Some interesting car imports

[Sp!ke]

Thought some of the stock here are interesting.

SL500 for 5k delivered seems like good value.

http://www.autoadvan.co.uk/car-details-4035943.html

They seem to have loads of V12 S classes, I guess they must be popular in Japan.

Interesting very low mileage G wagen http://www.autoadvan.co.uk/car-details-3557097.html

Has anyone tried buying pretty much unseen direct from Japan in this way? If so, what was the experience like, good/bad?

 

[whitenemesis]

Oooo! that's tempting

Small chnage for a great car!

 

[TonyVianoAmbiente]

Has anyone tried buying pretty much unseen direct from Japan in this way? If so, what was the experience like, good/bad?

I have a friend who imports cars from Japan. He only buys cars that he has inspected personally, and he travels to Japan six or seven times a year.

He tells me that clocking is rife.

 

[Deleted member 6183]

I bought my Mrs an MX5 from Japan about 12 years ago, it was the only way of getting an auto for her.
The upside was that the car was cheaper than the equivelent age UK car, the downside was that the speedo was in KPH and it had no rear foglight and a square rear numberplate.
Other than that it was completely reliable, in good condition for a 5 year old car and had low miles (kilometers).
The radio will be useless in the UK as only picks up radio2, Japanese cars rarely rust and rarely have leather.
All cars bought at a Japanese auction will be officially graded according to it's condition.
There will also be a price adjustment when it comes to part-ex or selling on.

 

[MBManInKen]

the downside was that the speedo was in KPH

I think you're required by law to replace it with an mph one or a dual marked one.

Japanese cars rarely rust

Interesting! Is this because they use a different paint for Japan?

 

[jaymanek]

Japanese cars dont have rust due to the climate over there and lack of salt... they will rust quickly once here if they are not protected as they dont even underseal them over there...

 

[BTB 500]

Problem is that although Japan is RHD like the UK, most "prestige" cars are specifically ordered as LHD (to show they are imported). I think the ones you mention are all LHD (I looked at the SL and a couple of the S Classes).

 

[BTB 500]

I bought my Mrs an MX5 from Japan about 12 years ago, it was the only way of getting an auto for her.
The upside was that the car was cheaper than the equivelent age UK car, the downside was that the speedo was in KPH and it had no rear foglight and a square rear numberplate.
Other than that it was completely reliable, in good condition for a 5 year old car and had low miles (kilometers).
The radio will be useless in the UK as only picks up radio2, Japanese cars rarely rust and rarely have leather.
All cars bought at a Japanese auction will be officially graded according to it's condition.
There will also be a price adjustment when it comes to part-ex or selling on.

From memory the tyres on imports were often rated differently too, and they rarely had security items like alarms or even immobilisers.

 

[chriswt]

The radio will be useless in the UK as only picks up radio2, Japanese cars rarely rust and rarely have leather.
on.

Why do they rarely have leather?

Mind you its handy for spotting imports when looking for a seondhand Japanese sports cars.

 

[Deleted member 6183]

I don't know why the lack of leather, I was told that they just don't like it as much as we do here. The Japanese have a reputation for producing great beef but maybe they'd prefer not to sit on it.

Jay is right about the lack of rust being due to the climate, I can't recall ever seeing a rusty Japanese imported vehicle - doesn't mean that the rusty ones stayed in Japan I suppose!

The tyres on ours were rubbish - resulting in a very embarrassing spin on the main roundabout in town one Saturday morning! - As well as perishing faster due to the climate they often run very hard rubber compounds on sports cars.

I've been told that these imports may have lots of extra equipment aimed at reducing emissions - more than a UK spec car.

Lastly, the reason that these cars reach the end of their useful life in Japan sooner than the UK is supposedly because their emissions test on their equivelent to an MOT is much harsher than ours - so you'll be buying a car which has failed a Japanese MOT.

By the way, I'm not really an expert in this field but did my research before buying the Mazda.