Clues To Finding a Clocked import
 

I went to a dealer today to look at a few Scoobys mainly WRX's. Seen on for 5k. P REG car looked to be in very good nick seats didn't seem worn. Underside of vehicle looked in good nick.

The mileage though read 50k so thats about 31000 miles for a 12 year old car. I looked at the other scooby's and they were average some 50k to 70k.

Asked the dealer about service history and he said the vehicle had none. On asking if they had been clocked he said it was a possibility but they couldn't tell me if it had or not, just told to keep up with the servicings.

Was with my mother who was looking at three toyota's all had exactly 1000k.

Sorry 4 the long read.

depends who the garage is if they are reputable or if its Big Bobs motor imports down under the arches !!!!

imports can come in good condition. At the time most scoobies for my price range were 80,000 + miles and I wanted a standard one. 5 K for a P reg the milage maybe genuine. i hung around and found my car i wanted for 4500, it was tidy had a new set of 18's and was 100,000KMS / 60,000 miles on an N reg.

being an import most dont come with history mine didnt, and if it did it would be japanese.

so check the dealer history
ask some questions about the car
have a good look over it

theres not much u can do to tell in this instance
but if u dont feel comfortable over it , keep on looking mate theres plenty around.

The car looked in general in good nick The dealer was in Bradford so if anyone lives in that area could tell me any decent dealers I would be grateful.

I took some photo's but can't seem to post them onto here.

private for sale section on here theres some very nice looking uk models on there at the moment with genuine low mileage ie (a full service hisory)
bit of a no brainer really :thumb:

JDMs dont have service books (sorry people about to post and correct me, they do not, so youve been had in all likelihood). Look for stickers in and around the engine bay (and onthe dash side in the door-shut, stating odometer readings when oil changes were completed or timing belts changed). If these have been removed then alarm bells should ring. If theyre newly imported cars and they came from a docks auction or the 'importer' cant supply the appraisal sheet (from the Japanese auction): 'Warning Will Robinson !

I respect your knowledge of imports, but mine does have the a service book much like we'd have in the UK that has been filled out and stamped for the first 6-7 years of the car's life, starting with the delivery check from new.

I don't really see how having this means I've been had? I don't really care that it has been filled in, as you say - original auction sheet and recent oil change/timing belt stickers are better.

I don't know my imports but I know my "Lost in space"

"Danger Will Robinson", surely....

PS: I did not write this wiki article :)

Danger, Will Robinson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mine has a service book too, the same as the UK one, only in Japanese.:)

[quote=KINGTIGER;7349982]I went to a dealer today to look at a few Scoobys mainly WRX's. Seen on for 5k. P REG car looked to be in very good nick seats didn't seem worn. Underside of vehicle looked in good nick.

Look for other contact points. Gear knob, wheel, pedals, footwell carpets/mats, door opener. Do these look in good nick/tidy.

And any iriot can read a bit of jap :thumb:


serial no.plate on right hand susp mount under bonnet

For a high value vehicle its worth the importers time having the computerised service records transcribed.

Check the pedals, gearstick and steering wheel for wear that looks suspicious.. When looking for a WRX the first time just about every car I saw had been obviously clocked, its sooooooooooo damn easy im not supprised alot of them get clocked.. Stuck with a UK car this time with full history, the car has done over 100k miles and its in better condition than most of the '45k mile' cars I looked at before.

Also, its pretty cheap for a dodgy car place to stick a new gearknob and set of aftermarket pedals on, and even swap out the seats from a scrapper ( look how cheap you can buy a complete set of seats on Ebay or a breakers ! ) so you cant totally go on this. Could easily add £1000 to the value of a clocked car for only spending a couple of hundred.

Personally, if I was after an import I would only go for one that has proof of mileage, or is being sold by one of the reputable import dealers. There is an awful lot of crap gets sold from the dock auctions and ends up in the smaller or less reputable dealers - most of which look to have been messed about with in one way or another with parts being changed etc...

When I was looking for my first Impreza, I saw loads of real sheds - would much rather pay the extra money and know the car hasnt actually done twice the mileage with no belt changes and run on some cheap oil.

I saw a few with the seat bases swapped over from driver to passenger side which is interesting :D

I looked at the steering wheel pedals and alike and all seemed ok, but as u hav said its easy to change them. Noticed that steering wheel was different (aftermarket) and a scooby two vehicles down had the same steering wheel.

Anyway I'm not going to risk it so I will await and my car will turn up.

Slightly off-topic, but do all Japanese drivers wear rings that mess up the leather on the steering wheel and gear-knob.......?

Sorry but my JDM Legacy came with a full collection of Subaru Service Books and handbooks from Subaru Hiroshima. It relates to all the milages and service records on the car whichis only 3 yrs old. It was imported via Iain Litchfield who is not know for "having people", but if you want to argue give him a ring he sponsors a Forum on here.

I got mine from Bradford mate , place called Jap Performance UK

they have a decent website.

ps stay clear of Keighley trade centre which is also not far up there, dont mean to dis them personally but just search the name in these forums and youll see what i mean. :thumb:

On this subject, are there any tell tale signs on the import classics if it's been in a crash e.g extra welding etc in the engine bay?

Thing is - pedals and gearknob can be worn out in as little as 30,000miles.

I should know :o (damn heal and toeing and urban driving :rolleyes: )

Nope, unless its been badly done.

A good repair will be highly difficult to spot. Although a bodyrepairer will have a much keener eye than Joe public will ever have.

What a pointlessly confrontational post. Ive explained the Japanese domestic used car market here more times than I care to remember. A very very small minority of cars have their books completed; others are worth having a paper record completed by the servicing dealers before export.

There is no suggestion that Iain is anything other than honest but that doesnt alter the fact that most 'service histories' are fanciful.

i think the confrontational nature of the post, was due to your previous abrupt approach to an earlier reply.

without wanting to fall out with you simon (as we get along well enough), sometimes you come across "abrupt", although 9/10 times you are right.

***please dont call me a cock***

:)

The UK ones go manky too, just the crap build quality.

A couple of points:

JDMs come in two flavours - those imported from new (therefore generally having all the bits and pieces a UK car would have incl an English service book) and those imported as second hand which may or may not have evidence of history. My previous WRX Classic was imported from new and all servicing was UK based.

Why not ask on here if anyone had previously owned that car? I would have thought most people with JDMs would be a Scoobynet user.

Any Impreza can be clocked, be it a Uk car or a grey import. A car has no paperwork and service history makes it much easier for a car clocker. UK cars generally have a long papertrail, past MOTs, service receipts and a stamped book, all help to make is less likely that a cars mileage has been tampered with.

I'd doubt many mileages when I see that they are very low and there's no service history or documents. One phrase that makes me laugh is 'fresh import'.On balance, you're more likely to buy unkowingly a Grey import that's been stolen or clocked than you would a UK car.

I love the way people do go on about imports and service history! I have people calling me on 17 year old MR2's asking if they have a full service history.........stupid buggers!!! How many Escorts / Fiestas / Astras or any other 17 year old UK cars would have a service history? None!! Yes, i know they are not high performance cars but any old car needs love attention and servicing to look and go well.
Talk to the dealer, does he have a clue what he's saying? Look at the car......does it look straight / does it drive well / does the engine sound harsh or rattle at all / is the interior in good condition...yes...well the chances are if the interior and body are in good order then the rest of the car will be fine.
I run an import company and sell cars all over the UK, it's only a small company i admit but like many other dealers i do give a damn and i only sell cars that i know and love such as GTR's, STi's, MR2's, Evo's and the odd 996.
Dave.
ps....with reference to the last post, a newly imported stolen import is far, far less likely than buying a stolen/ringed/cloned UK car my friend!!

With reference to the last post. My friend, maybe it is the case for a newly imported car, but where have I said newly imported car? You can get greys that were imported well over a decade ago, well before any BIMTA check.

Regarding your assumption that many 17 year old cars won't have a service history. The point is mute as many 17 year old cars have been scrapped. Those that remain are likely to be 'sports' models and enthusiast owned, (probably the biggest hoarders of paperwork relating to a cars history there is) and the most fussy about history and paperwork when it comes to buying. I don't run a car business but I've bought and sold well over 20 cars in the past few years, ALL have had a service history and/or a bona fida papertrail. If a car didn't I wouldn't buy it. It's stood me well.

I wasnt replying to a previous post Andy, I was just offering an opinion based on my experience. As you know Ive explained this before giving chapter & verse. I was more brief this time, after being up since 4am!

Simon

:lol1: try living via the zombie shift. point taken.