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Buying an imported car

pianoman

pfm Member
Rather than hijack Elephantears' thread about buying a small auto, I thought I'd ask the petrolheads wisdom on here for advice. Living in West Yorkshire, this garage comes up in a lot of searches..

https://www.tpcleeds.co.uk/

Now I haven't a clue about the problems associated with an imported car, but the prices seem obviously lower, certainly for things like a Jazz that I'm contemplating, so I'm assuming there must be catches. Is it re-sale value, servicing problems, parts etc. ? Has anyone here actually bought one ? Your thoughts/ experiences would be appreciated.
 
I've had a number I'd Japanese imports from first being license bound in 2000...

From Japan they're nigh on the same car, but, usually the stereos are different and sometimes cannot be made to work fully in the UK due to the frequencies etc...

I've had Hondas, Mitsubishi and more recently BMWs...

Never had an issue fixing or sourcing parts etc

The one thing you will find is that the overall condition is always better than any UK example unless it's a rare 'garaged all its life' example, if that makes sense?
 
Rather than hijack Elephantears' thread about buying a small auto, I thought I'd ask the petrolheads wisdom on here for advice. Living in West Yorkshire, this garage comes up in a lot of searches..

https://www.tpcleeds.co.uk/

Now I haven't a clue about the problems associated with an imported car, but the prices seem obviously lower, certainly for things like a Jazz that I'm contemplating, so I'm assuming there must be catches. Is it re-sale value, servicing problems, parts etc. ? Has anyone here actually bought one ? Your thoughts/ experiences would be appreciated.

I've bought a couple of Japanese imports in my time. They needed:

Speedo converting to mph although a lot show both kmh and mph.
The stereo changing as the FM frequency band is different in Japan.
A rear foglight adding as this is not a requirement in Japan but is in UK.

In the case of cars with built in sat nav some of them don't have the right GPS antenna as I believe Japan use a different system in some way. Definitely the case for some BMWs and Mercs.

Aside from that the only thing I found was that insurance was a bit more expensive, but not massively so. Oh and make sure the car is properly registered with DVLA as sometimes they get it wrong and you can pay more VED than you should as a result.

Oh and make sure the underseal is of a UK standard as Japan do not underseal their cars to same standard as for the UK market.
 
I've had a number I'd Japanese imports from first being license bound in 2000...

From Japan they're nigh on the same car, but, usually the stereos are different and sometimes cannot be made to work fully in the UK due to the frequencies etc...

I've had Hondas, Mitsubishi and more recently BMWs...

Never had an issue fixing or sourcing parts etc

The one thing you will find is that the overall condition is always better than any UK example unless it's a rare 'garaged all its life' example, if that makes sense?

I see Tiggers mentions insurance - did you find the quotes much higher than normal ? They have a Jazz there that's much lower retail price than other places i've seen, so could offset any hike in the insurance...
 
I see Tiggers mentions insurance - did you find the quotes much higher than normal ? They have a Jazz there that's much lower retail price than other places i've seen, so could offset any hike in the insurance...

Not at all.

But I was insured via specialists like Chris Knott and Adrian Flux
 
I see Tiggers mentions insurance - did you find the quotes much higher than normal ? They have a Jazz there that's much lower retail price than other places i've seen, so could offset any hike in the insurance...
The insurance cost is because some Japanese i mports have special parts that are not available in the UK. This means delays in the event of an insurance repair and extra cost. If you can persuade your insurer that the car you are buying is I'm spec with no unobtain ium parts this problem might go away.
 
Over twenty years ago a mate bought a supercharged mk1 MR2 (Japanese import). Routine servicing was ok though belt changes were a hassle. Biggest issue though was after a chipped windscreen. insurance contacted and a guy in a van appeared, old screen removed (at which point the chip turned into a crack!) new screen offered up and it fell through the opening! Fitter called his office, another van appeared offed up new screen, same again!
Thankfully the car was a weekend toy but in the end it was how can I say, “sealed” in position. He got shot not long after then bought a Fwd Lotus Elan (type100). His luck never got any better, it tried to kill him:p!
 
Over twenty years ago a mate bought a supercharged mk1 MR2 (Japanese import). Routine servicing was ok though belt changes were a hassle. Biggest issue though was after a chipped windscreen. insurance contacted and a guy in a van appeared, old screen removed (at which point the chip turned into a crack!) new screen offered up and it fell through the opening! Fitter called his office, another van appeared offed up new screen, same again!

Sorry, not following this... are you really saying the Mk1 MR2 screen was bigger in Japan than the UK?
 
There is a garage near me that seems to import container-loads of mostly mini-vans (7 seaters typically) from Japan. Been at it for years and quite a few of said vehicles have been runnng around the district for ages. Garage does not have a bad reputation locally - so there must ways and means of running these things. I have no idea whether they do any conversion work before selling the vehicles.
 
There are firms that specialise in doing the whole thing - getting the import legal,etc..
Locally,Algys Autos have done this for ages .
 
Pertinent thread as I've seen a couple of imports I fancy - a Jazz hybrid and a Golf. I like the look of that Toyota Aqua at Tong Autos.
 
I bought a motorhome from Europe imported by a specialist, back in the days when you got lots of Euros for a pound! It went smoothly and never had a problem getting parts for the base vehicle a Fiat. Insurance was higher I suspect because of LHD and whilst I thought this would be a big problem I found it fine, in fact I found the right hand column gear change very good indeed, I don't know why we dropped this method.
 
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