Japanese imports, Prius

Pops_20

Is it a recent import, or has it had a previous owner in Ireland?

In general, Japanese imports are in better condition and have better spec than equivalent cars that are sold here, but you still have to be careful to ensure that mileage is genuine and that there is no serious accident history.

If you can get the chassis number (VIN number) of the car you are looking at, you can get an auction history report from carvx.jp. This will give you the records of any times the car was through an auction in japan, and the mileage/condition at the time. You will also get the auctions pictures of the car. It is €29 if I recall correctly.

Duke O Smiley

I sell a few of them, and have very little trouble doing so and so far none have been back with issues or any sort of trouble. Just check that your insurance company will cover Japanese imports, or find a company that will. There are a lot of dealers selling them these days, including a lot of cowboys. How well the cars are “assimilated” varies wildly, and obviously it’s important you get a good one. For example, a rectangular rear plate rather than a square one when the car is registered looks a lot better, the instrument cluster and infotainment screen should be converted to English, and check that the tyres are E marked. Japanese cars don’t come with E marked tyres (to say they are up to EU standard) and you wouldn’t struggle to come across outfits that would put a set of wheels with E marked tyres to get it through a test, and put back on the old wheels and tyres when done...and rinse and repeat many times. By the time the next test comes around you’re stung then for a new set of tyres.

I’d be a bit of skeptical of 60k miles on one to be honest. What year is it?

corner of hells

Duke O Smiley wrote: »

I sell a few of them, and have very little trouble doing so and so far none have been back with issues or any sort of trouble. Just check that your insurance company will cover Japanese imports, or find a company that will. There are a lot of dealers selling them these days, including a lot of cowboys. How well the cars are “assimilated” varies wildly, and obviously it’s important you get a good one. For example, a rectangular rear plate rather than a square one when the car is registered looks a lot better, the instrument cluster and infotainment screen should be converted to English, and check that the tyres are E marked. Japanese cars don’t come with E marked tyres (to say they are up to EU standard) and you wouldn’t struggle to come across outfits that would put a set of wheels with E marked tyres to get it through a test, and put back on the old wheels and tyres when done...and rinse and repeat many times. By the time the next test comes around you’re stung then for a new set of tyres.

I’d be a bit of skeptical of 60k miles on one to be honest. What year is it?

There's a few of them, Prius 2012-2014.

corner of hells

Thanks for the replies.

corks finest

corner of hells wrote: »

Anyone have any experience or knowledge around Japanese imports ?
My wife has set her eye on a Prius Import Hybrid with less than 60k on the clock.
It looks good but I just don't know.
Anyone any opinions suggestions on what I should be looking at ?

I'm on my 3rd no issues whatsoever,( just me looking to change every 2 years) liberty insure me no problems,flew the NCT in blarney last week( Honda insight) auto - great spec what's not to like? And I reckon the Prius is better

Cee-Jay-Cee

corks finest wrote: »

I'm on my 3rd no issues whatsoever,( just me looking to change every 2 years) liberty insure me no problems,flew the NCT in blarney last week( Honda insight) auto - great spec what's not to like? And I reckon the Prius is better

Is the insurance loaded when it’s an import?

scamalert

i dont get this MOB rip off culture from insurance companies- grand if its some evo9, but prius or some low end model, even most of them ask now if its UK import - like wtf is there some double standards, as buying here most times you get bare bones shell, and metal hubs for wheels if not forking out few thousand over extras, which seem norm in most countries and arent taxed trough the roof to make profit.


Since in theory every car in Ireland is import be it by dealer or independent and standards are kept proper doesnt matter if its for UK, Germany or Japan - so extra insurance seems like rip off Ireland.

NBar

scamalert wrote: »

i dont get this MOB rip off culture from insurance companies- grand if its some evo9, but prius or some low end model, even most of them ask now if its UK import - like wtf is there some double standards, as buying here most times you get bare bones shell, and metal hubs for wheels if not forking out few thousand over extras, which seem norm in most countries and arent taxed trough the roof to make profit.


Since in theory every car in Ireland is import be it by dealer or independent and standards are kept proper doesnt matter if its for UK, Germany or Japan - so extra insurance seems like rip off Ireland.

Japanese cars imported don't come with immobilizers fitted as standard and also they look at the parts for repair etc

projectgtr

NBar wrote: »

Japanese cars imported don't come with immobilizers fitted as standard and also they look at the parts for repair etc

Regarding immobilizers i dont think its been like that since the 90s or early 00s, any modern import ive brought in or seen has had one fitted, though i did have to fit one to my 95 Civic SiR which ironically didnt bring down insurance but gave me piece of mind as the are ridiculously easy to steal with a simple screwdriver.

How come there were gazillions of Jap imports in the early 90s in Ireland like white civics and Nissan Marches? Was it exchange rate related or something?

punisher5112

[Deleted User] wrote: »

How come there were gazillions of Jap imports in the early 90s in Ireland like white civics and Nissan Marches? Was it exchange rate related or something?

Cheaper as Japan needs rid for emissions.

Del2005

projectgtr wrote: »

Regarding immobilizers i dont think its been like that since the 90s or early 00s, any modern import ive brought in or seen has had one fitted, though i did have to fit one to my 95 Civic SiR which ironically didnt bring down insurance but gave me piece of mind as the are ridiculously easy to steal with a simple screwdriver.

It doesn't matter if the car has a immobilizer or not, the scumbags will try to steal it as they think they don't. I'd JDM Primera attempted to be robbed from outside my apartment, they didn't get it started because it had an aftermarket immobiliser fitted but they made a mess of the steering wheel plastics.

Deleted User wrote: »

How come there were gazillions of Jap imports in the early 90s in Ireland like white civics and Nissan Marches? Was it exchange rate related or something?

They were good value but then we got "rich" during the boom and only bought new cars. Brexit made us go back to buying 2nd hand cars again as they are cheap.

corks finest

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Is the insurance loaded when it’s an import?

Mine didn't change an iota

tuxy

Should you ask for a copy of the original auction sheet?

corks finest

NBar wrote: »

Japanese cars imported don't come with immobilizers fitted as standard and also they look at the parts for repair etc

AFAIK that's wrong,all mine had them

tuxy

NBar wrote: »

Japanese cars imported don't come with immobilizers fitted as standard and also they look at the parts for repair etc

That may have been the case years ago.

corks finest

tuxy wrote: »

That may have been the case years ago.

Correct,just checked my insight,yes definitely has an immobilizer

tuxy

yeah it was a thing up until the early 2000's as car theft is very low in Japan but now I think all of them have Immobilisers as standard.

enricoh

A mate had an older Prius n had a tip in it. The bumper was different than the EU ones iirc and it was going to take forever to get one from Japan so insurance just wrote it off, much to his disappointment.

corks finest

enricoh wrote: »

A mate had an older Prius n had a tip in it. The bumper was different than the EU ones iirc and it was going to take forever to get one from Japan so insurance just wrote it off, much to his disappointment.

Yep,but reckon most if not all modern Prius etc are same size/

colm_mcm

They’d all fit, but they’d have to use the correct part I guess.

grogi

corks finest wrote: »

Yep,but reckon most if not all modern Prius etc are same size/

It's same size, but a part here and there might be different. There is also Prius Aqua aka Prius C, which wasn't sold on here at all.

Hellrazer

I just got a 141 jap import insight for my wife.
Insurance actually went down by 100 euros.
But she was driving a 2008 sportage 2.0 diesel.

So that could explain the change.

Wibbs

punisher5112 wrote: »

Cheaper as Japan needs rid for emissions.

It's been more down to Japan's government driving new car sales to the advantage of their home industry and a cultural tendency to want the latest newest gadget/thing. Driving an older car in Japan can get expensive. Their version of the NCT the Shaken is significantly more expensive for example. Back in the nineties and early noughties Ireland was a charm as a market for offloading such cars. Us having the steering wheel on the proper side of the car for a start. The UK market was quite buoyant for them at the time too, but not nearly as much as it was here(they tended to only go for the more sporty/special models, whereas we were also buying up basic Micras and the like). Of course this didn't go well with SIMI when people were choosing often better specced cars that were cheaper and in better condition, so the increase in VRT, insurance and media rants about "Jap imports" came into play. Similar is happening with UK imports these days...

Though some negatives were well founded at the time. In the early noughties I had access to a few of the Japanese auctions and you would see Grade R accident damaged cars bought for buttons in Japan show up in Ireland a few months later "magically" repaired and "Grade A". Mileage was almost always dodgy and unless you personally imported one the original auction sheets and other documentation always seemed to go "missing" in transit. There were also a few dodgy characters involved in the trade too.

These days you should be much safer. Well there are online resources to trace JDM cars now for a start. If insurance covers you then game ball.

colm_mcm

A huge dumping ground for jap stuff is actually Russia (Particularly Siberia), despite them driving on the right.

There were 500,000 JDM cars imported to Russia in 2008.

zilog_jones

grogi wrote: »

It's same size, but a part here and there might be different. There is also Prius Aqua aka Prius C, which wasn't sold on here at all.

The Toyota Aqua isn't a Prius, not in Japan anyway.

colm_mcm

The Prius C (As called in the USA and elsewhere) is called the Aqua in Japan.

zilog_jones

Yes, but it's not relevant to the "different parts" situation above as a JDM Aqua is not a "Prius". This thread isn't about importing cars from North America

Hector Island

john_doe. wrote: »

Scratch that abandoned idea of PHEV for regular Prius . Looking at some auctions to get an idea.

Sorry for the delay, john_doe - I got my car in October. I love it, to be honest, though I haven't yet had the dash translated into English, and I'm still trying to work out the best way to max the battery and save on petrol costs. It's still more economic than my old Yaris, but I still have to work out a few things to make it more so.

Good luck with the car hunt!

FirstIn

Related to this - it’s accepted that cars built in Japan are superior to their euro built cars.

I have an old Rav. Jap built. Brilliant. I’ve heard the Yaris you want is the 99- 02 car because it’s Jap built. Later ones , French built. Inferior. Too much thinking of their mistress , wine , cheese , going on strike to concentrate on building a proper car!

All jap imports will be jap built. A good thing.