Importing the car from Japan: The Complete story (*including all the bullE36 M3)

unevolved wrote:

Matt B wrote:

unevolved wrote: Man, I wish the 4-door GTS-T was sold over here, I'd probably be driving one of those instead of an E46. I do love me some fast 4-doors.

Well, god forbid you wander into that Buick GNX thread.

Yeah, I saw that. Unfortunately, I'm still stuck on thinking I should never pay more than $5k for a car. Mrs. Unevolved does not agree, however.

Yeah, they tend to do that. My wife seems to think that I'm an unrealistic cheapskate when it comes to furniture. Anytime the price creeps over $1500 I invoke my prerequisite that the couch/bed/whatever better have a motor and some wheels hidden in there somewhere because for that amount of money I want more than fart-absorbing wood and fabric.

I wonder if the Autozam is going to rise in price as well when they're legal? While they have some fans on this board, they don't seem to be most enthusiast's dream ride.

AZ-1s are already fairly expensive and not that easy to find. I don't think that the prices are going to rise that much more, but with most somewhat sought after cars there is a good chance they'll rise some more.

Hmmmm, what kind of numbers are we talking about for an AZ-1?

In reply to Matt B:

There's an az-1 on that jdm auction site that was posted earlier in the thread. Will be interesting to see what it goes for. I'd love to have one if I knew I could fit in it well enough to drive it.

Mazdax605 wrote: This thread is interesting to me as I started the process of import of my 89 Mitsubishi Delica months ago, and I am almost ready to go get it in Canada in August.

I'm still giddy with excitement for this van. Do keep us informed.

So I have the permit and they said they would register it. However nobody wants to insure this car. Before I shipped it Hagerty said they would but now they said they wont because I had a moving violation in March 2013.

Talked to Progressive, Geico, Esurance, Hagerty, Mercury, Allstate so far. I've been awake for 24 hours and spending all day at DMV for them to realize that a export certifcate is a title has drained me so i'll try again tomorrow.

Anyone know of anyone who will insure a car like this? I will find one, it's only a matter of time but I would like to make my life easier, lol.

Awesome thread, kanaric! I love the R32 GTS-T (there used to be one I would see often at my local PepBoys ). It's definitely one JDM car I'd like to own

kanaric wrote: Then theres sites like this: http://www.nengun.com/

Might I also add bidjdm.com ? It's a Yahoo! Auctions Japan (their equivalent of eBay) proxy bidding service. Nengun also has Yahoo proxy bidding. BidJDM has features like shipping estimation and currency conversion. I've used it to get some rare parts for my Alfa 164. Shipping + fees tend to drive the final price up quite a bit but if you shop carefully there are bargains to be had.

It also helps to know katakana (the Japanese syllabary for foreign words) or have a translation website handy.

Datsun1500 wrote:

Mazdax605 wrote: Slightly off topic, but how have you found the driving on the wrong side of the car to be? Also who did you get insurance from? I inquired about getting it through Progressive on a recommendation form a friend on the West coast that has a similar Delica to mine, and they were open to it. Of course I haven't done the insurance yet as I don't have the vehicle, but I will get it soon.

I imported a mini a few years ago, driving on the right side is no big deal, especially in a small car. It's not like you are on the opposite side of the road, you're 3 feet more to the right than you're used to. My insurance is Hagerty, I'd try them.

Agreed (and my Mini and GT6 are with Hagerty as well). Would I want to drive a RHD car in the US every day? No. But for the occasional weekend cruise or drive to work on a nice day, the car being RHD is part of the fun.

In reply to kanaric:

Try all the classic insurance companies. Pretty much nobody wanted to touch the bikes I imported from the UK apart from Hagerty, but I am assuming that the other specialists like Grundy may also be able to insure a special car that's not seeing much use.

Liberty Mutual insured it.

Damn! I've always had a hankering for one of the home market Datsun (240Z body) Fairladys with the 2.0 high output six engine......too rare though.

A bunch of us Canadians have been importing the MGRV8s from Japan (not eligible for US importation yet) and we have a slew of RHD Bentleys here.

Do these companies import motorcycles as well?

Why? Are you looking at VFR400s?

I can't chime in on any personal experience of importing cars, but I do know people who have done it from Europe. There was a guy I was talking to last year who brought in a Capri 2.8injection. He said it was stupidly easy at least for Michigan. He bought the car on e-bay in England and had it delivered to the dock. Did roll on/roll off and drove to N.Y. I think it was with a trailer and drove it home. Here in Michigan you can drive absolutely anything. He got the Police to come out for an inspection. He said all they checked was the receipt, the title, the Vin # (not engine, just chassis Vin) and that the speedo was in mph. They didn't even check the headlights which (when I saw the car over a year later) were still set up for driving on the left so would dazzle any oncoming cars at night. The Police gave him the paper work and he went to the Secretary of State paid the tax and got a title. Even better the person at the secretary of state never twigged that the invoice was in British pounds not US $'s so he paid his 6% sales tax on a lesser amount. He said his costs excluding the car and Michigan sales tax was less than $2,500 out of pocket.

I can talk with more experience on driving LHD cars in the UK and RHD cars on mainland Europe and the US. Simply put it's just not an issue. I don't know why people get so worked up about it. You just drive them! The only time there is even a hint of an issue is if you want to pass someone on a 2 lane road and it's harder to see past them. That's it. If you don't have the spacial awareness to position the car on the road based on where you sit then you shouldn't be driving at all, but that's another issue. The far bigger problem is swapping what side of the road you are driving on. When first moving here, on when going back to the UK it's not an issue swapping sides of the road for the first few days, you are hyper aware of the change of situation. The issue comes once you are getting used to it again, especially when you are somewhere familiar. When I go home to may parents, where I grew up and drove/was driven for many many years. Once I've been there a few days I can almost guarantee that at some point I will pull out onto the main road and if there is no traffic coming to act as a reference point I will set off up the right hand side of the road. Ops!

Adrian_Thompson wrote: I can talk with more experience on driving LHD cars in the UK and RHD cars on mainland Europe and the US. Simply put it's just not an issue. I don't know why people get so worked up about it.

Because you can't get drive-through food, that's why!

EvanR wrote: Because you can't get drive-through food, that's why!

I never use drive-thru's unless I have no choice, but the only other hitch is RHD pretty much requires you to get EZ-Pass (or similar) if you want/need to use toll roads/bridges. Annoyingly, there is one high-speed toll booth in NJ that never picks up the tag in the Mini...

Adrian_Thompson wrote: I can talk with more experience on driving LHD cars in the UK and RHD cars on mainland Europe and the US. Simply put it's just not an issue. I don't know why people get so worked up about it. You just drive them!

Agreed. I fairly regularly took my RHD 911 from the UK to the Continent, and I drove my LHD Integrale both in the UK and on said Continent. It takes very little time to get used to it.

Then again, I wouldn't stop for food at a drive in in France when I can get some rather decent food for the same money at a little country restaurant or the French equivalent of a truck stop.

He said all they checked was the receipt, the title, the Vin # (not engine, just chassis Vin) and that the speedo was in mph.

When they inspected my car all they did was record the VIN. They didn't care about kmh speedo. Same with the lights for me too.

Even better the person at the secretary of state never twigged that the invoice was in British pounds not US $'s so he paid his 6% sales tax on a lesser amount.

For Japanese cars the yen makes that more difficult. They wanted me to get another invoice in dollars and come back. Right now riding on 30 day permit, our DMV here has 90 minute wait times so i'm probably going to put it off for a bit.

Been driving this car for about a week now and drove it to work today. Runs good on 91 octane gas if anyone was wondering how that would work out. I was curious myself. Car has really short gears. Looked online and the final drive is 4.36.

Had a pre (post really) purchase inspection done. car was perfect other than the coolant being infected with rust which i already knew. They said a valve cover gasket is leaking a bit, i don't see it myself but a set of gaskets is like $40 including shipping. Nismo Thermostat, which i'm putting in due to corrosion in coolant as preventative maintenance, is $49. The Nismo thermostat is recommended for warmer temps anyways and i'm in Las Vegas. Same part as on a 300ZX it turns out. All this pretty much shows the quality of these cars really is what people claim. There is not a dent on this thing, it's unreal. Going to post some pictures I took when I get off work.

As far as RHD in America. Drove it onto a Air Force base today and they didn't even give it a weird look. Just took my ID through the passenger window.

Thanks for throwing this up. I've been lusting over Cappuccinos for the last year, and this writeup makes it seem a little less daunting.

Is there anything you would do differently if you import again?

kanaric wrote: Drove it onto a Air Force base today and they didn't even give it a weird look. Just took my ID through the passenger window.

I live about 5 miles from the AFB. When do I get a ride in the left-hand seat? :)

Good luck with the DMV man. I went through the same crap, so I feel your pain.

In Europe the title is a green plastic card (the size of your driver's license) and the poor lady at the counter had to call her manager to ask about it. She kept saying "Well, it's not a title. It's this green card..."

I wanted to scream at her "it IS a TITLE! Stop telling her it isnt!"

My other favorite (same lady) was. "Where did you sign this title?"

(in Europe you dont sign the titles)

"I didn't. There's no provision on the title for a signature."

"Oh.. well, we're going to need this signed. And you're going to need the bill of sale notarized as well"

"Lady, first: The title is in my name. I don't need a bill of sale. Second: Getting a bill of sale notarized would involve me getting a notary and flying with him back to Hungary where we would have to track down the previous owner from two years ago, get him to sign it, have the notary stamp it, and then we'd have to fly back here."

"oh, uh... well... hold on..."

Eventually it was just the right combination of employees, paperwork, and moods that got my car titled and registered.

Not sure how the DMV is down at the south end of the state where kanaric lives, but up here, it was actually pretty simple to register my BMW based on my UK paperwork. Mind you, we don't have to deal with emissions here either which massively simplifies things.

EvanR wrote:

kanaric wrote: Drove it onto a Air Force base today and they didn't even give it a weird look. Just took my ID through the passenger window.

I live about 5 miles from the AFB. When do I get a ride in the left-hand seat? :)

That was Creech not Nellis, lol. I live in the far northwest.

When i get off the graveyard shift i'm probably going to start going to autocross, cars and coffee and things like that again

Heres a rather terrible picture taken at the wrong time of day from a camera phone

Appleseed wrote: Why? Are you looking at VFR400s?

Lol yup. Also like to check out a ZXR400, think that's more in my price range. I'd also take a FZR400 if one was cheap enough in my area.

Hey guys,

The family and I just spent 2 days in Niagara Falls Canada and then went to see my soon to be legal 89 Delica at my importers place in London Ontario.

I was able to finally see it in the metal and drive it around a lot. It was awesome and I can't wait to get it home, but I have more concerns after an odd interaction with the border agent last night on our way home.

I asked about importing the van through the border crossing we were at, and the agent was kind of dicky about it and said flat out that rhd is illegal in the US and the van would be crushed if I tried to import it.

I tried explaining that rhd was in fact not illegal and that the van is 25 years old and therefore legal. He scoffed at me and then called over another agent. They whispered for a few seconds and then the first agent told me to call the guy in charge of this sort of things. He gave me the number and name, but still insisted that the car would be crushed. He seemed excited about it and says they do it all the time.

Should I be worried? Would I be better off just having it shipped, or just get my money back? It seems I am doing things legally by waiting until it is 25 years old but this guy is making me nervous.

I really loved driving the van and I can't wait to have it in my garage.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Chris