Importing Damaged US Cars
Importing Damaged US Cars
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Discussion

sa_20v

Original Poster:

4,114 posts

261 months

Thursday 27th December 2012
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Do their 'questionable' pasts end on entering the country (in this case the UK)? Not planning to, more to answer pub debate.

aw51 121565

4,773 posts

263 months

Friday 28th December 2012
quotequote all
Do Jap "grey import" cars' previous histories follow them? Rhetorical, but arguably no.

I daresay there are 'pay' sites for checking US cars' previous histories, but making the usual checks will show nothing? V5C will say "declared previously registered elsewhere" [or similar]; that is all, for the great unwashed?

Regards your thread title, where are you going to get the parts/spares to fix them?

smile

4key

12,112 posts

178 months

Friday 28th December 2012
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I agree that jap stuff is very hard to trace from here but americaland is an english speaking country, that would make it a much easier task to trace vehicles historys.

But no, a normal vehicle check that you would do here wouldnt show anything that happened on the other side of the pond.

FisiP1

1,279 posts

183 months

Friday 28th December 2012
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If it was recorded damaged, written off or salvaged in the US you can find out with the VIN or previous registration via Carfax and probably other similar services.

GC8

19,910 posts

220 months

Friday 28th December 2012
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Finding out about Japanese cars was relatively too. Few people ever did though.

Captain Cadillac

2,974 posts

217 months

Sunday 30th December 2012
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It's easy to catch, run a Carfax report or an autocheck.

Carfax is what consumers use, but Autocheck catches a lot more, like if the car was ever sold with a frame/unibody announcement at auction.

It's been my experience, as someone in the trade here in the USA, that a LOT of "bad" stuff ends up overseas, it's almost a joke. I remember coming across a list of all cars that were bought back under the lemon law in New Jersey in 2011... a Rolls Ghost was on there along with a number of other very pricey cars, I ran carfaxes on them and most had been exported.

K50 DEL

9,752 posts

258 months

Monday 31st December 2012
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I very nearly got caught with that here in Dubai.

Went to look at a 2005 Dodge Viper, drove fine, just a slight hint of cherry peel on the paint on the rear quarter.
I knew the car was a US inmport (they all are here, Vipers were never officially sold here) so thought I'd check the Vin before buying.

Didn't even need carfax.... popped the vin into google and the first thing that popped up was the salvage auction listing from a few months previously....car had been written off with extensive flood damage as well as a rather bent rear end.

I walked away and the car's still for sale now more than a year later.