Self Importing of a Japanese car

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Self Importing of a Japanese car

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BigMal

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#1275522 1-Apr-2015 16:57

One of the things I liked most about IBC was they would highlight everything wrong with the car. The one I bought was rated 4.5 and had a pin head sized dent and scratch underneath - both flaws were so minute I had to hunt them out when the car arrived. NZ dealers tend take the opposite approach with glamour shots of their cars.

pgsheng

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#1275586 1-Apr-2015 18:05

I just imported one Nissan elgrand with Gulliver, they claim the largest 2nd hand car dealer in Japan with over 460 branches. Nz branch just opened last Nov and they are aiming to the largest dealer in NZ.

Made order in mid Feb and the car just arrived in AKL port. The sales girl is very helpful and fast response. The whole process is very transparent with email updates for every critical steps.

Have a look on glv.co.nz. Their branch in new market and looks quick nice and high profile.

I'm waiting for the final inspection and delivery, so far very happy with the purchase. Just received an air mail this morning that was sent from their HQ in Japan with greeting and introductions and some Japan culture widgets, very surprising.

kiwijunglist

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#1275587 1-Apr-2015 18:10

ibc would be largest I imagine

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heylinb4nz

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#1275976 2-Apr-2015 11:20

Signed upto JCAbid and was surprised at how expensive it was

$5900 NZD (Freight, Insurance, Auction Fee, JCA membership fee, pre purchase inpection)
+ 1200NZD compliance (LTSA) ???
+ 600NZD first reg
+ 60 WOF

= $7760NZD

Then you still have to add cost of car + GST !!!

I worked out a 2006 Skyline 350GT with 45,000kms to be $22,000 all up which is ridiculous considering dealers are selling them for about $13,000.

kiwijunglist

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#1276044 2-Apr-2015 12:57

1800 for compliance and first rego sounds too high. You should go somewhere cheaper to get that done.

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Talkiet

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#1306869 17-May-2015 21:56

Well, the car is here and the company involved has had EVERY chance to do the right thing, so here's the wrapup and what I discovered.

I decided to go with Carwebs in Auckland to manage the bidding, inspection, importing and compliance... ( http://carwebs.co.nz/ ) And initially all was well. Their site is ok to use (They can see all the same auctions as most of the other sites) and I was able to get hold of people by phone to ask some questions.

Their site clearly states that you can place a bid with them, and ask questions / request a translation of the auction sheet BEFORE they will place the bid with the auction house. I placed bids and asked questions on 3 or 4 vehicles and each time they details when they looked into them weren't complete on the auction sheet, or the vehicles were missing a feature I was asking about. In each of these cases their process worked great and I asked them not to bid. No problems so far.

These are some of the relevant conditions from Carwebs site.

Before any bids are placed, we always get a translation of the auction sheet. The auction sheet is a report of the vehicle, and it will list any additional sale features or caution notes listed by the inspector. If the car has any features like leather interior, reversing camera, sun roof, electric seats, etc, this will be listed in the translation. It will also list any issues of rust, dents, scratches, stains, chips in the windscreen, curbed alloy wheels, etc. Our expert staff will go over and check the translation as well as send a copy to you to confirm you are happy with the condition of the car before any bids are placed.

As well as the auction sheet translation we also get the car inspected by one of our qualified independent agents on the floor in Japan. This inspection is an additional measure we rely on to reveal any underlying issues that may have been missed on the auction sheet. We also use this inspection to double check for any additional feature you may be wanting on the car. If the car comes back from inspection with any concerns or it does not meet your specific requirements, no bids are placed. In addition to this 3 step safety check, Carwebs guarantees the condition and compliance of your car.

Then I found a car and it looked good. I filled out their form for bidding and asked for a translation of the auction sheet, as well as specific questions about whether it had two smartkeys (since they are expensive) and if the tyres were snow tyres or normal tyres, and the level of wear. I specifically did NOT ask if they would pass compliance as they can't guarantee that.. I asked these questions about 23 hours before the specified cutoff time for questions.

Then I waited. No answer. Hmm, Oh well, no big deal, maybe they didn't get someone to see the car or maybe the auction sheet was so inaccurate, or they found rust on the underbody or something.

2 days later I get an email congratulating me on winning the auction.

Wait... What?

They apologised for not being in touch with me about the questions I had asked, and congratulated me on winning the auction. They also asked for their 80% deposit (about $20k) and confirmed in the same email that the car had a single smartkey only, and would require new rear tyres at least.

At this point I phoned them and asked very politely why they hadn't given me a chance to retract or modify my bid based on these less than favourable answers and was told "Sorry, I wasn't at work on Friday so no-one sent them through"... (Since that time I have received several contradictory stories from two staff at carwebs about what actually happened, including at least one of them lying outright. I was told that the bid was placed at my initial max bid, and another time I was told that they had subtracted an unspecified amount from it since the car had only a single smartkey)

On the phone at that time, Katherine from Carwebs said they would work with me to address my concerns so I decided to take the risk (of the approx $1200 direct cost implication of tyres + smartkey) and paid the deposit.

I should mention that despite ongoing discussions about whether they should shoulder any responsibility for not following their own declared procedure for handling bids, they remained contactable and responsive about other questions like shipping status etc - although it took longer to get the car on a boat than they said on their website.

Finally, the owner told me he was not prepared to make any financial consideration in respect of their error. (Both he and Katherine were open that their process broke down and they were wrong not to get the translation and answers to me before the bid became binding)

I contacted the MTA mediation service and while they took my concern, they received less than accurate information form Carwebs about the situation and in any case, they are unable to make any sort of binding decision. Eventually they were unable to even give me a written finding so it's clear they are pretty toothless.

The car turned up and was complied in a reasonable timeframe (about the six weeks as specified on their website).

It wasn't groomed though (They state this is included - but in my case they gave a $64 credit since I was not in Auckland) The first I knew about this was when I received the invoice for the final payment.

Although the car passed compliance, the rear tyres were well under legal tread depth and had LARGE cracks near the tread and many smaller cracks around the inside of the tyre near the rim on the rears. The tyre place I got to replace the tyres refused to believe the car had passed compliance like this...

I have also had to get a second smartkey made so I am out about $1000 for tyres + key so I am not happy that Carwebs acknowledged mistake in following their own specified process cost me that money.

The car itself, I am very happy with, and based on some similar models locally that are now available it looks like I saved about $5-6k doing it this way.

I'd probably recommend the process if the car you're after is over about $20k, and isn't common, but I would wholeheartedly NOT recommend using Carwebs. They made a mistake that cost me money, refused to make any consideration for their (admitted) mistake, and mislead the MTA mediator about a few small issues.

Going through the MVDI Disputes process would cost several hundred dollars and I would have to get to Auckland, so the whole process is stacked in favour of the car dealers. Instead I will accurately and fairly convey my experience with Carwebs to anyone interested.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

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skipthedealer

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#1308315 20-May-2015 11:13

Hi There, new to the forum but I came across this post when I was looking for some information about my nav system in my new import.

Just yesterday I received my new import from Japan.
I ordered a VW Golf 2004 and it turned up in the exact condition I was after and there was no hidden cost, except having to buy a new battery as expected.

I see people are asking about which company to use to import your car of choice and what experiences you have had both good and bad.

Well for me I went through http://www.beforward.jp/beforward_newzealand but everyone has their preference

And to be honest I was really surprised as to how easy it was.

I managed to save about $2500-$3000 by importing my own car and that savings is compared to buying from a dealer.

As mentioned before I need to do something with the in-built nav system and radio, but for me I am happy slapping a band expander in there and sorting the nav system out later.

There are no hidden costs with going through BeForward, and I found the people on the NZ side assisting with the import and compliance check very easy to deal with.

With BeForward you do all the bidding and there is a quote stage incorporate so you have a chance to review the auction sheet (and get an emissions check if a euro car) before transferring the money yourself. Cost transferred = cost of car, shipping to compliance center in NZ, and insurance all rolled into one bill paid by telegraphic transfer. On the NZ side I paid emissions check (required for euro car), GST to Customs (paid to the importer here in NZ, compliance fee, registration and I was out the door. I also applied for my import code myself which if you do then it is free.

The compliance center I used was North Harbour Compliance in View Road who do about 250 cars a month and they were helpful and easy to deal with. They even lent me a dealer plate to get to the VTNZ to register my car and put my new plates on for me.

I found the whole process very easy and transparent, and I would recommend to anyone looking for a new car.

If you want to know more about the process then please check out www.skipthedealer.nz where I have listed the process to help anyone wanting to know more info.

Talkiet

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#1308329 20-May-2015 11:23

Very useful information on your site there, but worth asking if you have any connection with beforward at all?

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

afe66

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#1308357 20-May-2015 12:04

Sounds like a breach of FUG for placing an advert for your company to me...

A.

skipthedealer

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#1308407 20-May-2015 12:23

No connection at all to BeForward, I am just sharing my experience because I found it worthwhile in my situation

People have asked me about how I went about it, and I documented my process here so I don't have to repeat to everyone who asks.

I used these guys to import and found it a relatively simple process so I decided to share my findings. And I get nothing from it.

It may answer some of your questions or clear up some thing that you wanted to know about emissions checks or the like, and what costs are involved or the process...

Dreal

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#1356646 1-Aug-2015 15:22

skipthedealer: No connection at all to BeForward, I am just sharing my experience because I found it worthwhile in my situation

People have asked me about how I went about it, and I documented my process here so I don't have to repeat to everyone who asks.

I used these guys to import and found it a relatively simple process so I decided to share my findings. And I get nothing from it.

It may answer some of your questions or clear up some thing that you wanted to know about emissions checks or the like, and what costs are involved or the process...

Then why is your login name 'skipthedealer'?

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breakaway

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#1357798 3-Aug-2015 14:22

Just checked beForward, they don't seem to have any high end cars? No BMW M3, no Nissan 350Z etc? Is that because newer cars in good cond get snapped up by other importers? Seems to be an abundance of econoboxes though.

Doesn't seem to be worth the hassle to be honest. You can get most car yards to knock off 1-1500 on a ~20k car depending on how desperate they are to sell it anyway so a measly saving of $2000 for all the extra work hardly seems worth it. Thoughts? Comments?

Batman

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#1357887 3-Aug-2015 15:35

I went through that thought process and decided it wasn't worth the hassle, as the risks are very high for little gain.

Talkiet

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#1357899 3-Aug-2015 15:43

Well, as I have said - I saved about $5-6k on a car I ended up getting for $24k landed and on the road. I think it was worthwhile and I'd do it again (with a different company), especially for a rare or higher value car - but I'd agree that for a common car under about $20k the benefit of being able to get in and drive it locally before buying is worth a lot.

Cheers -N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

YvonneW

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#1495528 19-Feb-2016 11:23

Hi,

Has anyone had any dealings with Import 2 Order in South Auckland. I've been communicating with a very helpful man called Stefan and am going to bid today. So any reports please tell me now. Thanks

I know nothing :-)

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