The Joshua Tree

I'm toying with the idea of imporing an Imprea from Japan, either by doing it myself or part doing it myself. I believe i know a place that can source a potential car, they could handle the shipping side and all the tings that need to be taken care of at the Japan end. I have a couple of questions.

1. How much would it cost to import the car from Japan via a container including all the relevant paperwork fees that they will need from there end.

2. Once the container arrives, what will i need to pay to be able to get this car out of the docks.

3. What is involved and the costing to transfer everything over so it will be a UK car, i know the obvious things like fog light, speedo being calibrated and possibly changed to miles and MPH instead of kilometers, i know it will need to be undersealed asap.

4. The car will be over 10 years old, i think i read somewhere that if it's over 10 years old it makes the process easier, is it something to do with the SVA/IVA test it potentially needed ?

Any info would be appreciated.

dazdavies

iTrader: (22)

I brought my car back from Australia about 4 years ago now.
Youre better off sticking it in a 20ft container rather that using the various roll on roll off services.

I used Pickfords for mine. I dropped the car off at the depot in Oz and picked it up a month later in their Leeds depot.

I was able to insure it and drive it home on the Aussie plates before it was registered and to and from an MOT centre.

As its over 10 years old you just need to MOT it no requirement for an SVA test.

I'd owned the car over 12 months prior to import so i didn't have to pay import duty.

Before you register it it has to be MOT'd.

The most difficult part of it all was dealing with the DVLA who sent the paperwork back a couple of times with things that could have been cleared up with a simple phone call.

Hope that helps

andy97

iTrader: (1)

I imported a vehicle from the USA, it was around £1800-2000 for RoRo then came the sting, import duty, then vat. I had to have the vehicle converted for lights and it had to pass SVA assessment, which it did with the help of the import company.

Check .gov website it has all the common details re VAT/duty. Ring a few custom clearance companies. They can quickly guide you.

Currently all shipping is super expensive, due to covid.

Im importing some equipment from China and shipping is either ridiculously slow or mega expensive via airfreight. The equipment wont be ready for a few months, so hopefully shipping costs return to something normal

The Joshua Tree

What seemed like a good idea maybe a bad idea given the cost of import duty and VAT, on a car around £20k in value your looking at paying £6k in fees, crikey im in the wrong business lol

Non EC Manufactured Cars - 10% import duty and 20% VAT for private and commercial imports.

hedgecutter

iTrader: (5)

Ro ro is alot cheaper than a container

markjmd

iTrader: (11)

Ro-ro shipping will usually be in the $1200 - $1500 ball-park depending on shipper and vehicle, and is by far the most cost effective. In terms of eventual cost, given you'll pay a total of 30% mark-up in duty and taxes, the sticker-price in $US will normally work out at roughly the same amount in £GBP.

Definitely worth doing for the right car, and if you need any advice on how to deal with the customs handling, DVLA paperwork and so on at the UK end, feel free to PM me (happy owner of a twin-scroll Legacy GT-B that I imported a year and a half ago).

To answer your specific questions:
1. See above (shipping and tax, etc)
2. You need to employ a customs handling agent, who will pretty much do everything for you, including track when your shipment is due in, deal with HMRC, deal with your entry into the dock area to collect the vehicle, etc. A decent one won't charge you more than £200 or so for their own fees for the process.
3. If you're going to try and drive the car from the dock home, you just need to book an MOT and make sure the car has a rear fog-lamp, then find an insurer who will insure it against the VIN (Adrian Flux, for example). Clock conversion isn't necessary for an MOT or for the car to be UK road-legal. If you're trailering it from dock, you will still need to get it MOTed before DVLA will give you a reg plate. The forms to register will look hideously complicated when you first get a look at them, but a lot of what's there doesn't need to be filled out. The trick is knowing which bits that do, and making sure you get those right first time (or expect a long wait).
4. You're right that cars older than 10 years don't need an SVA/IVA, which is very useful if you're buying a model that was never officially marketed in UK/EU. Newer cars aren't a problem, so long as a direct equivalent was marketed here.

As already stated, definitely worth doing for the right car, and not as a big a headache as it might first seem, so long as you go through the right people and know how to deal with the forms.

The Joshua Tree

Mark, that's massively appreciated you going to that trouble to post all the above info .... That helps a lot, thanks for the offer to pm you if i go down that route, i guess once you add up all the fees and add them to the car it won't be about trying to get a bargain from Japan as i think them days are gone, it seems its worth it for the right car is the approach these days. I presume you undersealed yours, to do it proper their would be a lot to remove, how much did you take off and what coverage did you do ? Does an agent handle your custom and VAT costs ?

Thanks as well Daz, Andy and Hedge i've noted what you said.

markjmd

iTrader: (11)

My car already looks like it's pretty well under-sealed, but at some point this summer I will be removing all the under-body plastic guards to have a closer look. It also already had a rear fog lamp (and factory switch for it), which would have been unheard of on JDM imports 20 or 30 years ago.
The agent will indeed handle the customs fees and VAT for you, and will send you an invoice that covers all of that plus their own and any other sundry fees. All you'll really need to do (after paying them) is arrange with them to pick the car up from the docks, and follow their instructions they give you. Generally you'll have something like 7 days to pick up the car from when it's unloaded, before you would be liable for storage fees (£10 - £15 per day).

hedgecutter

iTrader: (5)

I had the importers underseal mine, but it was very basic. Having done it myself in the summer lockdown, I would say you really need bumpers and arch liners off at minimum. Have a look at my spec c thread to see vulnerable areas. The rear subframe and rear arches ( fuel filler neck) need a good coating

andy97

iTrader: (1)

I took mine to a Dinitrol agent, had them do a full body seal job. Ive just bought a home body spray pack to redo truck again after 8 years

The Joshua Tree

After doing a lot of research, and weighing up the costs of importing the car myself ive gone with Torque GT who have been recommended on a few forums like MLR etc. You put down a £1,000 deposit and they do all the searching for you, they have access to the USS inventry and all the other auction sites and dealers, they have their own people in Japan. They can get the car here, and registered far cheaper than i can, it's just a waiting game to see what comes up as i have a few specific requirements.

neil97rs

The whole process of importing is really quite simple and seems a lot more complicated than it is in reality . No importer can get you a car cheaper than you can do it yourself.
The VAT import duties transport costs are all set and have no negotiations. You will pay their fees as well as the exporter , The only plus side of using an importer is you get a car with a warranty and can return if not as described but expect to pay £2-£3k for the pleasure

So for example on a 10k purchase price for the car you will pay
Auction fees
Transport from auction house to docks varies from a few pounds to a few hundred depending where the car is sourced and what port ( normally Yokohama )
De registration paperwork
Shipping cost around £1000 depending on the size of the car container is double the cost or more
Vat 20%
Import duties this is 10% of all the above added together
Transport from docks to home
Conversion, Minimum adding a rear foglight
Mot
Registration with DVLA
6 months road tax
So roughly £10k car on the road in the UK £15-£16 k

Not many cars only fetching 10k as the prices have gone crazy but depends on what you are after . What model what year and condition, Don't rule out grade R cars as some are much better than grade 3.5 ones
Oh and do a Carvx check for £35 to get the Japanese history

The Joshua Tree

Neil, thanks for the response.

Shipping costs have gone through the roof since Covid, the other big thing to do with Japan is the biggest auction there is USS, the average person in the street can't join them or view the inventry, you have to be a resident in Japan plus quite a few other criterias, you need to know someone in Japan that has access to USS as thats where most of the dealer cars come from anyway. Ive done my homework on the grading system and i'm quite familiar with the auction sheets, like you say some grade R cars can be good value as they may have had a tiny scratch and been painted or something equally as minor. By doing it yourself without viewing the car it's always a risk even though the Japanese gradings are a lot tighter than most countries, by doing it the way i'm doing it i get the car inspected before hand, i get lots of photos including the under side, i get their experienced opinion rather than buying blind. Ive worked out the costings, i couldn't do it for anywhere near what a reputable UK based Japanese importer could do it for, because they bulk ship they probably get a better rate, they'll handle all the paperwork and customs as well as the DVLA, i spent days working out past cars that had gone through the auctions and their price to get them over here, it wasn't cost effective. It might have once been cost effective to do it but like you say car prices have gone up as well esp in Japan, it doesn't seem cost effective anymore to do it as an individual, your only option to get the cost down is roll on, rioll off but im not doing that.

hedgecutter

iTrader: (5)

I agree, but what about using a reputable Japanese agent like Mark at Brave Auto International. That's what UK importers do, they use an agent to inspect, but it's hit and miss. I believe Mark inspects himself, but his big selling point is that he has a yard, so the cars actually get properly checked over and run by him. Also nothing gets stolen, which is almost guaranteed at the docks. Indeed, Torque allowed something that I had specifically asked for to be stolen whilst parked up by them at the docks. I would definitely do it myself given the issues I had with them.