Personally importing a car from Japan. Anyone done it?

[Mark-rptz9]

I've had imports before but had putchcased after they'd arrived in the UK. This time I fancy doing it myself.

Any non-obvious hurdles to look out for?

I can get it delivered to Southampton. What did you do about getting it from Southampton docks to your IVA inspector? Do you have to hire a transporter and drive it back yourself? Will there be things like oil and fuel in the vehicle when it gets here, or do they drain it all out etc.

I'm also having an issue with insurance. On my previous JDM cars the insurance has been peanuts (I am old). This car I've got my eye on is also sold as the exact same model in the UK (Audi A4 S Line) and insuring the UK model is about £300 a year. However I'm being quoted over a grand to ensure the exact same car as an import, and this is through my usual import insurer (Adrian Flux). An annual difference of £700 will soon eat into the savings I make by importing the car. So thoughts on that would be appreciated too.

Cheers!

[simon_harris]

I last did it around 12-13 years ago and tbh it was mostly pretty painless.

I had cars collected from the port which makes it loads easier (one noteable time I decided it would be a good idea to drive a Skyline back - heads up, it wasn't)

Depending on the type of car and transport method used be prepared for bits to go missing and batteries to be very flat when they arrive, damage is not uncommon if you use a RORO.

Gotchas used to be the VAT on the cost of car, fees AND transport. It helps to have an agent in Japan and if you decide to transport in a container fill the rest of the container up with "stuff" bodykits and wheels are good bets usually.

I once accidentally bought two R33 Skylines which considering I had told my partner I was bidding on S15's lead to an awkward discussion - I put cheeky bids on both and won both when I expected to not win either.

it can be fun, take your time and don't jump in feet first.

[trails]

Read this...

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[Mark-rptz9]

Thanks. @simon_harris, out of curiosity why did you stop doing it if it was fun?

[trails]

I can probably answer on his behalf; it's very, very expensive compared to how it used to be.

Japanese auctions used to be great for sourcing rare parts at reasonable prices too, the parts are still available but there are very few 'bargains'.

[Mark-rptz9]

Thanks. The car is a run of the mill vehicle available here, but it's low mileage and clean and the price seems reasonable enough to make the effort worthwhile.

Any ideas about the cost of devanning/clearance at Southampton? And who to use to do that?

[simon_harris]

Mark-rptz9 said:

Thanks. @simon_harris, out of curiosity why did you stop doing it if it was fun?

I'd got myself into the car I wanted to be in, lots of people were jumping on the bandwagon so it became a more risky endeavor for re-sale and I had other things in life to concentrate on.

Then basically every time I looked into it again in the following years the benefit didn't seem to be there and the cars i was looking to buy were fetching too much money at auction.

[chrisdk]

Mark-rptz9 said:

I've had imports before but had putchcased after they'd arrived in the UK. This time I fancy doing it myself.

Any non-obvious hurdles to look out for?

I can get it delivered to Southampton. What did you do about getting it from Southampton docks to your IVA inspector? Do you have to hire a transporter and drive it back yourself? Will there be things like oil and fuel in the vehicle when it gets here, or do they drain it all out etc.

I'm also having an issue with insurance. On my previous JDM cars the insurance has been peanuts (I am old). This car I've got my eye on is also sold as the exact same model in the UK (Audi A4 S Line) and insuring the UK model is about £300 a year. However I'm being quoted over a grand to ensure the exact same car as an import, and this is through my usual import insurer (Adrian Flux). An annual difference of £700 will soon eat into the savings I make by importing the car. So thoughts on that would be appreciated too.

Cheers!

Have recently done this (admittedly via an agent and with something over 10yrs old so IVA exempt) so here’s my take.

If shipping is arranged from Japan then an agent like JC Shipping will arrange clearance, pay the duties and issue HMRC docs like NOVA etc.

I arranged UK mods (speedo and fog light) plus MOT with a Southampton garage (can share details). They collected car from bonded warehouse then did the work to get it UK legal.

At this point this garage could’ve arranged DVLA reg but I chose to do this myself (saved the c.£100 fee and thought it might be quicker - it probably wasn’t).

The DVLA process creates a dead band where the car is sat for weeks - halfway through this I chose to have the car moved to my home by a trade plate driver (had originally planned to wait until registration complete and then drive back from Southampton myself but had other stuff on so brought it up).

Aside from DVLA, this whole process worked well (strikes added two weeks to a six week registration process).

The reason for my import was buying the very best example (low miles, top grade) of a rare model (top of the range G model) of a less common vehicle (Toyota Alphard). I’ve scoured around Autotrader ads and don’t think I’ve saved any money but I’m very happy with the car and wouldn’t have bought anything else from a UK dealer, even if I couldn’t trimmed 5-10% (£1-2k) off the cost for a lesser car.

[chrisdk]

To add, nothing drained out of car (that I’m aware of). Car was MOT’d and then delivery driver just jumped in and drove it 200 miles without any additional works.

Insured with Admiral, my model was never UK imported so I have nothing to compare it to (but I’m paying about £300 fully comp as part of a multi car policy so consider this to be relative peanuts).

[chrisdk]

Mark-rptz9 said:

Thanks. The car is a run of the mill vehicle available here, but it's low mileage and clean and the price seems reasonable enough to make the effort worthwhile.

Any ideas about the cost of devanning/clearance at Southampton? And who to use to do that?

Final reply, for a car costing c.£10k in Japan (inc shipping), I paid £3500 for uk taxes, duties, clearances, unloading fees etc (basically to the point that I could be collected and UK modded / MOT’d).

[hunt123]

I imported 2 cars from Japan in 2003 and 2004. The exchange rate was much better then, i looked into it recently and concluded it wouldn't be worth the hassle to basically not save much if anything. Both cars i imported had small niggles the seller didn't mention but no biggie, was happy overall.

The second car was delayed by several months as the dealer had been imprisoned for a short spell lol! I recall phoning up the dealers premises in Japan and shouting expletives down the phone as I thought i was being scammed, whoever i spoke to just laughed at me, we had no clue what each other was saying. I did get the car eventually.

If ever it becomes economically viable again i'd import again.

[Mark-rptz9]

chrisdk said:

Have recently done this (admittedly via an agent and with something over 10yrs old so IVA exempt) so here’s my take.

If shipping is arranged from Japan then an agent like JC Shipping will arrange clearance, pay the duties and issue HMRC docs like NOVA etc.

I arranged UK mods (speedo and fog light) plus MOT with a Southampton garage (can share details). They collected car from bonded warehouse then did the work to get it UK legal.

At this point this garage could’ve arranged DVLA reg but I chose to do this myself (saved the c.£100 fee and thought it might be quicker - it probably wasn’t).

The DVLA process creates a dead band where the car is sat for weeks - halfway through this I chose to have the car moved to my home by a trade plate driver (had originally planned to wait until registration complete and then drive back from Southampton myself but had other stuff on so brought it up).

Aside from DVLA, this whole process worked well (strikes added two weeks to a six week registration process).

The reason for my import was buying the very best example (low miles, top grade) of a rare model (top of the range G model) of a less common vehicle (Toyota Alphard). I’ve scoured around Autotrader ads and don’t think I’ve saved any money but I’m very happy with the car and wouldn’t have bought anything else from a UK dealer, even if I couldn’t trimmed 5-10% (£1-2k) off the cost for a lesser car.

Very, very useful reply, thank you! So you found a company that would devan the car (did you have it in a container, or roll on/roll off?), do all the paperwork and move it to your chosen location? I'd love their details please. And the garage also please.

[Krikkit]

I haven't done it but looked into it like the OP, I'll be keeping an eye.

One of the biggest factors is how volatile our exchange rates to the Yen are - it's recovering now, but the Brexit fiasco put a serious dent in the rate for the last few years.

[Mark-rptz9]

chrisdk said:

Final reply, for a car costing c.£10k in Japan (inc shipping), I paid £3500 for uk taxes, duties, clearances, unloading fees etc (basically to the point that I could be collected and UK modded / MOT’d).

Unless I've miscalculated something the car I've got my eye on will be about £5-6k on the road from Japan, but the closest cars I've found here are around £10k with 5 times the mileage (UK model), or £7k with about 4 times the mileage (also an import).

[Mark-rptz9]

hunt123 said:

I imported 2 cars from Japan in 2003 and 2004. The exchange rate was much better then, i looked into it recently and concluded it wouldn't be worth the hassle to basically not save much if anything. Both cars i imported had small niggles the seller didn't mention but no biggie, was happy overall.

The second car was delayed by several months as the dealer had been imprisoned for a short spell lol! I recall phoning up the dealers premises in Japan and shouting expletives down the phone as I thought i was being scammed, whoever i spoke to just laughed at me, we had no clue what each other was saying. I did get the car eventually.

If ever it becomes economically viable again i'd import again.

Being shafted is my major fear!!! Funny that the guy had been jailed. Obviously it wasn't for dishonesty!

[Mark-rptz9]

Krikkit said:

I haven't done it but looked into it like the OP, I'll be keeping an eye.

One of the biggest factors is how volatile our exchange rates to the Yen are - it's recovering now, but the Brexit fiasco put a serious dent in the rate for the last few years.

For the car I am buying it would seem to be well worth the effort. I'm worried that I'm missing something now!!!!

[chrisdk]

Mark-rptz9 said:

Very, very useful reply, thank you! So you found a company that would devan the car (did you have it in a container, or roll on/roll off?), do all the paperwork and move it to your chosen location? I'd love their details please. And the garage also please.

So, JC Shipping will empty a container (not sure if they handle RoRo at Southampton ?) and manage all the paperwork to release a vehicle whilst keeping HMRC happy.

I used LA IVA Services to sort my UK mods and MOT, they collected from the docks (this was arranged directly with JC Shipping - I think I had to nominate who would collect).

All worked very well, fairly seamless from my perspective, expect there are a lot of companies in the area doing similar services.

[Mark-rptz9]

That's fantastically helpful, thank you. Out of curiosity, which broker did you use in Japan to find the car?

[chrisdk]

Mark-rptz9 said:

That's fantastically helpful, thank you. Out of curiosity, which broker did you use in Japan to find the car?

Pyramid Autos - I got the sense they’re used to shipping vehicles to UK for private import, again, very good experience with them.

[Mark-rptz9]

Thanks again. Are these them? https://www.eliteautoexportjapan.com/contact-us/ I can't find any website called 'pyramid autos'.

Edited by Mark-rptz9 on Friday 11th August 10:49