I think they honestly don't do many miles. While my missus was over there on holiday, she said most people leave their car at home in the week and use public transport, walk or cycle to work.

She couldn't believe how efficient and clean the public transport was. Every time she used the train, it was kept in station for half an hour at the terminating station to be cleaned from top to bottom!!! Would that happen here? Hmmmmmm

Looks like a lot use them for pleasure, and then sell them on after 2 or 3 years when they have that super hard MOT which goes up in cost year on year and gets harder to pass. Whether the stock then sits around for ages not getting sold I dunno, but I think a lot of them are genuine, but obviously you get the scammers amongst them.

It's also mentally hard to get a parking space over there due to lack of space, and I think once people get a parking space and a car, they keep a car to keep the parking space!!

[Edited by Hanslow - 8/7/2003 11:31:54 AM]

I like to keep a look out on the autotrader for various turbo'd jap mobliles and noticed a bit of a reccuring theme. There are loads of older Skylines and Supra's etc, on the importers web pages, with 40k ish miles on them and less. Im talking 10 year old cars!

I know Japan is small and they probably dont clock up many miles, but this looks a bit suspicious to me. Added to the fact you get no service history with them, so you cant verify the miles.

Anyone else notice this?

MB

I've been looking for a skyline for sometime now. Lot's of them don't seem to have any japanese history at all. I would not believe the mileage they have. Genuine low mileage skyline's sell for a premium in japan.

Like my Supe :D Mines 10 years old, looks like its almost just come out of the factory, no dents, 32k miles when I got it :eek:

:D

The Japanese seem to look after their cars more, either that or the population as a whole is more respectful to other peoples property.

Hi mate,

I have no doubt yours is genuine from the look of the interior etc.

But im wondering whether it is a genuine trend that the Jap's dont do many miles, or they're being clocked?

MB

Im very dubious about this too. My mate has a 1990 MR2 Turbo with only 86,000KM on the clock! Whats that around 50,000 miles on a thirteen year old car? Leather has split, steering wheel and gear knob are very worn and it has no history. It does go reasonably well tho so its difficult to say whether its dodgy?

My argument is that you wouldn't spend a fortune on a car in the UK without service history to back up the miles, so why overlook it on a Jap import? Cars DO come with service books in Japan.

I once owned a current shape MX5, bought by myself direct from the auction. The mileage was UK average, (around 30k, 3 years old) so no alarm bells rang. The service book was in the car. All in Japanese of course, but the boxes were ticked and stamped and the KM readings were all there. The condition gave it away, it looked like a 3000 miler. ;) Fake or otherwise the history was good enough for me, and helped sell the car at resale time a year later. Car was 100% reliable and cost me zero both in repairs and depreciation. An enjoyable buy.

The potential for big bills on something like a Skyline should be enough cause for me to walk away if a lack of pedigree is evident.

Caveat emptor applies as usual when buying any car, import or UK. Just my £0.02

Completely agree with you Olly :) Buy with your head, not your heart (and use your missus' wallet :D)

Does seem strange that you seem to get less cars with service history from Japan. No reason why it can't be sent with it, unless they don't keep hold of the info cos they ain't bothered like us brits? Even though it's in Japanese, you can get it translated and find out the history. Shame a lot of it can't be at least provided electronically from Japan via VIN numbers or something. With their technology level, I'm sure everything will be logged ;)

Service history I'm sure must be alot down to the way they are deregistered. I guess alot of people shove the manuals in their car but perhaps not the history, and it could be that its not requested as part of the deregistration etc.

Mine has a partial history but not much, however that doesn't bother me, as MB says above, you can see from the condition of the car that it has done the miles claimed - mine was an auction grade 4, pretty good at 10 years old eh?! :D

I know a lot of Japs keep momentos of their cars for example it is rare to find an imported Carlos Sainz (RC) GT-Four with its plaque so maybe they keep the service history as well????

My 93 Jap import WRX only had 49k on the clock when I bought it, I`ve got quite a lot of paperwork with it and presume that its the history but cant read as all in Japaneese.

The urban myth is that the Japanese are extremely honest and meticulous race, unlike our scummy car dealer element. I believe that to become a motor trader in Japan requires equivalents of UK six figure sums to operate a licence, so trading from the front of a terraced house does not exist. Hence less clocking and fewer dodgy motors, and even less dodgy people.

To be honest you are probably more likely to be caught out by rogue British trader buying a Skyline direct from Japan with a genuine 70k miles, knocking 30K or so off, and flogging to Joe Punter.

The big UK import auctions mostly sell cars with warranted mileage (unless stated) and a (albeit short) money back warranty anyway, complete without dealer markup. A big auction group is easier to tackle than a bloke on a car park if things go tits up, so to me the Auto Trader is a no brainer.

If I were to import a 2nd hand car from Japan again I'd use the same method. Use a jap based broker to source it from the auctions. You get to see the auction sheet that gives a detailed report of the car and verified mileage. You just tell the broker the car you want, its min spec, max miles, colours you don't mind, max price etc and its all done for you. I would never by an import from a UK dealer, the UK dealer is the biggest risk when buying an import - IMO a bigger risk than buying a car on the other side of the planet on the strength of a digital pic.

A lot of early WRXs look like they have been clocked to me.
As mentioned you can find cars with a full service history. (I have a Eunos with full Jap history at the mo)

Steve

I agree, I looked at a lot of low mileage jap imports when I was after a scoob. Some were even as old as my current car at the time (1992). And had as low as 30K miles!

The bodywork on most was faultless (no stone chips parking damage etc) The only evidance of wear was worn gear knobs and pedals. But most the import places by me seemed rather dodgy. In fact all of them I went to have since closed. The rest were people who imported themselves, but were obviously home-based dealers. I was extremely suspicious on cars converted from KMH to MPH. I think the only way to be 100% sure is to import one yourself. Even then, with low miles - your still not guarenteed that it wont blow up 10miles down the road... same as any other second hand car. But what alway got me was that why all the imports I looked at never had any service books, the excuse was it's in Japanease. But I don't care - it's proof of the cars mileage and maintanence, and I know someone who can speak/read/write Japanease anyway (the dealers would normally say the DVLA took it when it was registered) Personally, I thought that was BS.

I ended buying a UK car from a Scooby dealer. I just could'nt trust any importers by me at the time. I think it was worth the extra money.

[Edited by ALi-B - 8/8/2003 1:07:24 PM]

Remember also it is how the miles were accumulated rather than how many miles there are. Japanese cars will almost certainly be subjected to lower average journey distances so 30k miles would possibly have been racked up over loads of short hops - often explaining the percieved inconsistency in wheel/pedal/kick plate wear.

I was in the States recently and my colleagues Audi A6 had 135k miles in 3 years and looked showroom fresh. His driving was basically in top gear at 60mph, cruise control on, on smooth highways with no corners.

I bought a grey Forester S/tb back in 2000 that had 38,000 km (24,000 miles) since 1997 plus a service book and auction/import papers.
The car looked brand new inside. The engine bay was immaculate and the underneath was spotless. I don't know if it had a serious valet but it was as new.
The auction details had picked up dents which were hard to spot.
Unfortunately, three years of UK driving and parking dents have taken their toll.
I guess that Japanese drivers do look after their cars but they can rack up milages. Mine had only done 12,000 KM in its first two years but then put on 16,000km in less than a year, much the same as average miles in the UK.
I can only recommend that if buying a grey then go to somewhere with a reputation and the paperwork to back up the cars condition.

Nick

Well I used to work with a Kiwi and they've been importing Jap cars for years before we did here and its common knowledge in NZ that most cars are clocked, i was unsure if my old STI was but its funny how several years old cars all have the equivalent of under 30K on them and its a myth they don't clock up the miles, japan is like any other country, very built-up cities but lots of open space (and miles of road) in the country and like stated how come no service history? I had the original japanese reg. doc with my old car but not a single bill even though it had been modded.

Gary

All very interesting... Keep em coming!

MB

Avg mileage is less than 10thousand a year, and 7k in the cities... I do about 14 or 15k/kms p.a., but i drive a lot and do trips out to the country pretty often. Natch, some people do huge mileage, and of course, some do almost none (esp those who commute by train and only bring the car out on weekends).

Many Japanese are careful in car parks, so dings are less common, but they do happen. And yes, a lot of the high performance cars do low mileage and serve more as trophy cars...but some are abused/modded, then switched back to "normal" when sold on - and are naturally more hit and miss. And as usual, there are the horror stories that taint the majority...

Cheers:)

my 13 yr. old jap import has 54k miles AND has the japanese service history to back it up :).