Exporting & Reimporting a car to lose it's history? - Page 1 - General Gassing

Original Poster

11,332 posts

252 months

Yesterday (14:25)

Is that still a thing?

My brothers other half is looking at a car for her daughter and has found a 2015 BMW 120i that has been imported. Dealer says it has been imported from Japan, but the speedo is mph & kph, and dash messages are in English.

A quick 5 minutes on Google and I have found a 120i still in Japan for sale and the speedo is kph only and has Japanese messages on the dash.

So something stinks about it.

It is a RHD car so really only UK, Japan or Australia.

Unless I am missing something.

SteBrown91

3,076 posts

156 months

Yesterday (14:57)

The car has the same software regardless of country. Someone has just changed the speedo to mph and re-coded the car to be a UK-region so the software is in english.

I think you are looking too far into this. Just check the paperwork matches up as its easy to fabricate history and clock the car so its much lower mileage.

John D.

20,758 posts

236 months

Yesterday (14:59)

Sounds like a lot of messing around for a low value car.

Doesitdrive

1,496 posts

8 months

Yesterday (15:19)

John D. said:

Sounds like a lot of messing around for a low value car.

Low value to who? Everyone has different incomes.

There are huge profits in Japanese imports, they seem to sell for premium prices.

Original Poster

11,332 posts

252 months

Yesterday (15:24)

John D. said:

Sounds like a lot of messing around for a low value car.

That's what I said. My curiosity is getting the better of me, I am also tempted to spend a tenner of a check just to find out more...

scratchchin

RotorRambler

1,220 posts

17 months

Yesterday (15:30)

A seller can show the service history on the iDrive screen without giving you personal data.
Ask for:
A photo of the Service History screen in iDrive.
A dealer printout of the Digital Service History.
Invoices for any work done by independent garages.

John D.

20,758 posts

236 months

Yesterday (15:39)

Doesitdrive said:

John D. said:

Sounds like a lot of messing around for a low value car.

Low value to who? Everyone has different incomes.

There are huge profits in Japanese imports, they seem to sell for premium prices.

I was referring to exporting it to Japan and then importing it back to the UK, as per the thread title.

Seems like a waste of time and money to me biggrin

SuperPav

1,315 posts

152 months

Yesterday (19:07)

John D. said:

I was referring to exporting it to Japan and then importing it back to the UK, as per the thread title.

Seems like a waste of time and money to me biggrin

Indeed! If you wanted to wash an insurance marker off a UK car there are much closer places to do that like Ireland Malta or Cyprus!

Japan seems a bit OTT

Original Poster

11,332 posts

252 months

Yesterday (19:11)

Sorry, I should clarify, I don’t believe it has been imported from Japan, I think that is the dealers story…

It looks like a UK car to me, it doesn’t have the odd sized number plate aperture that Japanese cars have for example.

Dave.

7,866 posts

280 months

Yesterday (19:24)

Do you have the vin?

Opapayer

2,244 posts

12 months

Yesterday (19:30)

SuperPav said:

Indeed! If you wanted to wash an insurance marker off a UK car there are much closer places to do that like Ireland Malta or Cyprus!

Japan seems a bit OTT

Must be younger than 5 years on landing in Cyprus. You pay around 35% of the value of the car on import in duties / VAT / add on fees and no refund if it goes back out. Plus there’s a shedload of paperwork and headaches that you need a local agent to deal with.

D_G

1,921 posts

236 months

Yesterday (19:51)

Megaflow said:

Sorry, I should clarify, I don t believe it has been imported from Japan, I think that is the dealers story

It looks like a UK car to me, it doesn t have the odd sized number plate aperture that Japanese cars have for example.

There are hundreds of these coming from Japan, it's not been exported and brought back to hide it's history. You can do a VX check for about £30 and that will show it's history in Japan, my partner has a Japanese Import VW Tiguan and it's been brilliant and still in excellent condition. Be aware the road tax and insurance can be a bit more though, even with it being effectively an EU built car.

Jakg

4,013 posts

195 months

Yesterday (19:52)

Dave. said:

Do you have the vin?

Or post the reg.

Original Poster

11,332 posts

252 months

Yesterday (20:23)

My brother was still interested, so we were going to look at it tomorrow. The other half’s daughter has just had an insurance quote on it…

We are not looking anymore!

Reg is AD65 WJX if anyone wants to have a look.

RotorRambler

1,220 posts

17 months

Yesterday (20:38)

Megaflow said:

My brother was still interested, so we were going to look at it tomorrow. The other half s daughter has just had an insurance quote on it

We are not looking anymore!

Reg is AD65 WJX if anyone wants to have a look.

Well only a recent mot shows up (my old cars show mot details for every year).
So maybe the dealer is telling the truth !

SteBrown91

3,076 posts

156 months

Yesterday (20:46)

Megaflow said:

Not all cars (especially later cars) had Japanese specific bumpers for the different plate sizes. They were often just fitted with jap plate plinths in the EU sized mounting which can easily be unscrewed. This was to make it cheaper to make so they didn’t have to design unique bumpers etc for different markets.

Again, I think you are overthinking this.

Drive Blind

5,732 posts

204 months

Yesterday (20:54)

Megaflow said:

The other half s daughter has just had an insurance quote on it

We are not looking anymore!
.

Drive Blind jnr changed cars last year. In the process of looking a nice ford focus popped up. All was going well until a vcheck flagged it as imported. All the big insurance companies instantly said no, and the remaining few companies doubled the price.

blank

3,742 posts

215 months