Japanese Import Values

[Unregistered]

Hi guys. Have loved the look of these beauties fro years and now have the funds to buy one. Does anyone have a view if an original UK vehicle should command a price premium over a Japanese import? Is there anything else a newbie ought to look out for? Thanks Guys

[amo]

get some history easyr with a uk car

id get a modded 1 from jp as u get more for ur money unless u go to usa turbo or s/c 1

welcome and enjoy

thx amo

[simonprelude]

If both vehicles are already in the UK then the UK car will command a higher price, fresh imports are at whatever price they will let them go for in Japan.

Don't forget even older examples in Japan are still cherished and may well end up costing more than a similar UK car to bring over here.

[Senninha]

If both vehicles are already in the UK then the UK car will command a higher price, fresh imports are at whatever price they will let them go for in Japan.

Don't forget even older examples in Japan are still cherished and may well end up costing more than a similar UK car to bring over here.

I guess a good example of what Simon is referring to would be the early Type R model. V-Tec direct are showing 2 currently for sale in Japan. The sale price for these are around £38k plus shipping and registration etc. They have one here in the UK that they own and this would be ITR of early £30k.

If importing from Japan I would only consider this route for something a bit special and the definition of special would be personal choice. You could look at the Type S or R models or go the route Amo chose which is to get somethign that has been highly modified.

Whichever way you go, good luck with your hunt. Decide what you absolutely must have in terms of specification, check this is reasonable within your budget and be prepared to wait. Many of us here have spent months looking for our current NSX.

It may also pay to register on the site, post a wanted thread, as others could then contact you if they are selling but not wishing to post an advert on the forum

HTH and good luck, Paul

[Papalazarou]

I think the difference between Japanese imports and Uk cars comes down largely to perceptions.

Take the arrival of volume grey import motorcycles in the mid to late 90's.
In the early 90's a Fireblade would cost you around £9K. By 1997 the import market was supplying the same bike for around £7K! The UK dealers in an attempt to save their businesses would either import themselves or try to rubbish the import bikes by arguing they were lower spec, which of course they weren't.
Anyway, for the first few years the import was considered a poorer cousin and sold for less money second hand. After a while however, they became mixed up in the general consumption and few people cared.
the same could be said of Bob Gerards S2K's; around £5K below UK dealer prices they sell well and have a good reputation on the S2K forum. I guess they still sell a little under book but the savings easily cancel this out. However, these cars 'may' be harder to sell second hand because the British public are IMO 'traditional' buyers. We don't like complicated transactions.

Before I bought my car I called about a 'very clean' 94 JDM car on Autotrader for a massive £28K! from the description, the car looked (or looks, it's still for sale) very good and had been in a collection for over 6 years. The car was imported in 2000 but had no history for the first 6 years of its life.
My perception was although it had very low mileage, you couldn't prove it.
I also considered resale and decided that even if that car was a few grand cheaper, it was unlikely to realise anywhere near that in a couple of years time, especially when you consider there was a 91 UK car sold recently for around 24k with only 12K miles.
It seems to me that JDM cars, unless special editions always go for a bit less.

Just a few questions;

1. Do we buy UK cars, even older ones and maintain the service history because we hope that if something goes catastrophically wrong that Honda might help?

2. Do we 'not' pay top dollar for JDM cars because they aren't playing by the rules? And this somehow offends the mainstream British sensibility?

3. Does it really matter these days, when there are probably less than 300 cars to choose from?

Finally, what do we predict the prices of NSX's to be in say 5 years time?


Cheers,

James.

[Unregistered]

Thanks for the very comprehensive replies guys - reminds me of the feel of the old Lotus boards (Do I trade the Elise for the NSX or go deep into debt to keep both?)

Decisions...

[TheQuietOne]

I'd say there are enough differences to justify both...

[AR]

PS Do not forget that the JDM car will not have front fogs, will have a JDM radio and more importantly, it will have JDM shorter gears.

[simonprelude]

And someone will have done something to convert to mph, from a basic signal converter and marking out the k from km/h to a full professional conversion.

Then for the odometer you have to think well the first 20000 were actually kilometers then after that was miles etc.

Sometimes certain parts (windscreens especially) are actually different parts and if something does need replacing it can turn out to be difficult to get the parts and costly.

But at least you won't have the Euro smile on the rear bumper.

PS Do not forget that the JDM car will not have front fogs, will have a JDM radio and more importantly, it will have JDM shorter gears.

[Rob_Fenn]

I basically would only get an import if it was a Type or like Amo's highly modified beast. The only problem is if the aftermarket bits go wrong, what do you do?

If you want a standard car then just be patient, UKDM bargains do crop up.