JDM imports inspections/quality.

One of the times I posted about JDM import cars someone was curious about the quality of the cars you can get. The guy I bought it through has a youtube channel where he does a mild inspection of the cars, aside from the 1gb of pics he send you, so you can get an idea He just finished the one for mine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TUPfzIt2Zc&list=TLD8XJ_K17W7z2ca-KhX2rNX7luQgd1v1p

Check out the other videos in there if you want to see. Mine is the only 25 year old one I know of because they don't get much american business yet.

Nice. That will be a fun one. My RB20 project has been halted.

Those are the last of the RWD Skylines, right?

I am wondering if it would be possible to fly to Japan buy a car and ship it back. I know it probably would cost more than PacificCoast charges but it could be a great experience. Of course, you would still need to find a company to deal with the shipping and probably need to carry a Japanese translation app around.

aircooled wrote: Those are the last of the RWD Skylines, right?

I thought Skylines were still RWD since they share the G37 platform? That was a GTS, not a GTR.

Yeah unless its a gtr- it's most likely rwd.

slow wrote: I am wondering if it would be possible to fly to Japan buy a car and ship it back. I know it probably would cost more than PacificCoast charges but it could be a great experience. Of course, you would still need to find a company to deal with the shipping and probably need to carry a Japanese translation app around.

Well the pacific coast guy said in one of his videos he had people from canada there looking at cars. He mentioned that in this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWQ7nsf6Qeg&list=UUo0_6VxevokFfUbf8ECJkAw

The thing is he told me it's an additional $2000 charge to ship with him if you don't buy from an auction. However i'm sure you could figure something out if you do it that way, a few people from the military i know shipped cars back over here just using a customs broker and a shipping company.

There were a few companies before I did this I talked to that also do this and there were companies that just specialize in shipping. Unfortunately i formatted my computer since then and lost the links for them. They were all english speakers.

if I had to have a skyline.. I would rather the GTS. I remember going to Autozone years ago and a Canadian plated GTS pulled into the parking lot. the kids going in where wild over this R32.. until the guy said it was "only" a GTS. The kids walked away disappointed that it was not a vaunted R

There have been a few cases here in Canada where JDM imported cars have had the odometer rolled back. I imagine it's not a crime to export a car with a rolled-back odometer, so there's little recourse.

One guy imported an R32 GTST and found out (from auction papers left under the passenger seat of the car) that it used to have a much higher odometer...

I've also seen a few very poorly modded vehicles and cars that were clumsily banged back to stock. I saw a Z32 300ZX where the car had received tons of mods - basically the entire period HKS catalogue, huge turbo and the injectors to support it - before a lot of it was removed and then it was roughly slapped back to running on the stock ECU. The owner burned through a lot of money to get a shop to rewire and try to restore it before giving up and scrapping it.

I've seen some real honeys of cars too, though - seeing the occasional extremely mint Type RA Impreza always makes me go back and look at the current auction sheets.

A quality inspection is even more necessary when you're physically this far from the car.

Quick question: What happened to the Porsche and 16v Mercedes in the background? If these cars are in Japan and as cheap as the JDM cars, why do we not here of Euros coming in from Japan? I get that they can be had in Europe in correct-hand-drive. I'm just wondering if there is a price difference that might make JDM more, or less, desirable.

People do import euro cars from japan. I know of someone who is working on importing a Delta Integrale 8v right now. That cars price is comparable to what I paid for this skyline. The later EVO version though is more expensive like a GTR is though. However the non-evo is basically 99% as good.

They also have cars like Alpina BMWs and anything interesting at all really.

Looking at it right now exotic cars match US prices closely. Like i'm looking at 911s and 911SCs that are mint are $14k. Later importable non turbo 911s are in the high teens to 20s. Turbos in the 30s. You can get 4 rating NSXs in the 20s, 4 rating is ultra-mint. My car in the video is a 3. NSXs on that level here are in the $30s minimum. A couple of 3 and 3.5 rating NSXs sold in the teens. Which is the same price I see E30 M3s having sold for.

However "regular" cars seem cheap. Keep in mind that FD RX7s and MK4 Supras are not even >$10k.

It seems the value varies widely depending on the car. There is not logic behind it on what we would consider valuable.

Junkyard_Dog wrote: Quick question: What happened to the Porsche and 16v Mercedes in the background? If these cars are in Japan and as cheap as the JDM cars, why do we not here of Euros coming in from Japan? I get that they can be had in Europe in correct-hand-drive. I'm just wondering if there is a price difference that might make JDM more, or less, desirable.

There are quite a few Mercs and BMW's come into Canada from Japan, and for some strange reason, most of them are left hand drive. The ones I have seen need a new radio to catch North American frequencies, and the BMWs always require a thorough search to find some sort of serial number- For some reason the Bavarians hide it quite thoroughly. If you lie in the trunk and look up, you may find it stamped into the underside of the rear parcel shelf.

Some of them, particularly the old mechanical injected ones, often need a fairly serious fuel system rebuild after sitting on the docks for months, or even years.

Streetwiseguy wrote:

Junkyard_Dog wrote: Quick question: What happened to the Porsche and 16v Mercedes in the background? If these cars are in Japan and as cheap as the JDM cars, why do we not here of Euros coming in from Japan? I get that they can be had in Europe in correct-hand-drive. I'm just wondering if there is a price difference that might make JDM more, or less, desirable.

There are quite a few Mercs and BMW's come into Canada from Japan, and for some strange reason, most of them are left hand drive. The ones I have seen need a new radio to catch North American frequencies, and the BMWs always require a thorough search to find some sort of serial number- For some reason the Bavarians hide it quite thoroughly. If you lie in the trunk and look up, you may find it stamped into the underside of the rear parcel shelf.

I was looking at euro cars and EVERYTHING euro is LHD. Alfa Romeo, BMW, Merc, Euro Ford, etc. Almost bought a Cosworth Sierra from there, another reasonably priced amazing car. Went for above my $6k budget tho iirc it was like $7k but it had half the KM of the car i ended up buying.

It's weird too because I thought euro ford produced a good number of RHD cars for the UK market.

I see a EVO1 Integrale with 80k KM sold for $11k which is a super deal.

Check out this: http://pacificcoastjdm.com/auctionsearch

it has the login and password there as a guest account so you can see what things sell for. There is a tab when you log in that says: Japanese Auto Auctions Sold Prices

kanaric wrote: I was looking at euro cars and EVERYTHING euro is LHD. Alfa Romeo, BMW, Merc, Euro Ford, etc. Almost bought a Cosworth Sierra from there, another reasonably priced amazing car. Went for above my $6k budget tho iirc it was like $7k but it had half the KM of the car i ended up buying. It's weird too because I thought euro ford produced a good number of RHD cars for the UK market.

It's some sort of status symbol/non-conformist thing in Japan that if you are "odd" enough to drive a foreign car, it should be LHD.

question for you since you have dealt with the company you linked to.

do you say "get me an importable gts-t for under $xxxx" or do you find the specific car on auction that you want and send them after it?

this is very pertinent to what told myself my next vehicle purchase would be.

patgizz wrote: question for you since you have dealt with the company you linked to. do you say "get me an importable gts-t for under $xxxx" or do you find the specific car on auction that you want and send them after it? this is very pertinent to what told myself my next vehicle purchase would be.

The places that look for you wanted 2000 more than what I paid.

here you look at the auctions and find what you want. They translate the inspection sheets so you know the issues and you tell them how much you would pay up to for it

BoxheadTim wrote:

kanaric wrote: I was looking at euro cars and EVERYTHING euro is LHD. Alfa Romeo, BMW, Merc, Euro Ford, etc. Almost bought a Cosworth Sierra from there, another reasonably priced amazing car. Went for above my $6k budget tho iirc it was like $7k but it had half the KM of the car i ended up buying. It's weird too because I thought euro ford produced a good number of RHD cars for the UK market.

It's some sort of status symbol/non-conformist thing in Japan that if you are "odd" enough to drive a foreign car, it should be LHD.

That's so weird! Japanese auto enthusiasts in North America would never consider right hand drive to be a status symbol.

/funny how everywhere else can be just like home

kanaric wrote:

patgizz wrote: question for you since you have dealt with the company you linked to. do you say "get me an importable gts-t for under $xxxx" or do you find the specific car on auction that you want and send them after it? this is very pertinent to what told myself my next vehicle purchase would be.

The places that look for you wanted 2000 more than what I paid. here you look at the auctions and find what you want. They translate the inspection sheets so you know the issues and you tell them how much you would pay up to for it

thanks for the info. i'm looking to put myself in the market for a purchase very similar to yours next year, it's nice to know there is a reputable company to go through for purchase/inspection/shipping.

As far as LHD goes, I think there could also be an element of the Japanese concern for doing things the proper way, especially with regard to things "foreign" in Japan. For example, you eat European food seated at a table with a knife and fork (and not on the tatami with chopsticks) because that is the proper way to do it. Or you golf in golf clothes (even if you are a once-every-five-years golfer) because that is the proper way.

In reply to ae86andkp61:

Someone was telling me that this was why Japanese cars always have their badging done in romaji. Cars are from the West where the Roman alphabet is used, therefore romaji is the proper way to badge a car.

Knurled wrote: In reply to ae86andkp61: Someone was telling me that this was why Japanese cars always have their badging done in romaji. Cars are from the West where the Roman alphabet is used, therefore romaji is the proper way to badge a car.

I have heard this as well.

thanks for the info. i'm looking to put myself in the market for a purchase very similar to yours next year, it's nice to know there is a reputable company to go through for purchase/inspection/shipping.

If you want a R32 it would be much easier for you to find a car as well because you would have two whole years that are available to import soon or now where I wanted mine this year and production of these started in May. This was not only the best car I could find but the earliest and I just got lucky in finding it.

Next year too you have Pulsar GTIR available if you are into Nissans. 2800lbs with SR20DET with ITBs and a GT28RS style turbocharger with AWD in a hatchback body. If this was next year I would have been looking for one of those as well. I was also looking for a Familia GTR, those you can import now too. I was looking at AWDs as well because I traded in my WRX and i kind of missed it.

i actually have had pretty much your exact car floating around in my head for a few years, and told myself it was time to start looking when they hit 25. the finances are a year or so behind the want.