import from japan.......

[clogs]

I seem to remember a discussion about the above.........
anyone imported a motorcycle from japan.......or some idea on costs.......ta.........

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Imported to where?

 

[Ollie78]

Prices have gone up considerably with containers. I suggest getting hold of an agent in Japan for a price, there are many for cars and so I would assume for bikes. Wait times can be pretty long but you can get real bargains (at least on cars) and some excellent stuff never released in Europe (I have a Nissan Elgrand which is brilliant ).

 

[sneggysteve]

(I have a Nissan Elgrand which is brilliant ).

So have I.

 

[Fergie 307]

I bought my Jeep Wrangler from a chap who sells them on e bay under the name Atlanmot64. He imports dozens of them from Japan so might be worth messaging him for any tips. Really nice guy.

 

[quintain]

What problems have been found when buying an imported s/h car.
I will need to replace my 2012 CRV auto eventually

 

[Fergie 307]

Only fairly trivial issue I had not though of at all was the radio. In Japan transmissions are between something like 76 and 90, so on the Japanese radio I could only get radio 2 . The Jeep radio can easily be replaced with a normal DIN type, might not be so simple on something with bespoke set up. You can buy frequency shifters for about £10 to address this, not sure how well they work.
Speedo primary calibration will be in Kph, if you are lucky it will show mph as well. If not you can get replacement cards in mph for most. On some vehicles You may even be able to have it reset in the software.
You may find that your insurance gets loaded, especially if it's not a vehicle that was ever imported to the UK, parts availability etc. Mostly this will only be an issue with things like body panels that are unique to the vehicle, but I am guessing may also apply to things like the windscreen.
Most service parts will be from the manufacturers parts bin and shared with other models.
Also worth noting that you will not be able to order parts based on the registration number. If the local motor factor puts the UK reg of my Wrangler into his system all it tells them is that it's a Jeep, no other info. It appears that in most cases the days are long gone where you could just ask for an air filter or whatever for a such and such year Wrangler 4litre, most systems now insist on a reg to return any results.
So I suspect I'm some cases you will be obliged to go to a dealer for some parts, but you can probably Google most stuff and find a UK available part, certainly for things like filters, brakes and so on.
The owners manual will be in Japanese, so you may need to try and find an English one, assuming of course that your particular vehicle was ever exported to an English speaking country.
But the Japanese drive on the correct side of the road, don't use salt, don't tend to do big milages and tend to look after their cars. So my Jeep 22 years old 70k miles and looks pretty much like new inside and out. Even nuts and bolts on the chassis still have their original plating.

 

[Sideways]

I remember hearing that Japanese cars were taken off the road or it was required that they have the engines replaced at something like 30,000 miles / km ? So there was a steady steam of low mileage engines being imported into the UK for resale back in the day.

 

[GuitardoctorW7]

I may be wrong, but I believe the Japanese don't use salt on their roads in winter. so you would need to get any import properly undersealed

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I remember hearing that Japanese cars were taken off the road or it was required that they have the engines replaced at something like 30,000 miles / km ? So there was a steady steam of low mileage engines being imported into the UK for resale back in the day.

They didn't meet newer Japanese (city) emission laws.

 

[stuart little]

They didn't meet newer Japanese (city) emission laws.

Yup, I replaced a Nissan Micra engine with one, but had to fit a 2nd set of plugs as the engines had 2 plugs/cylinder.
Our roads are spread with salt mixed with mangelwurzles or sugar beet, perhaps the Japanese just uuse beet!

 

[ajs]

Be aware of you are in Greece it will be set up for the wrong side of the road, yes really, even on a bike.

My Dad bought a grey import BMW from Europe back in the 80s, had MOT'd it without issue until after perhaps 15 years when the tester noticed and failed it. The (original) headlight was set to dip angling towards the centre of the road instead of the side. The fix was simple, a "left hand drive" bulb, but it did mean a retest.

 

[Jameshow]

Prices have gone up considerably with containers. I suggest getting hold of an agent in Japan for a price, there are many for cars and so I would assume for bikes. Wait times can be pretty long but you can get real bargains (at least on cars) and some excellent stuff never released in Europe (I have a Nissan Elgrand which is brilliant ).

My parents toyota Alphard 3.5 is also brilliant, pitty about the interior styling and body kit!

 

[Ollie78]

I remember hearing that Japanese cars were taken off the road or it was required that they have the engines replaced at something like 30,000 miles / km ? So there was a steady steam of low mileage engines being imported into the UK for resale back in the day.

Its not quite this but they used to have to go through a test that is like a very extreme MOT and then must rectify all faults etc which was very expensive so most people just upgraded to a newer vehicle. Nowadays they apply a 10% extra tax to cars older than 13 years which I guess is all incentive to buy new cars.
Hopefully we can still find good bargains.
Another thing is the fact that imported vehicles are at flat rate road tax (or at least were, not sure currently ) so for my 3.5 litre I pay a lower tax relative to a UK sold vehicle, very good if you fancy a big Jag, Lexus or 5 litre Mercedes SL.

Ollie

 

[John on the Wirral]

In the distant past I imported cars and,in fact, wrote a little book on how to do it having researched throughout Europe on a long camping holiday one summer. There were companies in those days in Dover who did all the the necessary changes to European cars for you. I soon came to the conclusion that it was easier and cheaper to import from righthand drive countries eventually sticking to Southern Ireland - spoke our language etc but some very good deals at the time and also very easy. I remember it was very important to have certain features such as an "E" in a circle on the headlights to comply with UK and European regs. There were lots of cars made in "funny" countries that were impounder in Dover!