Japanese Importing

jimbo19162

Hi lads this has probably been done a million times but im new here and havent figured it out 100 % yet anyway if any one knows a link to a thread or that that has the info or a guide to importing from japan from the likes of ibc or that i read the one thats up about the uk importing and it was excellent so hopefully there is a similar one for japan

minxie

jimbo19162 wrote: »

Hi lads this has probably been done a million times but im new here and havent figured it out 100 % yet anyway if any one knows a link to a thread or that that has the info or a guide to importing from japan from the likes of ibc or that i read the one thats up about the uk importing and it was excellent so hopefully there is a similar one for japan

http://www.epoi.com/
friend of mine getting his in this week....

bikki

I imported mine myself from www.ibcjapan.co.jp Just make sure u calculate your VRT correctly so you don't get any nasty surprises in the tax office.

Graham_B18C

minxie1 wrote: »

http://www.epoi.com/
friend of mine getting his in this week....

What did they get and was the vrt high? Just curious because i wouldn't mind importing somethin myself for my next car

drver1

its prob a lot cheaper and hassle free to buy your car here. importing from japan was a lot cheaper, when you could sell cars here.

unless you are importing something rare?

minxie

Grahamo999 wrote: »

What did they get and was the vrt high? Just curious because i wouldn't mind importing somethin myself for my next car

03 mazda rx8....
paid €8,500, not sure what vrt he paid tho...
i could be wrong but aint that all calculated in the final price???.....

stek

this is an interesting method of buying a car. Ive checked the websites, was wondering how long it would take to arrive if ordered? presume about 2 months? thanks for help

drver1

it takes 6 to 8 weeks,

Remember when importing

car cost €2500
+shipping €700
+port fees €300
Total €3200
+10% duty €320
€3520
+21%vat €704
€4226
Then vrt €1500
Total €5624

Not based on any particular car just gives you an idea of what you have to pay, they may seem cheap in japan, but you can more than double the asking price in some cases, then you have to get it nct'd, serviced, and it might need some tyres aswell

JimmyCrackCorn!

drver1 wrote: »

its prob a lot cheaper and hassle free to buy your car here. importing from japan was a lot cheaper, when you could sell cars here.

unless you are importing something rare?

+1 Bargins out there everywhere now. Bargins everywhere. Much cheaper than you can import them for.

As a big Plus you dont have all the gambling of will my gauges go missing. Will it be scratched in transit. Will The engineers report match the car. Will the engine be ok....... Will the fooker start on the docs. Am i willing to pay an importer a premium to take the risk instead of me..................

Only worth an import if your looking for something that is seriously nutty modified. Even then id look at pistonheads in the UK first and owners clubs have cars for sale sections that have never been busier.


Allot of people bought cars that cant afford to run them(economic ..........) and the market is now flooded with cars.


Arese has fallen out of the market and its a damn good time to buy thirsty cars.:D


In fact iv been beating myself into not buying.

Will say though i have imported a car in the past and can walk you through it if you really want. But you'll just be paying more for no reason.


Can you give us the car Make model condition etc your looking for here and i guarantee we will be able to undercut an import. With something already here or in the UK

5500

Back in may i imported a 2003 Honda Accord EuroR,one thing i couldnt find was much information on importing,only the basics outlined so it was all new to me.

I imported via ibc www.ibcjapan.co.jp
On there site your given two options,you can purhcase car's that are already instock or you can bid on vehicles via idirect auctions.For my import i used the auction system.

One thing to note which i wasnt aware of at the time was that you can have a Euro account or Yen account.I chose Euro at the time but aparently i would have been better with Yen at the because of exchange rates.

It's free to join up and i had been a member for a good few months before hand,i specifically knew i wanted a 02/03 EuroR so i had been watching the prices of them and what car's were passing thru auction for about 2 months prior to my purchase.

Although the site is free to join up to and view car's,before you can bid you need to pay a bidding deposit which was €750 or 100,000 Yen via credit card or bank transfare.The deposit is refundable or you can also use it as part payment towards your vehicle or leave it in your account for future bids.

I used bank of ireland to do the transfare,you simply go down and fill in an InterPay Non Eu payment form,it cost me €15 and then money was lodged from my account with Ibc within 3 working days.Ibc will ask you to email them the reciept of the transaction and then there accounts department will contact you once the money is with them.

Once the money is lodged with on your account,you are now free to bid on whatever you wish.

When you log into idirect you enter the make/model or chassis prefix of the car you looking for and then it run's a search and comes back with the compiled list of car's coming up for the next few days at auction as below.

It also gives details or Grade,mileage,transmission and a guideprice to the far right.



You then select the car you wish to view and it expands with a pair of pictures of the car and the auction sheet.



Every car is set with both an exterior and interior Grade,the exterior goes from 0 - crashed or modified to 5 - being practically brand new.

The interior grades are A to C,A being spotless C being possibly dirty with tears or smoke burns ect.

To the right side there's pointers to what different symbols mean,eg A1 small scratch,XX replaced panel and so on,but what i liked about ibc is that there was always someone available 24/7 to give a report on the auction sheet.

When you click the live chat icon a window pops up and all you do is give the agent the car's auction code and ask them for a translation of the sheet.I found on some car's there was additional damage or extra's that i didnt understand looking at the sheet but the agent informed me of them once they checked it.

Dont be afraid to ask any specific questions,there english is spot on and i never had any communication problems with them.

I was lucky enough at the time that there were a good few accords passing thru auction so there were plenty to bid on.The guide price that's given can also be abit vague,sometime's the car's will sell for alot more than the price thats shown,it was rare from when i was studying them for a car to sell for under the guide prices.

When you find the car you think your interested in you enter your bid into the price box on the right hand side.What i liked with ibc was that your bid was CIF (Cost,insurance,freight) so the bid price was the final price you would be paying with no additional costs.Although the agents reserve the right to go €150 above the max CIF price you enter so be sure to factor this into your CIF price if your on a tight budget.

When you place the bid there's a purchasing notes box to the left,if your bidding on multiple cars on auction the same day but only intend on buying one make sure you enter "one purchase only" in the box.

You can also add specifics that you want checked before purchase,eg "no rust,tears in interior cloth,chips to windscreen ect" Once you do this when the car is checked for you before auction if anything is found that you listed they wont bid on the car for you.

Each day after you place a bid you get an email update to tell you if your bid was successfull or not.I had bid on 8 car's previously before i won the one i wanted.At the time the guide price CIF was €8900 for the car i won,and at auction i ended up paying €10,000.

It was 2003,Exterior Grade:4.5,Interior Grade:A,60,000Km's with 1 owner from new and a full service history included.

Once your bid is successful,you get an email to inform you of a pending checklist,and then normally within 24 hour's you recieve the surveyor's report on the car.It's basically a large checklist and a good few pictures of the car,specifying points of interest or any damage that may have been on the auction sheet.

You can ask for additional pictures if your unsure of something,or if you notice damage that wasnt mentioned on the auction sheet you can decline the car and it is sent back to auction.If you are happy enough with everything at this point you then arrange to forward 50% of the CIF price of the car.

In my case i decided to use the bidding deposit so i did a bank transfare for €4250 which again cost me €15 with Bank of ireland.Once my money was recieved in Japan,again within 3 days,my car was booked onto the next available ship.

I was lucky that there was a ship due to leave the following week and i got a booking on it,normally they said a ship leave's every 3 weeks so if i had missed that one it would have been a further months wait.

When the car is booked onto the ship you then recieve a mail with the vessel details,date of departure and estimeted date of arrival in dublin,the estimated arrival date was 4 weeks from the time of departure for me.

As soon as the ship departed i recieved another email requesting the balance to be paid in order to recieve all the dereg documents for the car.Again BOI transfare €15 for €5000.

Once this was recieved by IBC they dispatched the car's documents to me via DHL and i had them within two days,so within a week of the car leaving Japan i had all my documents needed to clear the car here,which include an invoice,bill of lading,and export certs.

It's possible to do the customs paperwork ect yourself but i decided to leave it to MCC Customs brokers in store street - http://www.mccbrokers.com/
There's other agents you can use but i always heard good reports about MCC and that they made sure your car was locked whilst on the docks where some other car's were left open and viable to theft of parts ect.

All i had to do was scan and email them a copy of a bill of lading,invoice,and translated dereg cert.Within a day they came back to me with figures,i needed to pay 10% customs and 21% vat which came to €3310,you can send them a bank draft or cheque made payable to customs & excise or revenue commissioners for this.

You also need to forward them a cheque or draft for €108 to MCI Ireland for unloading the car from the ship for you and €120 to MCC for there service.

You will also need to forward them the original's of the export certs,bill of lading and invoice,there's 3 copies of the bill of lading and you keep one for yourself so you can actually get into the port to retrieve the car.

MCC gave me a call about a week before the ship was due to land to keep me updated and said they would then ring again once the car was cleared and ready to be collected the following week.When your collecting the car your then given a form to take to the vrt office to give to them.

I arranged for a friend to pick the car up for me with a flatbed and it cost me €75 to get it delivered and then onto the vrt office.I've heard of lad's chancing there arm and driving home without the reg on but i wouldnt risk it.

First impressions of the car were spot on,it was exactly as par the pictures and literally like a brand new car.The full service history folder was there along with all manuals and spare master key,the only thing that went missing was the gear knob which was there when it left japan!

The Vrt at time of clearance was €4262 which has to be via cheque or bankdraft,so all in costs were as follows

Bank transfares - €45
Cost of car - €10000
Customs and Vat - €3310
Towing - €75
Broker fee - €120
Unloading fee - €108
Vrt - €4262
Reg plates - €20
Oil change + plugs - €120
Nct - €48
3 months tax - €166

So €18275 all in on the road,the exact same year circa same grade and mileage were selling from dealers for between €22500 and €23500 here so i made a miniumum saving of €4225.All in all it took just about 7 weeks from actually starting to bid on car's to getting it to my doorstep.

Im delighted with the car although i've been looking out for an evo8 at auction the past month or so.I dont think i would actually buy a car here again unless it was for a bargain price considering the condition my own was in when it got here,it was like a brand new car.

One thing to watch at the moment for anybody considering importing is the price of the Yen,in the past few month's its gained significatnly against the euro,as you can see from the auction price the same car to buy today would cost about an extra 2k.

Im sure i've left some stuff out that i've forgotten but if you have any questions fire them up and i'll help you if i can.

Blitzkrieger

drver1 wrote: »

then you have to get it nct'd

I thought the NCT was due on the anniversary of first registration in the country of origin? So if you happened to buy a Nov '02 car in December the NCT wouldn't be due until November.


Slightly off-topic : I'm planning on selling my car (must get around to advertising it :rolleyes: ) and was thinking of buying a replacement from England. Am I right in thinking that once a Jap import has been registered in England for six months, I don't have to pay VAT when I bring it over? VAT rate is lower in England and the cars are even cheaper than they are here....