Is it an Import - Help?
19 May 2002, 02:48 PM
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looking at a car yesterday. In service book, nothing on supplying dealer page, 1st service mark was from a garage in Belfast. Also on V5 first registered 1999 but car mnfctrd 1998 also on V5, Car was debadged so assumed an import. Wanted to buy but my ins co do not insure imports and as both the wife & myself had small accidents last year would cost a fortune to change companies. Was I right.
Alasdair
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19 May 2002, 03:13 PM
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It depends on the word import. There are two types :
Parallel import - got from a european dealer and woudl probably be close to UK spec. You shoudlnt have any insurance worries about one of these but it worth checking.
Grey import - car which was sourced from outside the european dealers. This is most often than not from Japan but it could come from others.
The only real way to tell is the model number and chassis number of the VIN plate. The VIN plate is top of the suspension top under the bonnet on the passenger side.
These are the models codes listed from the faq on the SIDC site ( http://www.sidc.co.uk/faq.htm ) for 1998 and 1999 grey imports from Japan :
GC8E2DD
GC8E2DD
GC8E2SD
GC8E27D
GC8E48D
GC8E47D
GC8E4ED
GC8E4DD
GC8E4DD
GF8E58D
GF8E5ED
GF8E58P
GC8F2DD
GC8F2DD
GC8F27D
GC8F48D
GC8F47D
GC8F4ED
GC8F4DD
GC8F4DD
GF8F58D
GF8F58P
If you VIN plate has one of these model codes then is a grey. Becareful as there is other info on the late as well so dont mix it up with the chassis number and paint code (3 characters). The chassis number on my import is 9 characters where UK ones are 16 I think
Cheers
ChrisP
[Edited by chrisp - 5/19/2002 3:24:39 PM]
Parallel import - got from a european dealer and woudl probably be close to UK spec. You shoudlnt have any insurance worries about one of these but it worth checking.
Grey import - car which was sourced from outside the european dealers. This is most often than not from Japan but it could come from others.
The only real way to tell is the model number and chassis number of the VIN plate. The VIN plate is top of the suspension top under the bonnet on the passenger side.
These are the models codes listed from the faq on the SIDC site ( http://www.sidc.co.uk/faq.htm ) for 1998 and 1999 grey imports from Japan :
GC8E2DD
GC8E2DD
GC8E2SD
GC8E27D
GC8E48D
GC8E47D
GC8E4ED
GC8E4DD
GC8E4DD
GF8E58D
GF8E5ED
GF8E58P
GC8F2DD
GC8F2DD
GC8F27D
GC8F48D
GC8F47D
GC8F4ED
GC8F4DD
GC8F4DD
GF8F58D
GF8F58P
If you VIN plate has one of these model codes then is a grey. Becareful as there is other info on the late as well so dont mix it up with the chassis number and paint code (3 characters). The chassis number on my import is 9 characters where UK ones are 16 I think
Cheers
ChrisP
[Edited by chrisp - 5/19/2002 3:24:39 PM]
19 May 2002, 03:49 PM
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If the service book is in english then its a uk car (even if its from NI) and as long as it has fssh you should be ok too 
dont worry about the year, the new model year starts around sept/oct of the previous year so even thou mine is an MY00 it was actually made in nov 99
Tony
dont worry about the year, the new model year starts around sept/oct of the previous year so even thou mine is an MY00 it was actually made in nov 99
Tony
19 May 2002, 04:27 PM
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Other thing that concerned me was on my V5 it says new at first registration. On this it said first registered on and then date . Further down the doc it gave the date as a year earlier?
Any ideas.
Alasdair
Any ideas.
Alasdair
19 May 2002, 04:31 PM
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If it was registered in NI then it would have had to have been re registered here afterwards. The best person to speak to would be someone who had bought an NI registered car then had it re registered, think STIwannasubaru (or something like that (Guy) has an NI souced turbo.
Tony
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19 May 2002, 05:02 PM
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Just spoken to my insurance co. They would be able to tell me if it is imported by the Reg no. Trouble is they have no record of this reg no on their computer (neither does HPI). I've seen the V5 and it is genuine so have emailed the DVLA to find out what the prob is.
Alasdair
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