Market of Japanese imports...

adigilani

Hi

It might be a silly question but what way is the market for Japanese import cars...?

I am kinda hoping to get into the game but uncertain now because of the prices now on the cars....

What is more profit able, bring in more than 10 years old cars or less than 10 years old.

Any advice.....?

I am living in County Galway, so the registration number will of galway or of dublin.

Also i am uncertain about the NCT. When the car is in ireland and all the taxes and VRT is paid then the way i know, i have to bring the car to do NCT but there is a long list for the NCT so what will happen. can i bring the car to do the nct in galway.

beachlife

you want to sell Japanese imports?

adigilani

well that is what i was hoping for....
any word of advice...?

beachlife

you will have to get you premises and then apply for a tan number(traders authorization number)once you have that you can then hold the cars without regs until they are sold.when you sell the car you get it reg'd to the new owner and pay the vrt BEFORE it can leave the site(showroom)The car will have the reg of whoever buy's it(i.e if a man from mayo buy's it it will be mo reg etc..)
all you can book it in for the nct for them and once they have a booking letter it will be okay until the test comes

Tipsy Mac

Not worth your while getting into, the VRT based on emissions has made it not worthwhile when you factor in all the shipping and the fact you could possibly get a lemon.

adigilani

thank for the information. one question about the premises... might sound dumb but just to get information...

i am going to start doing it on a very small scale. perhaps no more than 3 cars initally. My question is about the premises... do i need to have a full scale garage or can i do it from my house parking space....

and where would i go to apply for the traders authorization number... what is the procedure involved...

I was kinda hoping to get the cars down and register them on my name and then sell as private owner... in terms of tax implications, i came across different posts stating, one can import up to 3 cars per year and don't have to pay sales tax... what would you advice for that...

beachlife

what sales tax?? you only pay tax on profit's.You won't get a tan number because you are not a car trader! to be one the revenue will want to see that you are a trading garage and your tax is up to date. as for selling these cars if you register 3 or 4 cars a year in your name I'm not sure how that will work out?
Sounds like you just want to buy and sell a few cars without having to give a warranty etc... if thats the case why not go to every liquidation auction you find a buy there and then enter them back in to the regular auction

adigilani

to be telling you the truth. i wanna raise bit of cash doing what i wanna do before getting into a proper garage game. i have one of my friends living in japan who deals in exporting cars, so i am able to get very good prices including shippment of the cars. e.g for a nissan march 03 reg with 50k km auto i am paying including shipping to dublin port only about 2k euros and the osmp (according to revenue site) here is about 4k and the carzone.ie says the car is worth about 4500 so my calculation says that it still saves me money ...
The things i am confuse about are the NCT, the reg number etc...

Anan1

adigilani wrote: »

e.g for a nissan march 03 reg with 50k km auto i am paying including shipping to dublin port only about 2k euros and the osmp (according to revenue site) here is about 4k and the carzone.ie says the car is worth about 4500 so my calculation says that it still saves me money ...

Have you included import taxes in your calculations? Also, carzone prices are asking prices, that's all.

adigilani

yes, my calculation says the car would cost me rougly 3500 with VRT, Import TAX on car cost+shipment, NCT and Road Tax... and i was hoping that i would sell the car for 4k to 4250....

JHMEG

It's been discussed here before. The market here is dead, and CO2-based tax does not favour Japanese cars. Check out the S2000, a case in point.

Other people who have done it have said that one lemon can wipe out the profit margin on the previous 5 cars.

You're in Galway. Try opening a B&B or buy some vending machines and put them in chippers. Forget Jap imports.

adigilani

--->>> JHMEG ----
thanks for your honest opinion and a friendly advice...
i will keep that in mind....

i really appreciated everyone's replies... specially beachlife....

I think you would be better off not doing this, the calculations you have done and the prices you are hoping to sell for show that there is little profit in it best case scenario, you have factored in nothing for servicing the cars or any repairs or replacements needed after shipping them in. Selling 2nd hand cars is a business where you need to be on the ball in the current climate.

adigilani

RoverJames... thanks for your reply.
I am taking everything in account and being honest with all of you reading this post...
I was anticipating a profit margin of 500euro...
and the very honest calculation says that it is achieveble....
about the damages and any extra charge, i have taken that in consideration as well and a close friend of mine is prepare to help me out with that... he is a mechanic by trade...
anyway, thanks all of you for you best advices and information...
Please post again if there is something new....

c4cat

adigilani wrote: »

--->>> JHMEG ----
thanks for your honest opinion and a friendly advice...
i will keep that in mind....

i really appreciated everyone's replies... specially beachlife....

I used to live in Japan and was in the used car export game to UK, Ireland and NZ but got out out of it 6 yrs ago. After you pay the cost of freight, Duty and VRT plus the costs at the Japan port side charges its not worth it cos it take 2 months for the car to arrive, In the mean time you could have turned your original capital investment over 5 or 6 times buying cars from Auction in the UK with much less risk even if you do end up with a lemon

Have a look here at the UK retail cost of low milage nissan march
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/results/usedcars/postcode/cr06ad/radius/1501/make/nissan/model/micra/maximum-mileage/up_to_20000_miles/sort/priceasc/maximum-age/up_to_7_years_old?logcode=s

Senna

You'd only make €500-750 on that, hardly worth it. If you go to auctions here or even watch adverts, carzone, donedeal, ebay etc you could make that much on easier to sell and less hassle cars here, i.e reg'd and nct'd.

Have a small stab at it first, find a desent cheap car and see if you can get a €500 profit.

argosy2006

What de hell is a nissan march ?

adigilani

did i mention that the car (nissan march 03 auto 1.2 k12 50k km) is costing me 2k on the dublin port....

i think you guys are right about buying in auction or importing from UK.

However, i am trying to establish the sub office here in ireland of the company in Japan. It is sort of family business up there.

And then while we are on the topic of the profit, www.japcars.ie is in business from long time and still doing it...

argosy2006

you have to pay vat on those jap imports too,,, and you cant put vat on de car then when you sell it,,
you pay vat on anything u buy out side of EU, weather its a car or a tv

adigilani

March is a model nissan introduced in 1998 and it is just like Micra but with bit different specification. I am actually working on the Nissan March and Toyota Vitz. Both of similar age and similar specification and similar mileage.

check out the photos...

argosy2006

Yea but they are not even a model in ireland, i know there de same as a micra or yaris but i think it will lower value of them cause its a March?
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/200952349101195/sort/priceasc/usedcars/make/nissan/model/micra/maximum-age/up_to_7_years_old/postcode/gl52rs/page/1/radius/1501?previous=%2Fsearch%2Fresults%2Fusedcars%2Fpostcode%2Fgl52rs%2Fradius%2F1501%2Fmake%2Fnissan%2Fmodel%2Fmicra%2Fmaximum-age%2Fup_to_7_years_old%2Fsort%2Fpriceasc%2Fpage%2F1&logcode=p check that car out,,,

adigilani

http://www.fto-ireland.com/importguide.html helped me a lot understanding the import work... it also gives you a tools or two to understand and calculate the VAT and import Tax...
with the help of this site's tools and the calculator on revenue site, the calculation says the 2k car would cost me rougly around 3200euros after paying everything...
and if the asking price on carzone.ie is between 4200 and 4999 and i sell the car for 4000 or similar price, it should save me 500 to 700... not a lot but still something...

adigilani

==> argosy
thanks for the reference...

check out this site....
http://www.carzone.ie/search/results?searchsource=finder&nParam=4294909647%2B200286%2B200303&channel=CARS&cacheBuster=1262655927366291

c4cat

adigilani wrote: »

did i mention that the car (nissan march 03 auto 1.2 k12 50k km) is costing me 2k on the dublin port....

i think you guys are right about buying in auction or importing from UK.

However, i am trying to establish the sub office here in ireland of the company in Japan. It is sort of family business up there.

And then while we are on the topic of the profit, www.japcars.ie is in business from long time and still doing it...

From my experience all the costs are as follows

Japanese Handling JPY50,000
Freight JPY120,000

This comes to Euro 1300 add the actual cost of the car in Japan

Then add 10% duty to the total invoice and cost of freight

then add VAT 21% to that total

Then add customs broker fees to that

Then add the transport cost from the port to yr place of business

Then add costs on to get the NCT

The costs just keep adding up its easier to import from the UK

c4cat

adigilani wrote: »

==> argosy
thanks for the reference...

check out this site....
http://www.carzone.ie/search/results?searchsource=finder&nParam=4294909647%2B200286%2B200303&channel=CARS&cacheBuster=1262655927366291

Yep have you known anyone to pay such prices compare them with donedeal.ie

argosy2006

c4cat wrote: »

From my experience all the costs are as follows

Japanese Handling JPY50,000
Freight JPY120,000

This comes to Euro 1300 add the actual cost of the car in Japan

Then add 10% duty to the total invoice and cost of freight

then add VAT 21% to that total

Then add customs broker fees to that

Then add the transport cost from the port to yr place of business

Then add costs on to get the NCT

The costs just keep adding up its easier to import from the UK

plus de vrt ,, did u mention that ,, yep all o f the above is what i went through, all those fees add up to the 500- 700 you were hoping to make on car

argosy2006

i think a person would be better off buying small cars up north,, ones with low miles and full history, and avoid all the shipping and vat and handling fee and broker fees,,
just pay vrt and away u go,

adigilani

==> c4cat
thanks for the guide. but again, the car is costing me 2k on the dublin port, 1700 to be precise. That includes all the charges (of japan till dublin port)
My understand says, that i need to pay VAT on the import TAX and the (car cost + frieght charge)...
Then comes the VRT which i need to pay on the OMSP.... the revunue.ie's vrt calculator states that the VRT is about 700 euros or less for the each car.
80 for the NCT and the road tax should not be more than 175euro per year.
the cost of bring the cars from dublin port to my place is already established with a guy up in dublin. which is 50€.

what you say now...

i do understand the idea of bring the car from UK or buying here in auction

but the topic of this discussion is market of japanese import cars and as all of us know, they have a good market values and not really over rated as well... giving the fact that cars are in very good conditions...

c4cat

argosy2006 wrote: »

i think a person would be better off buying small cars up north,, ones with low miles and full history, and avoid all the shipping and vat and handling fee and broker fees,,
just pay vrt and away u go,

And he would not have to wait for over two months for the car to arrive fm japan, even if you could make say just 200 euro, then one can jump on to a bus go up north and get another car in a matter of hours not months, so selling one a week would net 1600 euros in the time it takes to make 500 to 700 to sell one from Japan

How long do you think you will have them for sale for before they are actually sold ? They could be hanging around for weeks, maybe months. The market for them is quite small too, the Yaris and Micra are not as popular as the Micra of the 90s and the Starlets were years ago. Also I reckon people would be slow to buy a car that is straight in from Japan from a non dealer, no offence intended.

argosy2006

yea,, it will be hard to compete with de big boys who are in this game alreadly though,

adigilani

==> RoverJames
no offense taken. i have opened this thread up to have a fair idea of the game...

==> all others
again, i do no dispute that it is probably better idea to import from uk or to buy from the auction, however as i previously stated, i wanna establish a sub office of the business in japan. It is kinda family business...

The story with the waiting period and the similar or less profit is a truth however the profit margin is there...

c4cat

adigilani wrote: »

==> c4cat
thanks for the guide. but again, the car is costing me 2k on the dublin port, 1700 to be precise. That includes all the charges (of japan till dublin port)
My understand says, that i need to pay VAT on the import TAX and the (car cost + frieght charge)...
Then comes the VRT which i need to pay on the OMSP.... the revunue.ie's vrt calculator states that the VRT is about 700 euros or less for the each car.
80 for the NCT and the road tax should not be more than 175euro per year.
the cost of bring the cars from dublin port to my place is already established with a guy up in dublin. which is 50€.

what you say now...

i do understand the idea of bring the car from UK or buying here in auction

but the topic of this discussion is market of japanese import cars and as all of us know, they have a good market values and not really over rated as well... giving the fact that cars are in very good conditions...

You do what you want, I have given you the benefit of my own experience for free, but just think of how much profit you will be losing while you are waiting for your car to arrive from japan and think of how many cars you could have sold from the UK whilst your car is on the water on the way from Japan

adigilani

==>c4cat
i really really appreciate your help... and not mocking you by saying that...
i am here to gain knowledge and all the replies have helped me making up my mind...
Please do not think that i am wasting time of any of you... just trying draining the knowledge and experiance of all of you... :-)

thank you everyone for your help and replies....

CreepingDeath

adigilani wrote: »

It might be a silly question but what way is the market for Japanese import cars...?

Just one thing from a buyers perspective.
A lot of insurance companies don't like imported cars, most won't give an online quote.

Maybe it's just because I've a 2.0l Toyota Celica, but if your potential buyers are getting stiffed by insurance companies they may steer away from jap imports.

mullingar

@ OP

I looked at some cars on the website, the interior on this looks grubby and you could have fit a gearknob before you posted the pics;);)

Geezer1000

mullingar wrote: »

@ OP

I looked at some cars on the website, the interior on this looks grubby and you could have fit a gearknob before you posted the pics;);)

Seein as the towing eye is sitting in the centre console, Id say it didnt make it under its own power either.

mullingar

Just another comment:

You NEVER get a second chance to make a first impression.

If I was on the market for an Altezza and came across you site, I would look else where for a cleaner looking car as a "picture paints a 1000 words", so to me that picture says that your car may be trouble as it looks neglected (even though it could be 1000% perfect).

However, if it was valeted it would generate an interest, maybe a test drive, maybe a sale.........

lifer_sean

adigilani wrote: »

==> c4cat

the cost of bring the cars from dublin port to my place is already established with a guy up in dublin. which is 50€.

Both NVD and Crosbie's are charging 100+VAT to deliver from Dublin Docks to Limerick, with recovery firms charging double that. The only way I know of getting a car from Dublin to Limerick (similar distance to Galway) for 50 euro is a backhander to a driver to throw it up on a partially filled truck.

Also I can't see you getting over 4000 for a 03 Micra/March. I'd expect to buy a 06 Micra out of Merlin for 4000; maybe not as clean, but Irish and 3 years newer.

You will not survive on 500 euro margin on a deal that goes to plan. 500 less VAT less income tax at the low rate works out at 330. Let's say you bring in 3 of them, but one of them needs a timing chain (for example) two months after you sell it, costing you 500 euro. Then you have 490 euro margin at the end of 3 sales ... there are easier ways to make a bit of cash.

Why do refuse to listen to the advice been given here? If Jap imports were profitable, all the guys that were at it 10 years ago would start at it again, and some newcomers.

biblio

Hi OP,
Take this as an example Around here (North Cork )10-15 years ago there were at least 5 dealers selling jap imports everything from the 1.0 march to the 3.0l supra and all appeared to be doing ok, they were moving a decent volume of cars. At that time the volume seller was the small cars (usually as first cars march, starlet colt etc) and the likes of diesel corollas, coronas etc.

The higher end stuff , Celicas, 20v Corollas, GT/Glanza starlets were selling well too as the local lads into that stuff at the time always wanted to have the newest ,most unusual thing off the boat.

4x4s and people carriers were selling steadily too.

Then there were the oddballs that people who didnt know any better got landed with, 4x4 diesel starlets, colts that had nothing in common with irish cars!

Then with the NCT,owners of the cars were having difficulty getting them through tests after a few years for various reasons, emissions, difficulty obtaining replacement parts, (there were several cases of owners trying to get a replacement windscreen for a car that said it was a nissan sunny but looked like a corolla.When they eventually tracked down the bits.They had to be sent from japan at great expense)
The word was out that there could be potential problems keeping the cars on the road due to availabilty of parts like glass,lamps, and emissions problems.

So instead of a jap micra or starlet for a first or small car people wanted Polos, Corsas etc.
Even more recently sales of the high end GT,Celica,Altezza etc stuff crashed too as those who were buying them have less to spend. Probably due in part to the building slowdown and the general industrial decline locally anyway.

Sales of the bread and butter stuff yaris,micras,corollas etc have all but evaporated.Now there are two guys dealing in imports, one in 4x4s which still seem to be selling and the other in the high end stuff but the cars in his yard have been there for a long time.
Thats just how I see it around here anyway.