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Importing a British Japanese Import!


f1steveuk
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Many of the bargains listed on Ebay are Japanese imports. The way they work there is that hardly anyone drives a car over 2 years old, and so a trade has developed bringing low milage Japanese cars to the UK. There are differences some times (MR2s with smaller dia brake discs) but most are exactly as the UK without underseal and a different name.

Now, what if you have a Mazda Eunos, Better than an MX5 as it has air con (in a soft top!), underseal it, great, headlighta are round, and there are left hand drive examples to get parts from, but has anyone tried to import into France any of the more obscure Jap' imports, where perhaps headlights are just simply not available?

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Steve, have you not had your fingers burnt with the Ducati saga?

If you have a JAP import do you think that it will have a EU certificate of conformity? I don't. Would probably cost a fortune to get it on French plates even if it is possible.

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The problem is the equivalent of the MOT / CT in Japan, which almost requires the car tto be completely stripped and rebuilt at three years. You are heading for trouble though at least half a dozen saga's on the various forums of people starting very ethusiastic before finally either concedding defeat or spending large amounts of time and money. Search on Mitsuibishi ?
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Interesting that you mentioned headlights Steve as the biggest problem can indeed be getting LHD headlights for some of those vehicles. Some were never imported to LHD countries and therefore never had headlights made for them.

It's the first thing I would check if going down that route.

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First of all you will need a European Cerificate of Conformity:

  1. I bet you can't get one from the manufacturer

  2. DRIRE won't have the vehicle on it's database

So you will have to go for the equivalent of individual type approval, involving acres of paperwork and an inspection by the Departement des Mines They will be very picky - e.g. does each light glass have an 'E' mark.

It takes ages getting through the bureaucracy, so don't go there! I've done it with a 1992 Isuzu - too old for CoC, and the paperwork has been with DRIRE for 2 months, and I haven't even had a date for the inspection yet.

Similarly I struggled to register a Spanish plated 1999 Ssangyong. The log book had the European Conformity number on it, but it still took 3 visits to persuade them that that was the number they needed to issue the paperwork.

As for trying to register an English trailer, even with a Coc........!!

 

Bonne courage, Peter

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History lesson coming up.......

The market for importing Japanese spec vehicles into the UK is driven by the profits to be made by the importers - and, of course, the fact that these vehicles are RHD.

When the profit opportunities were first recognised in the UK, the regulatory import structures for the 'trade'were not favourable and as a result, dishonest traders resorted to falsifying documentation to simulate private purchases.  The traffic in illegal imports was facilitated through bringing the cars in through the docks at Dublin then to Liverpool and onwards to the rest of the UK.  Given the non-compliance issues, the banks and finance companies were reticient about financing these vehicles, so the level of fraudulent credit applications increased.  The problem escalated to such an extent that the North West Regional Crime Squad mounted a major operation to identify and arrest the fraudulent traders. 

The situation was alleviated as a result of later talks between the Home Office, DVLA, HM Customs and Excise and the Finance & leasing Association, following which, changes to the import regulations were introduced to permit 'trade' imports on a more controlled basis.

One of the practical problems was that Japanese construction and use regulations differ from those in the EU - emissions, lights, seat belts, fuel tank filler, body panels differ (some Jap spec cars are actually narrower than their European equivalents) etc, so the parts infrastructure has had to be developed to support the after sales service in the UK. 

Importing these vehicles into a country like France, where there is no existing market, is expensive and at the end of the day, you are still left with a vehicle that has the steering wheel on the wrong side for continental Europe, which clearly impacts on it's resale value.

 

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Every day, in every way, I become more glad that I bought a UK spec MX5 instead of a Japanese Eunos six monyhs before relocating.

It is a 1996 machine with no A/C or any frills - not even power steering, but DRIRE produced the paperwork for that one (without a CoC) at the same time as they did for my wife's 2000 Astra which had all the right numbers and so on.

A Belgian builder friend has had to sell his excellent Mitsubishi truck in Belgium because, after almost 2 years, he still couldn't get it registered in France!
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Thanks Bob! Actually the Ducati has been easy in the end, Yamaha FZ750 headlight is the same, and as I did my apprenticship with Rolls-Royce, and specialised in parts sourcing, I even found a Fiat 124 clock repaird the Paso one, The speedo was accepted with a Kms mask.

My Eunos/Mx5 was similar. Round headlights were available as there is a lhd equiv' but you have to make sure you underseal them! Speedos are alreay kms. Vehicles like the Mazda Bongo have a Ford eqiuv' ahick makes it easier, but as has been pointed out, the Japanese market only models, though huge value for money would seem to come with a free can of worms!!

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[quote user="f1steveuk"]Many of the bargains listed on Ebay are Japanese imports. The way they work there is that hardly anyone drives a car over 2 years old, and so a trade has developed bringing low milage Japanese cars to the UK. There are differences some times (MR2s with smaller dia brake discs) but most are exactly as the UK without underseal and a different name.

[/quote]

Well, that is interesting. It's amazing how many stories there are about Japanese second hand vehicle exports. Used Japanese cars is something that I have been involved in and I can assure you that most Jap imports brought to the UK are nearer to 10 years old. I would agree that they do give excellent value for money and now the car manufacturers are more willing to supply spare parts for them which makes life a lot easier than in the early days of grey imports. They can be a pain to get insurance on and for home market cars, workshop manuals are hard to obtain and are only in Japanese at best.

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Interesting, the above agrees with I had been lead to believe, it was to do with the tight laws governing older vehicles. When do Japanese cars need the equiv' of an mot/ct, I assumed it was three years. I agree most greys imports are around ten nyears old, but there are awful lot of more recent ones on Ebay.

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I believe it is not so much the laws governing old vehicles but, more to do with cost. The Shaken starts on a cars third birthday and is then every 2 years after that. The Shaken (Japan's equivalent of CT/MOT) is very expensive as it includes a compulsory insurance and a weight tax, It costs between 437 and 874 GBP plus the cost of any remedial work needed for the car to pass the inspection. How many people would want to spend more than a cars worth or even half of it's value on a compulsory inspection ?

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  • 2 weeks later...
I thought that all of the peeing about involved in registering a Japanese car in France - even after passing the sva test in the UK - was prohibitively expensive and time consuming?

There are a few lhd cars that come out of Japan by the way.

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My wife has an imported eunos in the barn which is now under a cover and doing nothing. I was thinking of taking it back to the Uk on a trailer and selling it as I put a lot of new expensive parts on it before we moved to France three years ago and would like to recoup some of the cost.

Have you now registered your eunos or are you still in the process? If is possible it is worth doing as it ia fun little car to drive.

Cheers

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The Eunos is indeed now French reg, but not by me!

I was lead to believe it was done a european CofC as there are few differences on the MX5/Eunos of that age. The headlights were changed by me, as the pop ups are round units, and the car is available as a French market version. Now I feel quite jealous when I see my old car going around!

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We have a '98 Toyota Rav sitting in our drive that we bought in Boucher Rd Belfast. It had been imported from Japan by the dealership manager of the time and eventually placed in the dealerships yard for re-sale in 2002...we bought it.

We brought it here in 2004 and in 2005 the radiator packed in. We placed it in the hands of the local licensed and 'well recommended' mechanic, with all confidence, who then proceeded to render it totally unroadworthy whilst charging us well over 2000 euros for the effort. It hasn't worked since and is still sitting in the drive after it was towed back here...all in great condition but it won't bloody start!

Can we sell it for parts? The Rav AND the local mechanic!!

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[quote user="Jura"]

We have a '98 Toyota Rav sitting in our drive that we bought in Boucher Rd Belfast. It had been imported from Japan by the dealership manager of the time and eventually placed in the dealerships yard for re-sale in 2002...we bought it.

We brought it here in 2004 and in 2005 the radiator packed in. We placed it in the hands of the local licensed and 'well recommended' mechanic, with all confidence, who then proceeded to render it totally unroadworthy whilst charging us well over 2000 euros for the effort. It hasn't worked since and is still sitting in the drive after it was towed back here...all in great condition but it won't bloody start!

Can we sell it for parts? The Rav AND the local mechanic!!

[/quote]

So you paid ?  Think you may get a good price for the mechanic's brain as it probably almost unused.

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Being slightly more charitable if you can get hold of the spares catalogue you may find that other parts fit straight in. In the 60s and 70s Police or Taxi spec parts were in both the Ford and BMC parts lists and were almost always the same parts which were in Special Tunings at three times the price.  
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So we could do ok selling our RAV for spare parts here? She's fine in body and soul it is just that the local mechanic has completely ruined the radiator system. She needs new tyres and battery though. We love her but we cannot afford to legitimise her here...anyone interested?
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Very good question mate. But ever since she came back, on the back of a tow truck, she has never worked at all.

The next car we bought was wiped out by a local tractor driver...long story.

We are verrrrryy careful on the local roads now with our new car and stay well clear of tractors driven by old frenchmen. They should be outlawed. Completely.

 

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