C70 S70 V70 Cars: Japanese imports

[Stumo]

Originally Posted by Clogs

Japan has rigorous testing of vehicles so most don't last more than 10-15 years before being effectively written off as unroadworthy.

Some enterprising folk will export the least worst of these to countries with right hand drives, like Australia, New Zealand, and even as far as the UK.

It costs a fair bit to ship a car half away across the world, but they were bought at scrap value. A serious examination is needed before buying.

Australia still has protected local manufacturing so do not Import many used vehicles, but ,
Yes in NZ we import Japanese cars - we have no local plants anymore..Which is a good thing - air conditioning and sometimes power steering were expensive options right up the 1990’s. NZ had to update its fleet and new cars where out of reach for many. Hillman Hunters, And 30 year old BMC offerings where the Everyman cars.
An import now must be UNDER 5 YEARS OLD, and must comply with emission laws, they must also have a stability control system. In the early days of importing (1980’s) there was speedometer tampering and stories of flood damaged cars being bought in, but regs are far more stringent now.
The biggest annoyance is the buttons with Japanese characters, but the list of options is mind blowing.
I worked in the Toyota plant many years ago and they would not use the factory wiring harness as it had too many unused plugs for the non existent options. There was a local business making bare minimum harnesses.
You can still buy new cars fresh from overseas plants at the local dealers, but last years used option with uprated this and optioned that with 25,000km on it still makes sense.
For fun go to www.trademe.co.nz - our local buy sell website and look up v70, you will find 1 import p1 V70R the price is a pipe dream (closer to $7-8k) but this is an example of a fresh to sell Japanese import( they would have been able to import with ‘special exemption’ as this model has special interest .

I would much rather a Japanese import than European (UK) with the salty roads and damp climate... I always get a saddened watching old ‘Wheeler Dealers’ episodes and seeing completely rusted suspension and brake components on a 10 year old car.

[RollingThunder]

Just to add to this, I have a Jap import Landrover Discovery V8 which is absolutely mint. No rust whatsoever despite being 18 years old now. As mentioned ^^^, they lack rust protection so you'll need to do this sap.

Yes the specs tend to be (slightly) different to UK spec, but in a positive way - Jap spec tends to be higher than UK spec simply because the Japanese love their luxuries and gadgets, speaking of which, any Jap import will probably come with a plethora of aftermarket add-ons such as road toll units, TV/DVD players, sat-navs etc etc - most of which won't work in the UK.

Ideally you'll need to budget in a set of tyres as Japanese tyres are made of a harder compound to suit their hot climate. I had some Japanese Dunlops fitted to the D2 originally, and while hard wearing, they are noisy and not as grippy on the colder UK roads. You'll also find that a lot of the rubber components have perished in the heat, and grey plastics may have cracked/hardened/deteriorated. They park most cars in the shade under bamboo type carports, so the dashboards are usually ok, its the bumpers that get fried.

Other than that, you'll find the Japanese really look after their vehicles very well - they are status items over there, and they like everything to be spot on.

Some insurers are a bit funny about imported cars, but you can usually find another insurer that will accept an imported car for a reasonable premium. My Japanese Discovery cost me £50 more to insure compared to the identical UK model that it replaced.

Finally, you may also be lucky and find that road tax is actually cheaper than the UK equivalent (if its a post 2000 car). My Discovery was imported with a CO2 emission of 'unknown' despite it being identical to a UK D2 V8 - it ended up being a band lower than the UK model...

HTH

[DaveNP]

I was under the impression that the Japanese emissions regulations were tighter than ours, and applied retrospectively when they are updated, which effectively takes otherwise good cars off of their roads.

[tonyldee]

A very informative post, Rolling Thunder. The car I have my eye on has been imported by a Bradford dealer who has a host of such vehicles of three or four makes. A 2006 V70 estate, auto, petrol. The engine bay looks brand new as does the interior but as you rightly say, the plastic windscreen trims have perished badly and there is some unaccountable paint damage on the windscreen pillar and extending rearward on the narrow strip adjacent to the roof bars. And ,yes, a sat nav (in Japanese) mounted upright on the dash top, dvd player. Speedo in kph (not a problem) and the dealer blurb tells potential customers "conversion to UK standard" Paid deposit, now waiting for DVLA to forward the V5 and registration number.