jimmyca69 wrote:A few people have now asked for how i went about importing my DC5 and who i contacted before deciding on newera. So thought i might do a post of how i went about it to give people thinking of doing the same thing just an insight into my experiences.
Simple place to start was to decide on the car i wanted - Since i first saw the DC5 i loved it. But there are certain things needed to sort out before even thinking of getting one
1.) Check out owners clubs and online info to get an idea of the prices they sell at when already in the UK and also obviously all the info you can on the car. Car prices over here will tend to me lower than fresh ones imported as for starters you would be the first UK owner and generally Japanese cars are of a higher quality condition.
2.) How common are they in terms of being imported, Rx7's DC5's, Evo's, Skyline's etc etc are quite common in terms of companies importing them so you have pretty much the choice of every import company. Some like the EK9 or Euro-R are rare. Only recently i think did someone actually purchase the EK9 report themselves to become the only place in UK to import EK9's.
3.) Finally you need to look at some of the import companies and how much fresh imports are to get an idea of what you will be paying and whether you can afford the spec you want.
So now you have you mind set on a particular car - you have done the research and believe you have the budget to import one to your spec. At this point you have 3 options to you
- use auction companies such as Bonsai Cars who will purchase cars at auction and get them to the UK for you. These tend to include auction price, shipping to UK and include import and VAT as well. They will also offer options to SVA test the car (ill mention that later) and get it ready for the road for a set fee.
- Import the car yourself, buy it through an auction site, arrange for shipping and also SVA testing once in the UK.
- Use import companies who will discuss your OTR budget and then find you the car and do everything needed to get it in the UK registered and ready for you.
I took option 3, as i saw it option 1 involved lots of hidden costs that didnt make it much cheaper than getting a company to do all the work. It also meant that if you decided to SVA the car yourself you would need to organise all this yourself. Option 2 seemed to much like hard work, relying totally on the auction sheet for info on the car and all the hard work of organising transportation of car, shipping, SVA'ing, registering etc etc from the opposite side of the world.
So now i had decided the DC5 was for me and that i would get an import company to find one for me. Now it was time to research all the companies and find out what each one promised to do and how they were to do it.
I scoured the web for loads of info, trying to get my head around how the auctions work in Japan. I still dont fully understand it but got some great websites that list the auctions occurring in Japan and i looked at them to see what was about. I made a list of all the companies i was going to contact and set about creating a std e-mail template to let them all know what exactly i wanted so that i could compare responses as well.
Here are most of the companies i contacted
www.neweraimports.com [email="miguel@neweraimports.com"]miguel@neweraimports.com[/email]
www.futurautos.co.uk [email="info@futurautos.co.uk"]info@futurautos.co.uk[/email]
www.litchfieldimports.co.uk [email="info@litchfieldimports.co.uk"]info@litchfieldimports.co.uk[/email]
www.gt-culture.com [email="SALES@GT-CULTURE.COM"]SALES@GT-CULTURE.COM[/email]
www.dicksonsmotorgroup.co.uk [email="sales@dicksonsmotorgroup.co.uk"]sales@dicksonsmotorgroup.co.uk[/email]
www.japaneseperformancecars.com [email="sales@japaneseperformancecars.com"]sales@japaneseperformancecars.com[/email]
www.wickedkit.com [email="sales@wickedkit.com"]sales@wickedkit.com[/email]
www.bristolimportcentre.co.uk [email="sales@bristolimportcentre.co.uk"]sales@bristolimportcentre.co.uk[/email]
www.car-imports-direct.com [email="mailbox@car-imports-direct.com"]mailbox@car-imports-direct.com[/email]
www.torque-imports.co.uk [email="enquiries@torque-imports.co.uk"]enquiries@torque-imports.co.uk[/email]
www.churchsperformancecars.co.uk [email="sales@churchsperformancecars.co.uk"]sales@churchsperformancecars.co.uk[/email]
Most of these have an online form you can fill in but i wanted to e-mail them all first to see what kind of replies i got. If i didnt get an e-mail response id fill in their online form.
The e-mail i sent explained i was looking to buy a DC5 and i wanted the following spec. Listing Car Model, Preferred Colour, Mod's/Extra's, Condition(auction grade), if warranty needed, max mileage and On the Road budget. This will give you an idea of whats available. Once you have this info then you can follow up the companies that you like the look of, and e-mail them for more info on the import process.
Look out for companies that
#only charge a set fee (so any savings made on Car you benefit from) #install security and if its included in OTR
#conversion work is carried out in budget
#give you choice of foglight position (some cut bumper)
#touch up stone chips and any scratches etc
#provide additional services such as warranty, underseal etc
The company that most impressed me were Newera, they even declined to look for me when budget was less than eventually paid. Saying they wouldnt want to put their name behind something not at a great standard - which impressed me. Look around though as if you are on a tight budget see if you can get the most out of what you have available.
So the company was decided and a deposit put down. Note that i found different companies have different ways of payments. Newera request initial 10% deposit then costs of purchasing it in Japan due before shipping, and then final payment 2 weeks before it docks. Others asked for 20% deposit then final payment when picked up. Check this out when looking at their websites as all will list the procesdures they use. Make sure you understand them before committing!!
Thats how i found my importers
ill post later the details of how companies search the auctions and then list all the actual costs your paying for in an OTR budget.
