having Holden made wheels, I have had enough mags on cars to notice the difference, of course you can spend huge amounts on custom set up wheels for the same effect. Later model seats and other interior bits easily made to fit. Massive amounts of info on the net about VLs - you just dont get that with JDM only cars. Bolt in engine conversions for LS motors, the list goes on.I dont expect anyone else to like them as much as I do because its for personal reasons that they suit me perfectly - if there was a car in Japan that was as perfectly fitting for me as that then I would get it.

EVO wagons have to be one my favourite looking proper wagons (not 4 door hatchbacks).

It wasn't just my old mans Pajero that stuffed up either. I had a....well its a bit embarrassing to say .... but a 1990/1991 Hyundai Excel (I was at uni and I was living off Austudy). They are a Mitsubishi engine. It was blowing smoke when I bought it. After a few months it sheared the belt pulley off the crank (I had never even heard of cars doing that before....then the same thing happened to my Dads Pajero). Then mine eventually blew a head gasket... among a myriad of other smaller problems. All this and it had less than half the kilometers of the VL which I doubt has ever had the head off the engine. I have heard storeies of people pulling the heads off RB30s after 300000 plus kms and you can still see the honing on the bores. Awesome engines.

I realise my experiences are probably just a few random cases but I would never risk it again. There is no denying EVOs are fantastic I just dont want to own one. Thanks for the luck and replies :thanks:

I know that the VL Calais Wagon was brought out in '88 - but did they ever make a VL Director in a wagon?

Not that I know of, there was a HDT VL wagon built that had a stroked V8, only one ever made. It changed owners a few years ago for a ridiculously low price. Considering that SS group As go for over a 100k in good condition and that Aussie muscle cars are always increasing in value someone definitely made a killing on that one.

For the record HDT made Calais Wagons prior to 88. Holden shipped all the parts to them including a Berlina. They arent proper Holden Calais though and usually dont have a HDT build plate either. Still I wouldnt say no to one :)

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