Importing 911's from Japan

[speedracer]

Anyone ever buy an imported 911 from Japan? There is a local guy to me that imports BMW's, Mercedes, and Bentleys from Japan which are all LHD and have very low miles. A friend of mine bought an immaculate 90's 5 Series Bimmer with only 30,000 miles on it! Wondering if there would be a good selection of 911's there too. Would they be Euro models ?

I think this guy might also be bringing in his 911's from Japan.

http://eurosportimports.com

check out his "sold" section. All really clean 911's with super low miles.

Any thoughts?

[ubiquity0]

Why would there be so many LHD cars in Japan?

[biosurfer1]

low mile cars from japan arnt too rare, they have some kind of law/rule there that the engines have to be replaced at a certian milage, not sure how much but its less than 100,000, thats why the racer JDM market is so big over here.

[LakeCleElum]

I would be concerned about the salt air in Japan....They have strict laws regarding vehciles and many low mileage cars are parted out. These strict laws require expensive maintaince periodically that often exceeds the value of the vehicle. Due to the condensed geographic area; I would expect most vehicles to be low mileage.....

[Jeff Alton]

I do service work on an 88 that is Japanese import. This car was brought in by Alex at Eurosport. I have seen a lot of his stuff. He also gets a lot of cars from Europe. Japanese spec is the same mechanically as the US cars. The Japanese ones he gets all come through auction. That said the one I work on is a really nice car. NO sunroof, strange rear seat configuration, and it only has around 60000 kms. Might even be less. Alex likes to try to get top dollar for his cars. If you see one you like, drop me a line, I might be able to go look at it for you.

[speedracer]

Originally posted by catca
I do service work on an 88 that is Japanese import. This car was brought in by Alex at Eurosport. I have seen a lot of his stuff. He also gets a lot of cars from Europe. Japanese spec is the same mechanically as the US cars. The Japanese ones he gets all come through auction. That said the one I work on is a really nice car. NO sunroof, strange rear seat configuration, and it only has around 60000 kms. Might even be less. Alex likes to try to get top dollar for his cars. If you see one you like, drop me a line, I might be able to go look at it for you.

Good info catca, thanks. Yes I inquired about one of Alex's cars a while back it was an SC with around 140,000 k on it. He wanted around 29,000 CAD for it which seemed a little high. All of the cars on his site have the euro side markers. Did the Japanese one you speak of have that as well?

[Jeff Alton]

The Japanese cars had the side markers as well. They also have an extra sensor that near the cat that triggers a dash light for some sort of emmissions issue. 29000 is more than a little steep. He does not have much room to store stuff from what I can tell, so if you see something that has been there awhile, he might be a little more willing to deal!! I think the 88 was sold in the low 30's last year, but it is a low KM, really nice original car.

Jeff

[c911s]

I looked at a 79 SC coupe this fall that had been bought 1 yr earlier from Eurosport. Had only 66K km. Some service records in Japanese, apparently had been stored for a few years. The body was in great shape, interior also, headliner had some water damage from a leaking rear window seal. Owner was asking 25K CDN, basically what he paid for the car. I had an inspection done on it, and it turned out that it needed a fair bit of work, broken head studs, blower, AC etc. Inspection said the car was set up similar to European models.
There are other dealers in Vancouver that also have Japanese imported 911's for sale, I have looked at a few, some with low kms have lots of cosmetic issues. Overall I would say that they are being sold at prices above what a good local car will go for, although local cars will have higher kms. Look at www.eurosportimports.com for one site.
The car I looked at was a silver 79SC, you will find it in the 'sold' section of the site.

[konish]

I lived in Japan for two years and my wife is Japanese (from Nagasaki). Japan does have very strict laws about older cars. Essentially, before they can be registered, the need to be "inspected" by the local version of the DMV. The tech looks over the car with a fine toothed comb. When he presents his list to the owner, its usually a matter of then finding the nearest place to either ditch the car (literally abandon it) or to pay someone to dispose of it.

The older the car gets, the more expensive the list gets too. I really think its a way of forcing an individual to remove a car from the road to buy new. Seriously, I bought and sold several cars in Japan, and they were all super solid...just need stuff like brakes, tires, maybe an exhaust, tranny flush etc. I knew people in Japan that would simply trade a vehicle over because it had gone through the original set of tires.

Trade in value of farily new cars is absolutley terrible. Just a cultural thing about buying used prevents the used market from holding ANY value. Also, when disposable items like tires need replacing, you literally have to weigh the cost for tires vs the value of the entire car. The tire purchase can literally drain your wallet, because at the next registration inspection, you'll have to address a TON of other "found" problems. You have to remeber we aren't talking about Porsche's or other high dollar cars...mostly the "Kei" cars suffer the most. Really these things have become disposable.

Finally, basic maintenance in Japan is horrible. Tires, oil, brakes, radiator fluid etc just does not get changed/replaced as often as it should...the cost is simply too high to do on a routine basis. The other thing is that most families don't have the space to DIY a car, or simply don't know how (even though they have to take basic maint. classes to get their drivers licenses). I used to work for my relatives all the time at the base auto hobby shop...they thought I was some kind of genius and it alwasy led to being invited over to dinner (read: More food than any group of human beings could possibly eat in one sitting)

I'm looking for orders to go back, and when I do, I'm going to buy Japanese 911. Cars older than 30 years do not need US compliant equipment...I know after doing the research when I wanted to buy a vintage 1968(?) Nissan (Datsun) Skyline. Usually if a car needs enough "basic" work, the owner may even pay a person to come take it away! I'm certain that isn't going to happen with a Porsche, but you just never know...

Long post, sorry, but it just made me recall some very fond memories of Japan....

R/
Dustin

[Zeke]

Originally posted by ubiquity0
Why would there be so many LHD cars in Japan?

Maybe they were imported used?

Like he says, once they get to a certain point, they get stored or sold. Stored is a problem due to space.

I sold 2 cars to a Japanese national who imported them to Japan. He said they would be simply trophies and never driven legally. When the economy tide shifts ( which I wonder if it ever will at this point), all these collector cars and motorcycles will be on their way to another country, the one holding all the marbles at the time. (China comes to mind )