Importing New Type R questions

[lewissheridan]

After browsing my local Honda dealership and looking at the new Civic Type-R, I couldn't convince myself that parting with £16k for a car without aircon was going to make me happy. What I really want is an Integra Type-R. But looking at GT-culture, auto trader etc, these cars, '01-'03 models were 16k plus! And yet the YEN price in japan for a brand new 05 ITR is only £14k! So my thinking is, import one myself, this is where i need to do more research. I was looking at j-garage.com, and a guy called Yoshi.. has anyone imported from them before ? can you provide any info about them. As the payment method is an online deposit transfer and then a wired transfer.. i don't feel much reassurance about parting with all that money to a company so far away, what insurances do i have ?

So 14k, + £2500 VAT = £16.5k + ?Import Costs? + ?SVA&Conversion?

Does anyone know what the import costs and the conversion costs will likely to be ? And does anyone know whether there are any other costs involved that i've overlooked ?

Now assuming i have bought the car and Yoshi ships it to the UK, do i pick the car up at the docks or what ? :?: :|

Anyone who has been through this process i'd appreciate any pointers... i know that if i don't get an ITR and i end up with a CTR it'll always be in the back of my mind!!! so help me please :0)

best regards,

Lewis

 

[Duncs]

i have done this, not new but second hand.
its not quite as simple as it looks,
buy the car, send money, (the bank rate not the rate you see)
ship the car, you pay import duty on price of car and shipping @ 10% then the vat man has a go at all of the above, so your £2500 is way off.
conversions mmm, well do it yourself or pay about a £1000 to have it done, plus the agent to clear customs, etc.

it takes a lot of time and effort, and a wait for the car, if you want more details pm me and i can give you more dteails

 

[turbo5]

I did it myself on my previous car before the CTR. but not from Japan, it came from Denmark. at the time a Golf GTI 1.8T was £17K with the options I wanted. The car cost me £10.5K paid VAT here in the UK, the exchange rate was very good in 2001. it cost me about £13K on the road delivered to my door step. sold it 3 years later and got £10K for it. £3K depreciation in 3 years was excelllent.
With the European markets every country have different VAT rates, believe it or not apparantly the UK is one of the cheapest. So car manufacturers price the cars in accordance with the market in that country, so if they have a 30% vat rate the base price of the car is usually priced to suit the end cost. I didn't pay the VAT in the country of origin and paid it here in the UK.

Would I do it again ? No, I paid 20% deposit upfront 8 weeks before the car arrived and the remainder before it was shipped. to someone I had never met over the internet. its so risky what happens if he goes bust or just does a runner with your money. I was a bit naive at the time but it turned out lucky. I could have bought one from Motorpoint for about £1K more with no risks. Imagine paying a £16K bank loan for 5 years on a car you haven't got.

 

[Duncs]

i would do it again,
just don't feel the need at the mo, if you have got the time, and i mean time to do the research and put the effort into it it can be done, i was on, still am on limited funds so it was the only way i was going to get the car i wanted.
the other thing for me i am on the south coast just along from southampton, the cars entry port so it was easy for me to collect, not having to trailer/have it delivered.

 

[Gary]

I suggest that whether you go for new or s/h that you enlist the services of an agent. This how the traders import them in fact the bloke that I used is also the agent for Ben Linney at GT, he's the founder member of a firm based in the UK but is resident in Japan for the sole reason of sourcin quality cars for his own firm as well as others, so by goin direct to him I was able to source a car to my exact requirments colour, age, milage, state of tune etc. for a set fee over and above the actual cost of the car without the need or expense of gettin a dealer involved. So at 21Mths old and with 8k on the clock my DC5 cost a little under 10G on that amount you would pay about 5G in import duty and vat and £900 to the agent and for that, the whole process from start to finsh which includes ESVA registration and six months road tax is hassle free and above all secure. So there you have it, a brand new DC5 will cost about 4 - 5 grand more than one which has been barely run in and cos it's dearer your import duty and vat will increase accordingly but if you're still set on a new one maybe the agent's fees would reflect the fact that he did't have to scour the JDM auctions tryin to get exactly what you want but I strongly suggest that either way you do use a trusted agent if for no other reason than sheer peace of mind! Good luck bro

 

[mikegsi]

why import one when theres loads of nice examples being sold privately over here :?: (all the nice ones are in the for sale section on here, the dogs are on ebay!!)

 

[neilhowe]

Breakdown of import costs from Japan.

FOB Cost of Car (Freight Onb Board) - Basically the cost of the car Japan side including loading on vessell.

Add shipping cost in the region of US$ 650

Multiply all costs so far by 1.1 (10% import duty)

Multiply this figure by 1.175 (17.5% VAT)

Then add customs clearance charges, terminal handling fee and UK land transportation. This is usually in the region of £200.

The next stage is very tricky to estimate as it all depends on quality of conversion - type of alarm etc that needs to be fitted. ESVA test fee is £190, model report rental is around £120. We usually allow £1650 total to cover all conversion costs including MOT and UK registration/road tax.

Therefore, based on the above figures if you were to purchase a vehicle in Japan for 1,700,000 JPY FOB this vehicle would owe £13,764.20 on-the-road. (ER 190)

We have cars in stock from £13995 and this price includes 12 months parts and labour warranty.

 

[type-r-dunk]

why import one when theres loads of nice examples being sold privately over here :?: (all the nice ones are in the for sale section on here, the dogs are on ebay!!)

:lol: Cheers Mike, just put my 3 for sale on ebay and they are also on here :lol:

Dunx

 

[mikegsi]

:wink:

 

[lewissheridan]

Driving around the world for your Type-R

Has anyone considered flying to Japan, purchasing the vehicle, and then ferrying it to China, then driving it across USSR/Russia then through Europe to France. And then ferrying it across ?

Someone has suggested i do this ? If I did... would any other crazy people want to do the same ?

Also, i'm not sure how this all works, but if i drive the car back into the UK with Jap plates, then will customs pick me up ?

If not, then could i do the E-SVA conversions via an independent, or do i require some sort of customs certificate ?

And i suppose there is the question of whether i can purchase a car in Japan without a japanese residency, i don't see why not. I could even claim tax back when leaving the country ? I think i'm getting a bit desparate for a ITR now.. :0) but one things for certain i'll definately by a tom-tom gps navigator if i were insane enough to do the above. I think distance wise it's less than 10k miles :0)...

Just a random thought for now...

 

[Duncs]

keep it random,
what an adventure!!!
but honestly, if you are that desperate there are some good ones for sale on here, a couple of years older but in better condition than driving one from the other side of the world.

 

[Erm]

insurance??????? how would you get insurance on the car to drive it what......6000 miles????

 

[lewissheridan]

Well indulging in this option, yes insurance would be something i have to investigate.. there are a lot of issues that i have to priced up and factored into the cost for the decision of doing it this way. Even the thought of registering it with my g/friend's parents in China so that i avoid customs on UK entry, and then just transfer the vehicle over afterwards has crossed my mind. This idea is not impossible, but i don't think i'm cut out to drive 8k miles! :shock:
I am going on holiday to Japan towards the end of the year, i'm definately going to do a reccy and go to a honda dealership. I realise it makes sense to pay an intermediary to manage the import process , purely for the peace of mind and whole stress of managing the importing, :xvtec:

 

[truffs]

my sweet teg is for sale at around that price with a turbo etc :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[type-r-dunk]

When you come to register it you need a form to confirm VAT has been paid and jap de-reg doc.

Sounds loke a cool road trip 8) xthumbup .

Dunx

 

[DC5-loveR]

Re: Driving around the world for your Type-R

Has anyone considered flying to Japan, purchasing the vehicle, and then ferrying it to China, then driving it across USSR/Russia then through Europe to France. And then ferrying it across ?

Someone has suggested i do this ? If I did... would any other crazy people want to do the same ?

Also, i'm not sure how this all works, but if i drive the car back into the UK with Jap plates, then will customs pick me up ?

If not, then could i do the E-SVA conversions via an independent, or do i require some sort of customs certificate ?

And i suppose there is the question of whether i can purchase a car in Japan without a japanese residency, i don't see why not. I could even claim tax back when leaving the country ? I think i'm getting a bit desparate for a ITR now.. :0) but one things for certain i'll definately by a tom-tom gps navigator if i were insane enough to do the above. I think distance wise it's less than 10k miles :0)...

Just a random thought for now...

That has to be the most hair brain idea i've ever heard. You wouldn't even get pass the first hurdle i.e buying one without being a dealer / resident.

Even if you made it back in one piece on jap plates you'd never get it registered.

 

[Erm]

personally i thought the worst of it would be trying to register/insure the car in japan........

then bringing it back with about 6-8k miles from the journey back :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[neilhowe]

Has anyone considered flying to Japan, purchasing the vehicle, and then ferrying it to China, then driving it across USSR/Russia then through Europe to France. And then ferrying it across ?

Someone has suggested i do this ? If I did... would any other crazy people want to do the same ?

Also, i'm not sure how this all works, but if i drive the car back into the UK with Jap plates, then will customs pick me up ?

If not, then could i do the E-SVA conversions via an independent, or do i require some sort of customs certificate ?

And i suppose there is the question of whether i can purchase a car in Japan without a japanese residency, i don't see why not. I could even claim tax back when leaving the country ? I think i'm getting a bit desparate for a ITR now.. :0) but one things for certain i'll definately by a tom-tom gps navigator if i were insane enough to do the above. I think distance wise it's less than 10k miles :0)...

Just a random thought for now...

With no Japanese de-registration document you would also need to satisfy protective steering for ESVA. As their is no EU type approved equivalent this would meen a full crash test. Cost around £10,000 and a big repair bill.

 

[User]

Just let the professionals do it imo.

Bought my car from car imports direct (neilhowe) in May, CW DC5, mint car, fair price, no regrets.

By the way Neil - where is the spare key you promised me?

 

[lewissheridan]

Ok Ok Ok, i have finally relented, and decided to buy the civic type r, but.. there's always a but, i want a white type-r, don't ask me why, probably relating to the fact i can't get the champ white Integra type r within my budget as new.

However, on enquiry, although the white one is solely sold in Japan, all honda civics are manufactured in the UK. I phone honda up, but they won't sell me a White one! What is wrong with this country, i can't get a Teg, now i can't get a white civic type r! And the fact air-con comes as standard in Europe and Japan but it's a 1k optional extra... :x

I'm not even going to think about importing one, as someone said above i think i will leave it to the professionals...

bleh... thought of the day: HONDA UK PLEASE SELL YOUR INTEGRA's in the UK !! or sell some special edition white civics since you're coming to the end of your production run!