Importing

[frodge]

i am looking to import a car from japan , a type r , i am only at the consideration stage and looked into this a couple of years ago with sc imports but couldnt continue due to family funds .

anyway my questions are

does anyone reccommend any importers dealers , have had good experiences with them

also is it acually worth it when only buying one for yourself (ie fitting alarms , registering etc )

or am i just better off buying one that is already here .

there is one other thing , i have been told that the earlier imports , ie before they became 10 years old had to have gearboxes and things changed to get them thru sva's how do i know they have the same ones replaced after test

[frodge]

oh i should point out i dont have sc imports contact details which is why i havnt contacted them .

i found him very helpfull last time and would certainly contact them again if i could

[emne]

you can just check gearbox and engine codes against the vin to verify the corect parts have been refitted after the sva and if your just importing one car its worth while getting on to the import company who normaly have people posted in japan to try and make some extra money on your veicle a few of my frends used to import jdm ek9s and tegs and theyd have the importer put 2 k20a emgines in the back with the seats down they cost next to nothing over there and you can then sell them on in the uk for strong money to make some money back on ur car just make sure you dont fill the car with small things as they normaly get stolen in transit hope this helps mate

[emne]

are you after importing a impreza type r or a ek ep civic or dc2 or 5 integra mate

[frodge]

sorry should have said , it is an impreza probably a 98/99 in blue possibly a v ltd but i need to carry on my research to be sure

[emne]

yes id much rather get a fresh import you normaly end up with twice as much as you expected mods wise pluss you can get the jap history sent over pluss all ur auction papers grade of the car ect ect iv got a v5 type r and iv got no jap history whatsoever all i know is it was owned by a well known subaru modifier as a rally car before me but that cost me 6k if i would have imported one myself i would have known exactly when and wher its been and it would have cost me around the same it just normaly takes around 8-10 weeks ish before you get the car youve payed for lol any more questions just ask mate

[frodge]

the biggest problem seems to be that you just dont know who you are dealing with and unfortunately i dont have enough money to risk being stung so am trying to find out as much as i can before deciding which way to jump

the other problem is there seems to be no way of seeing what is going to go through the auctions and how much it is going through for.

oh and translating any japanese information may be an issue too

[emne]

Translation is the hardest bit but because ov the strict mot laws in japan most cars cant pass when they get to a certain age so it becomes unviable for the jdm jap domestic market to use them so most are imported into strong markets the uk us ect so most of the auction houses will be able to translate for you in the auctions cars are graded from 1-5 a and b ithink if your after a modified car thers no point going off this as they will always grade modified cars low but iv your after an imaculate standard car follow the car grade if your unsure atall or dont fink the pros outway the cons iver get an imported car or speak to a well known importer explane what you want and theyl find it for you but if ther importing it for you you wont save as much as you expect you can get a clean 2-3 year imported car with a list of history for the same money so its stricty wether you are prepared to risk the money or not iv not just ceap looking for a clean imported car maybe with a warenty just incase mate