Wednesday 25th July 2001

Toyota Rubbish Grey Imports

Security spec on grey imports not up to UK standards

---

[nickpage]

who really cares? most owners of grey imports would be likely to further customise their cars and probably install a hot notch security system/immobiliser/tracker to go with the 5k ICE etc etc.

[nmilton]

Just seems like another half-hearted attempt to justify charging the customer more for an official import. Personally I don't think the manufacturers should hide behind the fact that car crime is higher in the UK and that they can, therefore, justify adding extra security devices at a substantial extra cost. If people want to add them as optional extras, fair enough, but that's their choice. In an ideal world they should be lobbying the government to get them to improve the police force to cut down on car crime so they in turn can provide cheaper cars to consumers because they're not loaded with unnecessary security features. Yeah, yeah - it's a dream !!

[jimbo]

There was something on the news last night saying that a large percentage of Grey imports are actually stolen to order in Japan and then all numbers changed in Dubai before shipping to the UK. Yet more propoganda ? Jim

[pikey]

So what? £400 for a decent alarm plus £20 for window etching and £30 for locking wheel nuts. Now I know that's all the difference is, I'll pay more attention to buying one!

[McNab]

Be careful pikey. There's an awful lot more to it than a few security bits and bobs. Read what Ronnie Cowan has to say in his site (www.ronniecowan.co.uk). The BBC have really screwed things up with their program on stolen grey imports (re-broadcast again tonight), and even legit Japanese performance cars are becoming unsaleable. I'm trying to sell an almost perfect 11,000 mile Supra (re-worked to 400bhp) and although I have all the documents to prove it was UK supplied, no-one wants to know. One joker even asked if I had stolen it myself............

[adrianr]

quote:In an ideal world they should be lobbying the government to get them to improve the police force to cut down on car crime so they in turn can provide cheaper cars to consumers because they're not loaded with unnecessary security features.

In an alternative ideal world, all cars would be secure and unuseable by anyone except the legitimate owner so there would be no car theft/joyriding etc and the police could spend their time dealing with crimes against the people. Cheers, AdrianR