www.autotrader.co.uk
? Why did the first UK owner get rid of it so quickly?I’m no expert on Jap imports, but I do recall some were lower VED due to some loophole to do with the date or registration and emissions data etc - i.e. £400ish vs. £760 or whatever it is nowadays. Seem to remember an E-class AMG (probably a ‘63) popped up on here in the past with same sort of thing noted.My thoughts too, but the ad says 'low tax' and it isn't, so what else might be iffy? Is there any problem with a code reader like my iCarsoft, or for that matter a UK STAR, reading data on a Japanese market car? The mileage is only a third the mileage of mine. I've looked up BIMTA, and the mileage should have been verified before the car was purchased in Japan, so that should be OK, but how many hours might it have spent sitting in a Tokyo traffic jam.? Will the instruments read in English or Japanese
And does it have some sort of slide-out load area floor? It looks as though it does.
), so I guess the mileage will be correct.I’m aware of that. It’s based on CO2 emissions and the date of registration.
I think you're right. Hard to find the info, nothing anywhere on Gov.uk that I could find, but eventually I found, on a Pistonheads thread on importing cars from Japan, that with no CO2 figure recorded the pre-2001 VED rates apply, so £360 rather than £760. That would be a nice little bonus if I bought it.
Re the salt on roads thing :I've been doing a bit of Googling, and I gather Japanese domestic market cars are usually much better underneath than UK cars of the same age, because the Japanese don't salt their roads.
I see it has a Panamericana grille, presumably aftermarket, and I quite like it. The driver's seat bolster looks absolutely perfect on an image on the firm's website (Straightouttajapan.co.uk...
Will, the lower VED applies to used vehicles first registered before 23 March 2006; that one was in March 2007. £760 is the current rate, same as my current one.
Son imported a '91 NSX from Japan, it still had the factory chalk marks all over the floorpans and frames. He did apply some rust proofing after he got it to deal with North West weather. I wonder whether there are differences in components on a JDM ML though.Re the salt on roads thing :
View attachment 173589
Underneath a Japanese import 2007 1Series BMW
Bear in mind that no rust proofing is generally applied to Japanese motors, so it's an idea to have some sort of protection applied.
Imports will have kmh speedo and radio frequencies are different. A
family member bought a Japanese Volvo V70. Speedo and radio swapped for UK spec by the importers. He's had a few issues getting a spare key for it; again the immobiliser frequencies are different. He found a specialist to sort that. Other than that no problems. It certainly is in better condition than a similar car that has lived in the UK. It even came with the standard Japanese emergency kit complete with a pair of road flares!
Not sure - Volvo certainly don't underseal JDM cars.
Emissions stuff is probably different. Software can be too. There may be some physical differences; the Volvo I mentioned has different front foglights to Euro spec cars, for example.
There would certainly be an MB option code for (or lack of) undersealing if it were a thing - I have never seen or heard of that before though
London ULEZ no charge. Cities on the Continent requiring a Clean Air tag, as in France, could be a problem, though, but I won't be doing any Continental motoring holidays.
It's already passed two UK MoTs. The engine is a 156.980, just like my in black one, which is on over 100K and passed the MoT emissions standard easily, so I'm not worried about the emissions.
Isn’t there a document like a CofC from Mercedes that covers this?
