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| You want to buy a unit from Japan? |
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Go to http://www.gocarcars.com and pay your deposit, this will give access to the auctions. Rizubi is HONEST. He will put in your bid. He DOES NOT guarantee the condition of the units but he might translate the sheet for you (if he has time) and then you are good to go. The deposit is refunded with the first purchase you make.
Once again, as with almost all the contacts in Japan, he DOES NOT guarantee the condition of the unit.
If the unit was inspected improperly, rated improperly at the auction house or contains hidden flaws it is your problem. It is the same with most importers that you will be contacting and paying anywhere from $1000 to $3500 for their services.
The shipping is taken care of by the Japanese end of it. It becomes your responsibility once it reaches Canadian soil to have the unit go through customs. Most custom places will set you up with shipping to your locale. Then you have the OOP to take care of, any repairs that need doing and you are on your way.
UNLESS THE IMPORTER IS GIVING YOU A GUARANTEE OF CONDITION then do the bidding yourself and save your money. Anyway, it is fun trying to decipher what the auction sheet says and what the unit is really like, contacting the gent in Japan to input your bid, watching and waiting to see if you won. And of course when it comes time to wire the money to a place where you are not in control... waiting the weeks, sometimes months for to get your prepaid unit on a boat just to hear that there is no room so you have to wait another month.
If you are a worry wart then wondering if the unit was strapped in tight or if the boat is going to sink. You have to pay the shipping while the boat is still on the water so there goes some more money into Japan.
Then once it arrives at the dock, if the boys loading the boat drove through a mud puddle then you get to have your truck seized till you can arrange the trucking to the agriwash for cleaning before CIFA will release the unit. At the same time you hope there was no contraband left in the unit (which is a $2000 PER OFFENCE and a black mark on your record). Once it clears customs then you need to get it trucked or railed to it's next destination and hopefully no one left the lights or the key on ($50 -$100 non-runner fee) and of course you hope the kids booting around in your unit have respect for what they are driving. (You could get a travel permit but not recommended till you get it inspected)
Once it arrives at your place then you get the joy of "first love". Now you go over it and check and see if it matched the description at the auction (not that it will do you any good if it doesn't). You get it trucked home and go over it for mechanical imperfections. If you are lucky then you have a turn key rig, all you need now is the paperwork from Japan and you can get your OOP request form, get it inspected, (all repairs and compliances must be done before you get the OOP completed) if it passes then back to the registry depot for your plates. NOW you have your first, straight from Japan, RHD JDM import.
MOST of the middle men that you are paying will only supply the truck to the dock (as stated earlier, this is all taken care of by the Japanese contacts up to this point) so you are paying money for them to put your bid in. I have yet to find one that will guarantee what condition the unit will be in, if it doesn't match the description, "ooops", it is still yours. They do not guarantee the mechanical condition either; they do not guarantee that it will pass the local OOP.
BTW, a side note: if you are buying an imported JDM ask to see the auction paper. This is important, (also cross reference the serial number on the auction paper with the serial number of the truck) you can tell a lot by the auction sheet.
The high-end importers should be earning their money by guaranteeing what you will be getting and if it isn't up to the description then they should be repairing the unit.
Personally, this list has been an eye opener for me; there are a couple of the importers that I thought was registered, legal importers that are not.
You can check here to see if the importer is registered or not:
British Columbia: http://www.mdcbc.com
Alberta: http://www.amvic.org/main.htm
Saskatchewan: http://www.saskjustice.gov.sk.ca/legislation/summaries/motordealersact.shtml
Ontario: http://www.omvic.on.ca/omvic.htm
This search will be quite surprising.
Hope this helps some of you out.
Cheers
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