Is my jeep a Japanese import?

jugovic

Hi all,

I need to replace a window in my wife's '99 Rav 4 GX Jeep. She bought the jeep from a dealer in Ireland who had imported it from the UK. I have the previous UK registration number for the jeep. I have the vehicle registration certificate but no log book.

How can I find out of the vehicle was originally a jap import? Or was it just imported from the UK? There is impotant because it depends on the type of glass that needs to be ordered. The details around the engine are in english (there is a mention of 'European Toyota details' on the engine chassis plate) which makes me believe it wasn't a Jap import originally - but I'd like to be sure.

Thanks for all the help in advance.

congo_90

speedo in km/h or a square rear reg plate.
two easy ways. thay and there should be some japanese mumbu jumbo on it. around the engine

zilog_jones

GX is a European trim level, Japanese RAV4 trim levels are L and J.
If it's Japanese:
- The speedometer and odometer will be in kilometres, and will be limited to 180km/h (dunno if they could go that fast anyway)
- The rear number plate holder will not be designed to hold full size European plates (see this: http://english.auto.vl.ru/catalog_photos/toyota/rav4/toyota_rav4_3271.jpg)
- It probably won't have a factory-fitted immobiliser
- If it has the original stereo, the FM frequencies will go from 76 to 90 MHz

colm_mcm

What he said ^


I'm guessing you have a UK spec one.

JHMEG

zilog_jones wrote: »

- The speedometer and odometer will be in kilometres, and will be limited to 180km/h (dunno if they could go that fast anyway)
- The rear number plate holder will not be designed to hold full size European plates (see this: http://english.auto.vl.ru/catalog_photos/toyota/rav4/toyota_rav4_3271.jpg)
- It probably won't have a factory-fitted immobiliser
- If it has the original stereo, the FM frequencies will go from 76 to 90 MHz

While ^ is generally correct, there are a few exceptions:
- Cars imported into the UK cars will quite often have a mph speedo fitted
- "Square" number plates are fitted to a number of vehicles on sale here anyway
- Hard to tell if there is an immobiliser
- Quite often original stereo has been replaced

In this case the rear of the JDM Rav4 is slightly different, and indeed the number plate is different.

A more definitive way to tell is the language on the fuse box covers. While the covers can be changed chances are they haven't been.

zilog_jones

I was being specific to the Rav4 WRT the number plate holder there.
Usually there's some form of light sequence for the immobiliser when turning on the ignition, but I don't know what it's like with Toyotas. Forgot to mention the speedo thing for UK imports - is it an MOT requirement for them to be in MPH or something?

Other more obvious things are Shaken (their NCT) and road tax stickers: http://www.tigerdude.com/japan/license/stickers.html
And also parking permit stickers (usually on the rear windscreen): http://www.btinternet.com/~netsurf/mr2t/images/small_rear_window_sticker.jpg (note: people actually buy these online to make their cars look more "JDM", how mad is that?)

For any ECE approved item, e.g. lights and glass, you can determine the country of approval from the ECE country code (an "E" followed by a number in a circle, list here) - this can be useful when the European version of the car is built locally as they are not likely to import windows all the way from Japan.

murphym7

Can you not just punch the number plate into this? http://www.mywheels.ie/Homepage.aspx

colm_mcm

the OP already knows it was imported from the UK. whether it was imported to the UK from Japan before that was the question.

murphym7

colm_mcm wrote: »

the OP already knows it was imported from the UK. whether it was imported to the UK from Japan before that was the question.

Sorry, I misread!

niceirishfella

OP , Give the chassis no to your local toyota dealer and ask for them to lash it into their computer - they'll tell you sharpish.

alo1587

If chassis number begins with JT1,its eeuropean,not jap.