European vs American Jap Imports

MetzgerMeister

While watching the first fast and the furious, I got thinking. How come in Europe (Ireland and the UK at least) a Jap import is right hand drive since this is how they drive in Japan, but in the US it's left hand drive???

Just curious!

djimi

Theyre not. Most of the Jap imports in the fast and the furious are RHD. The one that springs to mind immediately is Paul Walkers Skyline in FATF2.

Wibbs

Because very very few Japanese domestic market cars are legally imported into the US. Getting proper title on such cars is very very difficult. If theyre not on the list of approved already imported into the US cars, then it's an uphill struggle. There was the time Bill Gates wanted to bring in some flash car or other, but because it wasn't on the list he had to buy two and pay for the type approval and crash tests on one of them.

So your fast and furious JDM cars are nearly always US base models tricked up with JDM and aftermarket parts. There are US dealers who make good money importing written off and even fully intact JDM models and then break them for spares to sell said spares to kit out US domestic models. The USDMs usually get cut price versions of the original JDM cars. Way worse than here. EG the DC2 USDM type r, has no recaros,no mom steering wheel, less powerful engine, no titanium gearknob, cheaper wheels and a lower level of trim in general. So theres a market for that stuff(and major car theft for the stuff too). They even sell whole front end conversions, for cars like integras where the US got the different nose. Some guys even go so far as to convert them to right hand drive to show off their JDM goodness. Guys on US forums are shocked and jealous that we can import such cars so easily. I saw a DC5 integra type R that a guy had managed to work a loophole since closed to bring in an actual JDM car and he was selling it for 40,000 dollars.

blastman

Because the Japanese make left- and right-hand drive cars according to the market they're destined for, and Americans only import models intended for their market?

MetzgerMeister

Is Vin Diesel's RX7 not left hand drive??

I would hereby like to make it clear that I'm not into the F&F scene and don't drive a modified car

MetzgerMeister

blastman wrote: »

Because the Japanese make left- and right-hand drive cars according to the market they're destined for, and Americans only import models intended for their market?

What I'm basically asking here is if the term "import" differs here from the US i.e. a JDM import here means one that was destined for the JDM market whereas there it could mean just a JDM car that was destined for the US market or JDM market.

Wibbs

Yep and to protect their domestic industry. They can only import US type approved vehicles provided by the manufacturers so that narrows the field.

IIRC US military chaps and chappesses could bring home cars they bought stationed overseas and there's a fair few in Japan, but that loophole was closed or tightened up too. There are US companies that sell exclusively to US forces overseas, but they're US made cars(or US companies anyway).

Wibbs

einheisserschre wrote: »

What I'm basically asking here is if the term "import" differs here from the US i.e. a JDM import here means one that was destined for the JDM market whereas there it could mean just a JDM car that was destined for the US market or JDM market.

To all intents and puporses private importing of JDM specific market cars is not possible. Japanese companies do export local to the US versions and I suppose an individual American could source one of those USDM models him or herself, but kinda pointless and expensive. So no they can't bring in JDM specific models. Its much much tighter than here.

MetzgerMeister

Wibbs wrote: »

To all intents and puporses private importing of JDM specific market cars is not possible. Japanese companies do export local to the US versions and I suppose an individual American could source one of those USDM models him or herself, but kinda pointless and expensive. So no they can't bring in JDM specific models. Its much much tighter than here.

Exactly what I wanted to know

You may now close the thread

djimi

Basically the difference is that Paul Walkers Skyline was a JDM Skyline, designed to be driven in Japan and imported at a later date (like the Jap imports over here), whereas Vin Diesels RX7 and the likes of Devon Aokis S2000 are most likely cars which were initially imported to the US, ie never driven in or intended for Japan.

I actually wasnt aware that it was so hard to import a JDM car to the States. I always assumed the reason why they werent so common was because of the LHD/RHD thing.

JimmyCrackCorn

Meet the actual R34 from the fast and the ****e

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3etFKjGiibc

Matt Simis

My god why do you all know so much about such a terrible movie.

djimi

Matt Simis wrote: »

My god why do you all know so much about such a terrible movie.

Guilty pleasure innit

Correction: four terrible movies (soon to be five)

MetzgerMeister

Matt Simis wrote: »

My god why do you all know so much about such a terrible movie.

:eek: I hope you didn't include me in that "you all" :eek:

_Kaiser_

djimi wrote: »

Guilty pleasure innit

Correction: four terrible movies (soon to be five)

There's another one coming out?? :P

Wibbs

djimi wrote: »

I actually wasnt aware that it was so hard to import a JDM car to the States. I always assumed the reason why they werent so common was because of the LHD/RHD thing.

I wasn't myself until a guy on a US petrolhead board, asked my advice on which cars to go for in the Japanese auctions. He was after a EK9 Type R Honda civic. Then he actually enquired with his local car reg crowd and they said no hope oul son. So then he thought get a JDM integra as they were officially imported (albeit as a US specific model badged as an Acura) and again no hope oul son. He enquired all over the place, really researched it and basically it was forget about it. At one point he was joking that maybe cos he was a black bloke they were being prejudiced Though as the majority of people he talked to in the vehicle reg dept were black women he reckoned getting Johnny Cocharan involved in a legal case was a tad premature. :pac:

In the end I did save him a few quid though. He bought an insurance right off integra with front end damage and was going to JDM it up by swapping the entire front end. But the local prices for that stuff can be mad. EG http://www.jdmland.com/ (and they were even pricier at the time). So I pointed him to Jap auctions of rear crash damaged JDM tegs and he imported one. Got it for feck all. Well a couple of grand, nearly 3 landed in California. At the time the local american lads were charging 3 grand just for the front end. For the same money he got the seats and all the other goodies missing on the US version. Sorted. He kept it left hand drive though. We even discussed getting a little biz going on JDM parts as the Yanks were really being ripped off. In his example, import a crashed one for spares, 3 k, the front end sale would cover that, then seats 2 k, engine 2 k+ gearbox another 1, then all the other JDM bits. Came to naught though.

As an aside and speaking of crash damage on imports. I was keeping my eye on the Jap auctions and noting various cars going through with a view to buying. Well a fair few crash damaged ones going for a song in Japan, were ending up on forecourts in Dublin(who shall remain nameless) as category 3/4 IE very good condition.

One in particular the front and passenger side was very badly hit. In Japan it went for around 2k, compared at the time for an actual grade 3 or 4 which would have gone for 6, 7 or near 8 k. Yet the crooks were selling it for a premium here. The front strut brace was missing, no doubt because it wouldnt have lined up(dangerous) and a clear respray was in evidence. In all the times back then(4 years ago) I looked at imports here, not once did I see a jap auction report. Well one, but it was a bad fake. The usual BS excuse was that they never saw or got them. Yea right. :rolleyes: Of course they didnt want people seeing them, never mind damage, but I reckon at the time at least half of the cars I saw the mileage was wound back. And that's being very generous. The crashed one? In Japan it had 90 odd thousand KMs on it. By the time it got to Ireland it was repaired and magically lost 50,000 Km's. I'd even go so far as to say if you have a Jap import from 2 or 3 years ago and you never saw the auction sheet, then chances are very high its been clocked. I reported the garage over that badly damaged and repaired one as a danger, never mind fraud on the mileage. Doubt anything happened of course. It was still on sale a few weeks later. That's the reason I imported privately.

2 Espressi

RE: FATF5

Yup, they're filming in Rio at the moment. I only know this because jalopnik posted pics of the 2011 Dodge Charger in cop spec, which features in the movie!
http://jalopnik.com/5619734/2011-dodge-charger-shows-off-new-taillight