The BIG thread on how to import from Japan

moonship wrote: »

Great thread i myst say, thanks OP.
Because of tsis guide i am strongly considering importing Honda Stream myself. But:
1. Wouldnt be easier to use tradecarview.com or similar instead involving an agent as per this guide? Any experience?
2. After a few weeks of checking prices of many Streams on japanese sites and comparing them to carzone/donedeal, either garages in Ireland are importing really the cheapest cars available in Japan (maybe after accidents etc) or tgey just make about 1k per car. Japanese cars seem to be expensive after adding shipping, duty, vat and vrt!

Tradecarview is the Japanese equivalent of carzone for mainly dealers there. If you follow auctions you'll sometimes see dealer stock show up there or auction stock on dealers pages on TCV, but generally its dearer than buying from auction. You can contact the dealer and have a haggle with them, but just make sure you do your homework as its not uncommon for people to have been scammed in the past on TCV and not getting their car.

Also the dealers will look after all the dereg for you but the prices are likely to be higher than auction, personally I wouldnt bother with it when you can buy direct.

Car's arent cheap at the moment in Japan, even though the Euro is at an okay rate against the Yen, over the past few months prices have gone crazy depending on the type of car your looking to buy, one thing you definitely need with buying from auction is patience!

farna_boy wrote: »

Thanks for the info OP, I'm now trawling Japanese car auction sites, even though I can barely afford a pint

Out of interest though, how much would shipping usually cost FOB and CIF?

CIF according to tradecarview and quotation i got from one dealer €1200

Good luck with the new car chris .......looks a stunner. and also thread needs more pics....

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

Is it safe to import from Japan nowadays with the radiation? Things are pretty bad out there at the moment.

Japan's a big place.

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

It is but you never know where the cars have been and weather they were contaminated or not.

Even if you look at pics of some auctions the staff that are driving the cars are wearing masks.

Masks are common place in Japanese cities, especially in industrial zones so that's no surprise.

I do know your concern though, a few auction houses have stopped importing and cars from certain areas (close to the plant) can't be shipped, In fact a lot if them just sit where they settled after the disaster.

Thankfully,Fukushima wasn't on the same level as Chernobyl in terms of the area the fall out covered so risk with importing cars with that and the rest in mind is fairly low.

If you're still worried, get Titan Auto Works to buy a Geiger counter.

I found a car on Tradecarview..... marked 1000usd.

Liked the look of it but after shipping, duty, vat, vrt, nct, tyres i'd be nudging 3k. for a car which the dealer said he would drop to 800 usd. Really sounds good when he said 800. not so good when i added everything up.

Revenue calculate the value of the car which I could buy for 560 euro at 2000 euro... i'd nearly go for it if the VRT wasnt so high. VRT is 100 euro more than what I would be paying for the car....

Where abouts in the docks do the cars be collected from?

hi all i thinking to import car from japan but don't anything about import.i just seen car on website i don't that web site is real or just scam because i ring them they say 1st full payment including delivery its beforward.jp wondering anybody imported befor any good name of the company and all process in dublin please and thanks in advance

Chris Heilong took the time to put a thread together on this very topic a while back.

Here you go:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=86259725

Up you go

Merged. Have a read of the OP and the thread.

I'll try give you a rough idea on the Odyssey, here's a 2004 86'k from Monday's auction is USS Yokohama









Grade 4 which is good although its showing a replacement rear passenger side door on the auction sheet which is strange with it being a 4. Either ways the price on it look's inline with other comparable grade models for the year

460'000JPY is the auction sale price, converted to euro = €3326
Shipping & agents/Transport/Derge fee's depending on who you use in Japan €1200/1500

So let's say the CIF (Cost/insurance/Freight) Price is €4826,that's everything to get the car to Ireland.
It's then 10% of this for duty so 482.6, added then to the €4826
23% Vat on 5308.06 = 1220.978
€6529.57 Cleared

You then have customs agent clearing fee which is 100/120 depending who is used
Stevedore unloading fee, again 90 or 115 depending who is used

Once the above are paid the car is free to collect, so €6764.57. You then have to VRT the car which is coming in at €680 from a revenue quote. €7444.57 is what your looking at here and on the road.

You also need to budget for battery/service/tyres (they tend to not be E marked)

Im not sure how the price compare's to what's for sale here but in most cases Japanese car's are present are more expensive to buy and import than what's currently for sale here on the likes of donedeal, but hopefully that give you a bit of a better idea on things

All depends on the car, age , ncb ect. If its a performance car id be making sure I could insure it beford importing anyways. But the likes of a run around people carrier ect I wouldnt imagine you would have many problems

Just as a warning to others, we bought a Honda Stream recently, imported from Japan. Car is great and we got a good deal, But it was broken into in our driveway after a couple of weeks and they tried to hot-wire it. They were unsuccessful so the car was left there with a lot of damage. We're fully comprehensive on the insurance which is good, but since it's been taken away and assessed they tell us it will be between 8 and 12 weeks before they get the parts in from Japan, they can't get them in the EU. What a kicker!