Importing yourself.

keefalmighty

Just curious if anyone here has imported a Jap car themselves rather than going through a dealer/agent etc - I've been looking around at some Jap sites and I am seeing some pretty good deals even taking the VRT into consideration. However throwing another 10-15% or whatever dealers charge can be a big difference.

Anyone any thoughts on this?

blastman

Can you speak Japanese? Otherwise I'd say you're going to need the help of someone who does.

keefalmighty

Yeah, because I'm sure every importer/dealer in the country is fluent in their Japanese.

Duff

keefalmighty wrote: »

Yeah, because I'm sure every importer/dealer in the country is fluent in their Japanese.

No, but they have contacts in Japan that are.;)

blastman

Not really thought this through, have you?

projectgtr

ive done it, its a piece of piss
If you have bought something on ebay you can do this, and as for speaking japanese thats rubblish lads.

If you have any questions ask away

blastman

You've done it without the involvement of a dealer or an agent in Japan? If you didn't buy from Yahoo Auctions in Japan (or a similar site), how did you do it?

projectgtr

i bought from www.ibcjapan.co.jp everyone i spoke to spoke perfect english, i supose you could call them dealers, but they are a large company who come very highly recomended. but in fairness blastman i doubt the op is going to travel over and buy himself

blastman

Yeah, I know, the point was that you aren't going to be able to import "yourself" without someone acting on your behalf (be they based in Ireland or Japan) unless you speak Japanese (and possibly have a licence to bid in Japanese car auctions!). Just being facetious!

projectgtr

no bother, I get you

Anyway OP fire away if you have any questions.

keefalmighty

projectgtr wrote: »

no bother, I get you

Anyway OP fire away if you have any questions.

Fair play Project, thanks for the constructive replies!
I think some people make it out to be a much bigger deal than it is.
Sure, you have to know what you're doing of course.

Oh and Blastman: considering you know all about this. How many cars have you imported from Japan? A rough figure will do sure.

gniie

projectgtr wrote: »

i bought from www.ibcjapan.co.jp everyone i spoke to spoke perfect english, i supose you could call them dealers, but they are a large company who come very highly recomended. but in fairness blastman i doubt the op is going to travel over and buy himself

I posted my experience with IBC Japan on few ocassions and is nothing to recomend about it. They are surely smilie (:p)when they tell you to EF OFF! they've sent me a faulty car and they are appologising verry nicely about it and they really hope I will do bussiness with them in the future.....
If you are lucky (like most people) to get a good car delivered they build a good reputation but when it comes to sort a claim IBC Japan is never responsible......
Is anybody out there that got a claim sorted in theyr favour?? please let me know!!!!!!

blastman

keefalmighty wrote: »

Oh and Blastman: considering you know all about this. How many cars have you imported from Japan? A rough figure will do sure.

Roughly, one. A Japanese friend in England organised the Japanese end for me and I dealt with the shipping company and customs clearance myself this end. That's probably as close as you can get to importing "yourself" without speaking Japanese.

Hanson

I was going to import a Vtec Civic, until I heard that new laws about age-engine size restrictions are coming in. I did it on www.tradecarview.com. It's basically like www.carzone.ie, except obviously japanese.

I kept contact with the garage (BeFoward or something like that) through e-mail and he rang me a few times aswell. You dont need to speak Japanese, and it is very easy. The only problem is that the ships that import the cars into the docks may only run from japan once or twuce a month, so u could be waiting a while! But still, I say go 4 it, its much cheaper and if u are to get a Civic, it's VTEC will be Jap mapped!

blastman

Can I just explain once again that if you intend to import a car from Japan YOURSELF (that is the important word here and the one used in the OP), then you will need to speak Japanese. If however, you go through a third party as is the case for most people, then the chances are they will speak English to you.

This is to save everyone who mentions/recommends a garage or import specialist mentioning that you don't in fact need to speak Japanese.

Hanson

blastman wrote: »

Can I just explain once again that if you intend to import a car from Japan YOURSELF (that is the important word here and the one used in the OP), then you will need to speak Japanese. If however, you go through a third party as is the case for most people, then the chances are they will speak English to you.

This is to save everyone who mentions/recommends a garage or import specialist mentioning that you don't in fact need to speak Japanese.

Ok, I dont think u are getting this. I MYSELF kept in contact with the JAPANESE GARAGE that owns the car. I MYSELF spoke English to this Japanese man who was selling the car to me. He wasnt a third party or broker, he was a genuine car salesman. I went straight to the source instead of using third parties, and to be honest, you would be surprised to see how many Japanese people speak English

projectgtr

Sorry to thread jack but.......
hanson what civic did you get? Are you going to get it remapped? and if so why?

blastman

Hanson wrote: »

Ok, I dont think u are getting this. I MYSELF kept in contact with the JAPANESE GARAGE that owns the car. I MYSELF spoke English to this Japanese man who was selling the car to me. He wasnt a third party or broker, he was a genuine car salesman. I went straight to the source instead of using third parties, and to be honest, you would be surprised to see how many Japanese people speak English

I don't think some people appreciate the meaning of the word "yourself", but I'd rather not keep the debate going. My post wasn't aimed at you specifically, by the way.

That crowd you were dealing with, did they put the car on the boat and all for you? Did you import it in the end?

Hanson

Oh rite sorry man, I thought it was meant as a sly dig!

They had it on the boat, but I called it off at the last minute, because I heard that new engine restriction laws were coming into Ireland.

Everything was very easy though and it is as simple as it seems, the only thing you really need is patience!

Hanson

projectgtr wrote: »

Sorry to thread jack but.......
hanson what civic did you get? Are you going to get it remapped? and if so why?

Sorry to double post, but i didnt see this post til the last second!

I was going to get a SOHC VTEC Civic. (Single-Overhead-Camshaft)

This is just the name of the VTEC. No, i wouldnt have got it remapped, simply because it is a Jap Import. See what happens is, when a garage in Ireland sells a Civic to any customer, it has to be fully serviced to Irish standards before being sold, so the VTEC in the car is being mapped by Irish mechanics, which is basically tuning it down to a slower spec.

When somebody says they are going to get their VTEC (or MIVEC in the case of Mitsubishi Colts) re-mapped, they mean that they want it to be brought back to it's original Japanese standard. For example, if two identical SOHC VTEC Civics raced each other, the only difference being that one of them has been remapped, the remapped Civic would win by miles, because the VTEC kicks in at lower revs for a longer time, allowing you to leave the car at its limit for longer without affecting the engine.

monster1

Hanson wrote: »

Sorry to double post, but i didnt see this post til the last second!

I was going to get a SOHC VTEC Civic. (Single-Overhead-Camshaft)

This is just the name of the VTEC. No, i wouldnt have got it remapped, simply because it is a Jap Import. See what happens is, when a garage in Ireland sells a Civic to any customer, it has to be fully serviced to Irish standards before being sold, so the VTEC in the car is being mapped by Irish mechanics, which is basically tuning it down to a slower spec.

When somebody says they are going to get their VTEC (or MIVEC in the case of Mitsubishi Colts) re-mapped, they mean that they want it to be brought back to it's original Japanese standard. For example, if two identical SOHC VTEC Civics raced each other, the only difference being that one of them has been remapped, the remapped Civic would win by miles, because the VTEC kicks in at lower revs for a longer time, allowing you to leave the car at its limit for longer without affecting the engine.

i thought it was the fact that the jap car is mapped for jap fuel, timming advanced etc so it can extract more power, and when it comes over to ireland it has to be remapped because irish fuel is lower RON and it would be det'n and damage the engine,so the only reason it has to be mapped when it comes over is so its suitable for irish fuel and not blow the engine, nothing to do with v-tec

colm_mcm

Hanson wrote: »

Oh rite sorry man, I thought it was meant as a sly dig!

They had it on the boat, but I called it off at the last minute, because I heard that new engine restriction laws were coming into Ireland.

Everything was very easy though and it is as simple as it seems, the only thing you really need is patience!

Only cars registered after July get done for the big road tax. Did you not lose money you paid upfront to the broker?

Hanson wrote: »

when a garage in Ireland sells a Civic to any customer, it has to be fully serviced to Irish standards before being sold, so the VTEC in the car is being mapped by Irish mechanics, which is basically tuning it down to a slower spec.

Where did you hear that? The ECU will self adjust to run on lower octane fuel.

S.I.R

the ecu should re-set but 9/10 times it wont cause its after-market , " all japanese cars are limited to 296 hp max stock "

just add acidtane if you get this problem and you wont have to worry about low octane fuel.

colm_mcm

....or buy the Maxol fuel with 5% bioethanol

projectgtr

Hanson

Please dont take this as a "sly dig" but get yourself over to dtdirl.com or jdmuniverse.com i think you have been given alot of miss-advice when it comes to cars and if you want to learn more especially about civics try these sites out.Also howstuffworks.com can be a great visual aid.

bazzerboy

Wringelish

keefalmighty

Thanks to everyone for their posts. Certainly helps when someone has been through the same thing. Thankfully none of us have anything to worry about VRT wise until July at least so we all have a nice deadline there.

Been looking into this more and even contacted a few dealers/importers who I have found to be quite reasonable based on initial talks. Of course what they say they can do and what they actually do are two very different things so we'll see what happens there.

Given the fairly stark difference in prices even when you add the VRT on once you get it here, I'm surprised more people don't go for the Jap option.

I guess the effort and worry are high considerations too.

Happyman1

Hi Keefalmighty

Have you been on to Japan auto directs site www.japanautodirect.com I bought my car off them recently and they were very helpful. They even have a staff from Ireland called Steven who helped me with the whole process of getting the car into Ireland at a very cheap price. They had a lot of cars in stock but I bought direct from auction. Hope you can find your dream car

EoinyW

I imported a RX-7 in october and dealt with the garage in japan directly. Sent the money for the car to him & Paid a company called avant shipping in Santry, Dublin 75Euro to take the car off the boat and keep it in a secure warehouse until i collected it.
I sent them the money for the VAT & Duty and they sorted all that out so all i had to do was sort out the VRT & plates.
I'm also in the process of bringing in 2 more cars the same way. You will have to wait a while for the ship but it is very easy and you save a lot of money than if you buy the car here,

Any Q's give me a shout

thesoulfulldude

projectgtr wrote: »

i bought from www.ibcjapan.co.jp everyone i spoke to spoke perfect english, i supose you could call them dealers, but they are a large company who come very highly recomended. but in fairness blastman i doubt the op is going to travel over and buy himself

This looks really good, i want to get a nissan silvia and there's loads on here, good prices too, has anybody else bought from here? how much does it cost to import, register and tax? and how long does it take to import

spooney

I too am looking into importing a car from Japan..

For those of you who have bought a car from Japan can you list all the added cost so we can get an idea of how much it will cost in total

i.e.

Cost of car €xxxx
Import cost breakdown €xxxx
VRT €xxxx
Other Taxes €xxxx
Other Costs €xxxx
etc...


Thanks Guys!!

2 Espressi

here's a quick break down for one I was considering recently

Car is here http://www.japan-partner.com/Auto/4867/Fiat/Coupe/car-for-sale.html

C&F Price: (incl shipping to Dublin) €2,704
Customs & Excise @ 30% of retail : €638.4
Clearance agent: €130
Docks handling fees: €110
VRT @ 30% of OMSP (€1359): €407

---

Total: €3989.4

Note that you would also need to have a complete service done on the car once you get it, including timing belts etc, as these cars have no service history.